Dick Wolf

CHICAGO – He has portrayed the reliable firefighter Joe Cruz for six seasons on NBC-TV’s “Chicago Fire”… Joe Minoso both plays that role and actually lives in Chicago now. Before his stint on “Fire,” he had completed a short film for local filmmaker Ben-Hur Uribe, “Alonso, The Dream and the Call,” which has just been released for Amazon Prime download.

There’s a fine line between old-fashioned and stale. Some will look at “Chicago PD,” NBC’s spin-off of “Chicago Fire” from mega-producer Dick Wolf, and say that it’s the kind of tried-and-true cop show that they don’t really make that often any more. I would say there’s a reason they don’t make them any more.

CHICAGO – I might be more forgiving of the dramatic failings of the saga of Matthew Casey if I had never met Tommy Gavin. For years, we felt the pain and drama of life as a firefighter on FX’s “Rescue Me,” and, while I had some issues with that show, it definitely casts NBC’s “Chicago Fire” in a different light. However, even without Denis Leary’s hit show, I don’t think this melodrama would work. It just doesn’t connect on a realistic level like we need shows like this to do. I don’t expect it to burn for long.

CHICAGO – The Windy City has a new television show set here, and all last summer the cast of “Chicago Fire” have been busy shooting the series for the fall season. One of the main characters, Hallie Thomas, is a major TV role breakout for actress Teri Reeves. “Chicago Fire” makes it’s premiere on Wednesday, October 10th, 2012, on NBC at 10pm ET/9pm Central.

CHICAGO – The USA Network is pretty excellent at taking ridiculous ideas and making them quality entertainment. The network that brought us the OCD Detective Monk and managed to squeeze a Christmas episode out of Stephen King’s ‘The Dead Zone’ is back at the quirky drama cafe yet again after offering up a preview of it’s 2012 Drama slate.

CHICAGO – It may have never earned the press or praise of “Law & Order” or “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” but the third child of Dick Wolf, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” has some hardcore fans.

CHICAGO – In this edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV, we have two VIP TV prize packs up for grabs to USA Network’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”!

CHICAGO – The revolving door of Dick Wolf’s legendary creation keeps on spinning. Cast members have come and gone from the “Law & Order” franchise for years, but this time the door only goes in one direction as Skeet Ulrich’s Detective is being killed off with no chance to return.

CHICAGO – As the late, great Sophia Petrillo of “The Golden Girls” might have philosophized, “Picture it: September 13, 1990.” When “Law & Order” premiere, “The Internet” and “Email” were barely words, “mobile phones” looked like portable hair dryers, and Google, Yahoo, and AOL weren’t even gleams in Bill Gates’ eyeglasses — let alone Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. HBO and Showtime had yet to produce A-list hour dramas, and F/X, TNT, AMC, and USA had yet to produce anything more than the occasional TV-movie at all.

Television Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – The revolving door of casting in the world of “Law & Order” continues this month when Jeff Goldblum joins the cast of USA Network’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” as the new partner for Detective Megan Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson). The season kicks off with a well-paced and intriguing episode featuring the old cast on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 and the new member joins the squad a week later.