Law & Order
Sweeps
TV Flash files “Sweeps” as the first listed hour of season 4 — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 4, episode 1, aired 1993-09-15, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E01: listed hour 67 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, first listed hour of season 4. It aired 1993-09-15 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Benevolence” (S03E22). Next is “Volunteers” (S04E02). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Logan and Briscoe investigate after a convicted child molester, Dr. Joseph Vinton, is murdered on Rick Mason's controversial talk show. The shooter is easily identified — he's Sid Fisher, the father of the dead man's victim from three years earlier. During the course of the investigation, however, the detectives find evidence that leads them to believe that Mason may have set up Vinton's murder so as to assure high ratings during sweeps period. Stone's case is made more difficult because Sid Fisher isn't willing to say anything that could put his son, Scotty, on the stand.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Sweeps sit in the Law & Order guide?
S04E01 is listed hour 67 of 545 — first listed hour of season 4, season 4 episode 1.
When did Law & Order S04E01 air?
Sweeps aired 1993-09-15 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I watch in order, or is it modular?
Modular is the point. Cases close. Casts change. Start anywhere in the original 1990–2010 run and you will understand the clang within twenty minutes. Order matters only if you care which partner is standing next to whom.
In the series
Why this series still plays
For the walnut that became a city: street then courtroom, a clang as civic punctuation, and two decades of interchangeable parts that taught TV how to clone a night. Comfort is the feature. The original 1990–2010 cathedral still teaches the form; the revival is the machine refusing to clock out.
Picture a Tuesday when the nation still had a cop show that split like a walnut: first the street, then the courtroom, a clang on the soundtrack that became civic punctuation. Law & Order premiered September 13, 1990, on NBC, created by Dick Wolf, and it did not invent the procedural so much as industrialize it. Prescription for Death is the template in miniature — a hospital night, a dead patient, cops then lawyers, no hug required. On the palate: newsprint, a New York that looks like a location budget with a…
Filed against
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