The tides of change are sweeping in on the thirteenth season premiere of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' (Wed., 10PM ET on NBC). After twelve seasons on the top-rated show, Christopher Meloni won't be a part of the show after contract negotiations failed, while Mariska Hargitay is reducing her workload.

In the season premiere, we learned that Det. Stabler has put in his retirement papers. And since Meloni wasn't available to be in the show, Det. Benson had to learn this second-hand. While publicly she appeared to take it pretty well, she had a breakdown in private.

Now it's going to be the show's task to reinvigorate the show with a different energy and some new faces without the face of one of its biggest stars. Why does that sound familiar?

Got $700 to spare and a love of all things 'Law & Order'? Well, you might want to feast your eyes on NBC's 'Law & Order' complete series boxed set.

The 104-disc DVD set hits shelves on Nov. 8 and includes 11 seasons that have never been released. Yep, all 456 "ripped from the headlines" episodes in one glorious place!

Special features of the 20-season set include tons of deleted and extended scenes, an interview with Dick Wolf about the creation of the landmark series and a tribute to Jerry Orbach featuring interviews with his former co-stars.

It's been a confusing time for fans of 'Law & Order: SVU' over the last few months. First, veteran showrunner Neal Baer stepped down, and then came news of star Christopher Meloni's surprise exit.

After producers hired not one, but two, new actors for lead roles in the wake of Meloni's departure, worried fans have been left to question the fate of Mariska Hargitay and her character, Det. Olivia Benson.

Now producers have acted to reassure fans, telling 'Entertainment Weekly' that the new additions to the cast do not pose a threat to Hargitay, and that she will continue to play a marquee role in the 'Law & Order' franchise when it returns in the fall.

A NBC spokesman said that Hargitay will appear in every episode of the upcoming Season 13 even though Kelly Giddish ('The Chase') and Danny Pino ('Cold Case') have joined the cast.

It's only been a month since Christopher Meloni stepped down from 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,' but producers are reportedly screen-testing his possible replacements in New York today.

Production on the upcoming Season 13 is due to get underway soon and, according to Deadline.com, 'SVU' creator/executive producer Dick Wolf and NBC have narrowed the field to a short list of five.

The actors, who have all doubtless just spent a sleepless night in the Big Apple rehearsing their lines, have been named as: Danny Pino ('Cold Case'), Kevin Alejandro ('True Blood,' 'Southland'), David Conrad ('Ghost Whisperer'), Michael Raymond-James ('Terriers') and Rhys Coiro ('Entourage').

Each one will test today with Meloni's co-star, Mariska Hargitay, who plays Det. Olivia Benson on the drama. Both Alejandro and Raymond-James recently guest-starred on 'SVU,' so could be feeling like they've got the edge.

Somebody was asleep at the front desk of the police station this week on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' (Wed., 10PM ET on NBC). Otherwise, how would the daughter of their murder victim have made it all the way up to the holding cells and the desks of the offices with a loaded gun?

Under the pretense of wanting to see the man who had killed her mother, Jenna was allowed up to see the detectives, and in so doing got to see him. Something seemed a little bit off, but even Det. Benson couldn't have anticipated that this sweet-looking teenage girl would erupt into anguished violence.

Then, to seal her own fate, when Det. Stabler had her so close to putting her own gun down, her mother's killer -- already shot -- had to egg her on. "You b****," he said. "I should have killed you with your mother."

Sterling Beaumon captivated fans and earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of a young Benjamin Linus on 'Lost.' Now, he returned to television, and this time he was facing off against the detectives of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' (Wed., 10PM ET on NBC).

He also got to work opposite Mrs. Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, who portrayed his mother. Unlike most episodes of 'SVU,' though, the child actor wasn't playing a victim or the child of the perpetrator.

Beaumon, as Hunter, is the twisted villain of the episode. In a scene where his mother tries to convince him to come in, Hunter sees through her ruse and comes across as so cold and calculating, it's uncomfortable to watch, but at the same time impressive how well Wilson captures the overwhelmed mother, stunned to hear her child talking like this.

John Stamos even makes being bad look good. As Ken Turner on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' (Wed., 10PM ET on NBC), Stamos got to put those good looks of his to use over and over again.

While there are many women who would love to imagine having children with Stamos, they might not have liked as much what happened with Ken. The detectives even tried to embarrass him into breaking down by bringing in 20 of his children together from the New York area.

'Law & Order: LA' (Monday, 9PM ET on NBC) has gone through some very public growing pains in its first season. The show was abruptly yanked from the air late last fall, and it soon became apparent that 'L&O' creator Dick Wolf was intent on radically rejiggering the cast and/or stripping the show for parts as he tried to keep some version of the underwhelming drama afloat.

