Law & Order
The Sixth Man
TV Flash files “The Sixth Man” as hour 341 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 15, episode 16, aired 2005-02-16, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S15E16: listed hour 341 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 16 of 24 in season 15. It aired 2005-02-16 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Obsession” (S15E15). Next is “License to Kill” (S15E17). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When a loner is found strangled to death in his rent-controlled apartment, Detectives Fontana and Green focus on both the victim's gambling habit and the building's owner who wants to convert it into a co-op, but the cops hit paydirt when they discover the dead man's nasty running feud with a spoiled pro basketball player. When the detectives find the athlete's fingerprints at the scene, prosecutors McCoy and Borgia must fight to keep the evidence from being tossed out on a technicality.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Sixth Man sit in the Law & Order guide?
S15E16 is listed hour 341 of 545 — hour 16 of 24 in season 15, season 15 episode 16.
When did Law & Order S15E16 air?
The Sixth Man aired 2005-02-16 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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