It’s nearly impossible to have never watched a Dick Wolf show before. Just turn on your TV any day of the week and there’s sure to be a Law & Order or Chicago [P.D., Med or Fire] episode on.
But it’s totally believable that you might not have ever seen the man behind these prolific procedural crime shows: His name is Dick Wolf.
And he was the featured guest at the Paley Fest’s tenth event held at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Saturday that featured “An Evening with Dick Wolf.” Wolf was joined on stage alongside nine actors from his most beloved shows was the tenth event of the PaleyFest.
Ice-T represented the cast of Law & Order: SVU, while Jason Beghe and Sophia Bush showed out for Chicago P.D. Newcomers to Chicago Med Colin Donnell and Torrey DeVitto sat alongside their co-workers S. Epatha Merkerson (who we originally show as a NYPD lieutenant Anita Van Buren on Law & Order) and Oliver Platt. Chicago Fire’s Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney held down the fort for their Wolf TV show.
Though every actor said they came to know Wolf in different respects, either appearing as extras (sometimes murder victims) on his previous shows, Colin Donnell put it best by saying “it felt like winning the lottery” when you get the call that you’ll have a permanent role on a Wolf show.
The question on everyone’s mind that night was “How does Wolf do it? How does he keep making hit crime shows?”
Was it his “ripped-from-the-headlines” plotlines? Or his star cast?
Merkerson added her opinion, saying, “What’s so good about Dick Wolf shows [is] you sit down to be entertained, but walk away being educated.”
During the conversation, moderated by radio personality Gary Bryan from KRTH 101, Wolf explained when he first started producing for TV in the late 1980s, many told him no one would want to sit through hour-long shows. For all of us who have binged watched episodes of Law & Order: SVU on Netflix know that that’s not the case.
Wolf said that in his more than 20 years of having his TV shows on air he has employed more than 40,000 actors — an amazing feat.
Audience members were glad to hear that another favorite actor will soon be the lead in his next procedural drama. Wolf revealed that actor Carl Weathers, best known for his role as Apollo Creed in the Rocky series, will be the lead in Chicago Justice, the latest installment to the Chicago series. Weathers will play the State’s Attorney in the Windy City. Filming starts this week.
It’s still to be seen how successful Chicago Justice will be, but if it’s like any other Dick Wolf show, it’ll keep our eyes glued to our TV screens, praying that they’ll be a marathon on soon.
Thank you Jordyn Holman for covering An Evening with Dick Wolf Red Carpet and Panel at the 2016 Paley Fest
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