Law & Order
The Family Hour
TV Flash files “The Family Hour” as the last listed hour of season 17 — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 17, episode 22, aired 2007-05-18, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S17E22: listed hour 393 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, last listed hour of season 17. It aired 2007-05-18 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Over Here” (S17E21). Next is “Called Home” (S18E01). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When Nicole Bailey, the ex-wife of a respected former senator, is found murdered and brutalized in her home, Green and Cassady look first at the senator, but follow the trail of clues to a dysfunctional family with a number of potentially embarrassing secrets. McCoy finds himself in the hot seat when he is forced to argue the case in front of a judge more interested in public relations than justice.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Family Hour sit in the Law & Order guide?
S17E22 is listed hour 393 of 545 — last listed hour of season 17, season 17 episode 22.
When did Law & Order S17E22 air?
The Family Hour aired 2007-05-18 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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