All episodes Season 4 S04E05 1993-10-20 60 min 1990s NBC

Law & Order

Black Tie

TV Flash files “Black Tie” as hour 71 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 4, episode 5, aired 1993-10-20, 60 min.

From the desk

How this hour is filed

This leaf is S04E05: listed hour 71 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 5 of 22 in season 4. It aired 1993-10-20 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Profile” (S04E04). Next is “Pride and Joy” (S04E06). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

Law & Order — Black Tie (S04E05)

Catalog log

Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.

After wealthy Jonathan Keyes is found dead in his home, the police receive an anonymous tip that he was murdered. Logan and Briscoe encounter difficulties at the scene when the widow and her attorney refuse to allow an autopsy, and by the time Rodgers is able to examine the body, it has already been embalmed. The medical examiner claims the death was natural causes, and even though the state finally gets the necessary proof that the death was murder, the methods used to obtain the needed evidence come under question when Stone tries the case in court.

Viewer FAQ

Where does Black Tie sit in the Law & Order guide?

S04E05 is listed hour 71 of 545 — hour 5 of 22 in season 4, season 4 episode 5.

When did Law & Order S04E05 air?

Black Tie aired 1993-10-20 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…

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Filed against

Also in season 4

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