He may well have wanted to just present those changes (which include the departure of Skeet Ulrich and a job change for Alfred Molina's character) as done deals upon the show's return, because the implementation of those changes in Monday's first episode is so clunky, stilted and inelegant that it's like watching a desperate matron get plastic surgery.

The second half of Monday's two-hour return is better, but it's hard to see how things could have gotten much worse. 'Law & Order: LA's' transitional episode is, frankly, difficult to watch.

Ah, "undercover" forays into the sexy, sexy world of strip clubs and swinger clubs. Where would police procedural dramas be without them? After all, trips to dark nightclubs filled with scantily-clad women help to break up the monotony of your more "standard" crimes -- you know, murder and arson and such.

On the new 'Law & Order: SVU' (Wed., 10PM ET on NBC), Detectives Stabler and Benson (Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay) enter the steamy world of a swingers' club, posing as a sexy couple in order to investigate the murder of a swinger. Is this plausible? No. Is this something that real detectives ever do? Double no.

But it does give us a chance to see sultry Rose McGowan -- of 'Charmed' fame -- wearing a low-cut dress in her guest-starring role as a fellow swinger. So, that's nice.

Looks like justice is on hold in Hollywood. In a press release, NBC announced it is postponing the Feb. 8 return of 'Law & Order: Los Angeles.'

The shelving comes on the heels of major shake-ups to the cast, including the departure of star Skeet Ulrich. The show is now on hold indefinitely.

The postponement produced ripple effects across NBC's schedule. 'Parenthood,' which had been set to move to Mondays on March 1, will stay in its Tuesday 10PM timeslot for the rest of the season.

'America's Next Great Restaurant' will now premiere on Sun., March 6 at 8PM ET. And 'The Marriage Ref,' which was scheduled to return for a second season at that time, is also on hold until a later date.

'Law & Order' is dead -- long live 'Law & Order'! Though the veteran show, which producers affectionately refer to as "the mothership," is now officially dearly departed after two decades on the air, creator Dick Wolf is back in the saddle with 'Law & Order: Los Angeles' (or 'LOLA'), and he brought executive producers Rene Balcer and Blake Masters along with cast members Skeet Ulrich and Corey Stoll to discuss the freshman procedural.

The show will premiere on Wed., Sept. 29 at 10PM on NBC. There was no footage to be previewed, so read on for highlights from the panel.

The past season was a tumultuous one for NBC, what with the Jay Leno experience turning the primetime schedule into a whirl. The fact that Leno's ten o'clock show was a disaster resulted in NBC scrambling to fill in during the second season. Fortunately, at least one legit hit has emerged -- 'Parenthood.'

Still, as the network contemplates the future, there's really six programs that could be called on the bubble, teetering between a pick up or a cancellation. So what is the likelihood that NBC will renew these shows? Here's our take:

I remember when 'Law & Order: SVU' debuted, there were a lot of joking articles asking what would be next, 'Law & Order: Pet Detectives'? There were also questions about how many of these shows an audience could really take, and so on and so forth, with the same humor (if you can call it that) applied to the 'CSI' and 'NCIS' franchises as they came along.

Well guess what, people? 'Law & Order' is doing it again. NBC has greenlit a fourth version of 'L&O' -- set in L.A. -- for a fall debut. The original and 'SVU' are also looking good for renewals, while 'Criminal Intent' airs on cable network USA and on NBC.

My mind is boggled by this news. At this point, when I watch 'L&O' it has the same sort of nostalgic feeling I used to get from old episodes of 'Little House on the Prairie'.

I remember when 'Law & Order: SVU' debuted, there were a lot of joking articles asking what would be next, 'Law & Order: Pet Detectives'? There were also questions about how many of these shows an audience could really take, and so on and so forth, with the same humor (if you can call it that) applied to the 'CSI' and 'NCIS' franchises as they came along.

Well guess what, people? 'Law & Order' is doing it again. NBC has greenlit a fourth version of 'L&O' -- set in L.A. -- for a fall debut. The original and 'SVU' are also looking good for renewals, while 'Criminal Intent' airs on cable network USA and on NBC.

My mind is boggled by this news. At this point, when I watch 'L&O' it has the same sort of nostalgic feeling I used to get from old episodes of 'Little House on the Prairie'.

After 20 years, NBC's relationship with the 'Law & Order' franchise is still going strong.

According to sources for Deadline Hollywood, NBC has picked up 'Law & Order: Los Angeles,' the latest show in Dick Wolf's juggernaut franchise, for 13 episodes this fall. 'Brotherhood' creator Blake Masters is co-creating the series with Wolf.

Meanwhile, a 12th season of 'Law & Order: SVU' is looking more and more likely now that show leads Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have cleared their schedules to shoot new episodes this summer, according to the report. Based on contract negotiations from last spring, Hargitay and Meloni are expected return under a one-year deal that includes the option of an additional season.