Dick Wolf - Definition and Overview

Richard A. Wolf, known as Dick Wolf (born December 20, 1946, New York City), is one of television’s most respected drama series creators and is an award-winning producer.

His father was a publicist, and Wolf learned early the art of packaging products.

Wolf has been a creative force in television for more than 25 years. He is the architect of one of the most successful brands in the history of television – Law & Order Wolf serves as creator and executive producer of the four “Law & Order” drama series from Wolf Films and NBC Universal Television – Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (CI) and the upcoming Law & Order: Trial by Jury, scheduled for later in the 2004-05 season. In addition, he is creator and executive producer of NBC's courtroom reality series Crime and Punishment, which chronicles real-life cases prosecuted by the San Diego District Attorney’s office.

The show has been nominated for the most consecutive Emmy Awards of any primetime drama series, but has only secured one. Since that time, there have been numerous references in Law & Order to both September 11th and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Interference from NBC is a thing of the past, but they did control many aspects of the show early on. At the end of the third season, NBC executive officer Warren Littlefield informed Wolf that he would need to put more girls in the show or risk cancellation.

Wolf's company also produced “Twin Towers,” the 2003 Academy Award-winning Short Documentary about two brothers, one a policeman and the other a fireman, who lost their lives in the line of duty on September 11, 2001.

Wolf's personal honors include such awards as: the prestigious Award of Excellence from the Banff Television Festival; the 2002 Creative Achievement Award from NATPE; the Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Entertainment Industry Award; the Leadership and Inspiration Award from the Entertainment Industries Council; the Governor’s Award by the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; the 1997 achievement award from the Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors, the 1998 Television Showman of the Year Award from the Publicist’s Guild of America and the 2002 Tribute from the Museum of Television and Radio.

Wolf is also an Honorary Consul general of Monaco and is actively involved in the principality’s prestigious annual Television Festival, and is its primary liaison with the entertainment community.

Quotes

"I've never understood the obsession with younger writers and dramas."Comedies I understand, but how do you write drama at 23, you haven't experienced anything. You know about 23 year olds. It's kind of hard to write about 60 year old EADA's. Only a couple of us are 60 years old so far, but there are not many 23 year olds who can write about life-changing situations unless it's medical. That sounds weird, but there's not the mileage on the odometer to get under the surface. There are exceptions that prove the rule --Dickens wasn't bad at 23."

"I shouldn't have had Jill Hennessy [Claire Kincaid] die. That was because she would have come back. She wanted to do episodes and I said, 'you're dead.'"

Wolf's favorite of all 300 episodes until now is the one where the daughter of Detective Lennie Briscoe Jerry Orbach gets killed by a drug dealer. "It was exactly what the show wasn't, but Jerry has pled for years, "Please let someone die in my arms so I can get nominated."

By Dick Wolf

• "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" (2005) TV Series
• "Dragnet" (2003) TV Series
• "Twin Towers (2003)
• "Crime & Punishment" (2002) TV Series
• "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2001) TV Series
• "Arrest & Trial" (2000) TV Series
• "Deadline" (2000) TV Series
• "D.C." (2000) TV Series (executive producer)
• "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999)
• "Invisible Man, The (1998) (TV)
• "Exiled (1998) (TV)
• "Players" (1997) TV Series
• "Feds" (1997) TV Series
• "Swift Justice" (1996) TV Series
• "Wright Verdicts, The" (1995) TV Series
• "New York Undercover" (1994) TV Series
• South Beach" (1993) TV Series
• Crime & Punishment" (1993) TV Series
• Human Factor, The" (1992) TV Series
• "Mann & Machine" (1992) TV Series
• "Law & Order" (1990) TV Series
• "H.E.L.P." (1990) TV Series
• "Nasty Boys" (1990) TV Series
• "Miami Vice" (1984) TV Series
• "Christine Cromwell" (1989) TV Series
• "Gideon Oliver" (1989) TV Series
• Masquerade (1988)
• No Man's Land (1987)
• Skateboard (1978)

External links

• Imdb profile Dick Wolf (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0937725/)
• Wolffilms (http://www.wolffilms.com/)