There are all sorts of media reports swirling around lately that NBC is considering canceling Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Both series are suffering from consistently low ratings and it wasn't a good sign earlier this year when NBC moved the original Law & Order to Siberia Friday nights. NBC reportedly met with L&O creator Dick Wolf earlier this week to discuss the series' futures, and both are considered "on the bubble", though Criminal Intent is more likely to see a renewal than the original Law & Order. A decision isn't expected until early next month. (SVU is safe, by the way, with its stars earning mega bucks next season)

This is the original Law & Order's 17th season and, even though it has reached legendary status as far as television series go, it is time for it to go. I think the Chevy Chase episode proved that. It feels tired and stale. There are way too many "ripped from the headlines" episodes and can anyone even keep track of who the main detectives are anymore? The series has gone through so many stars that it's getting hard to keep up. Plus, I think it became about "sexy" detectives and lawyers, rather than the original, more gritty characters played by Chris Noth, Paul Sorvino, Michael Moriarty, and Jerry Orbach.

Do you think Law & Order's time is up?

A show of hands here, please? Who thought that we would be talking about the 17th season premiere of NBC's Law & Order when the show first premiered back in September of 1990? Just as I thought . . . not that many hands. Yet, here we are, about to talk about the season premiere of the longest running crime series and the second longest-running drama series in the history of American broadcast television.

Granted, no one remains from the original L&O cast, but that really isn't what brings back viewers week after week. It's the uniqueness of the show that grabs them. It's a style that no other show has successfully duplicated. Even its siblings Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent have gone a different route in the way crimes are shown being investigated. That's why the original remains popular to this day.

So, with kudos out of the way, let's talk a bit about what you can look forward to in the season premiere. Be warned, slight SPOILERS ahead after the jump.

After two seasons, Dennis Farina is leaving his role as Detective Joe Fontana on the long-running NBC hit Law and Order. He's going to pursue other projects and work on his production company.

This is probably a good move for Farina. He's a good actor (he's one of those actors who is good in everything he's in, even if what he's in isn't that good), but Law and Order wasn't the best showcase for him. It's not exactly a show that leaves room for meaty acting or character development. It's all about the crime, the investigation, and the trial, and there's no room for anything else really. Besides, the show has really gone downhill, with all the "ripped from the headlines" cases.

No word yet on who will replace him.