Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Good-Bye Jack, and Jack, and Jack

So long, Jack. See ya, Jack. Sayonara … um, Jack.

On Sunday and Monday, broadcast television will bid adieu to three landmark television shows, all of which feature characters named Jack: NBC’s Law & Order (featuring DA Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston), Fox’s 24 (featuring Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland); and ABC’s Lost (featuring Jack Shepard, played by Matthew Fox).

law and order.JPGThese shows don’t have much in common—other than some pretty quirky intro music (L&O’s “bum-bum,” 24‘s “ba-bum, ba-bum,” Lost‘s “zzzzhhwwwaaaammm”). But all made a tremendous impact on how we watch television, and it seems appropriate that, as they sail into the sunset, we briefly ponder what they meant—to their viewers and to television itself.

Law & Order was the first to find an audience. Premiering Sept. 13, 1990, L&O has been on the air for 20 seasons (tying Gunsmoke), broadcasting 456 episodes and employing, over time, a total of 20,639 actors, according to The Wall Street Journal. (None of the original actors survived the full run.) The show thrived on its sound storytelling and clever premise: The first half of nearly every episode focused on catching the bad guy, the second half on trying him. But other than that, it wasn’t particularly remarkable—certainly not in light of today’s myriad crime procedurals and courtroom dramas L&O helped foster, many of which bear the Law & Order brand (Special Victims Unit, Criminal Intent, Trial by Jury and, new this year, Law & Order: Los Angeles). As The Washington Post’s Tom Shales writes:

Law & Order has become, to be as unromantic as possible about it, a triumph of what is now popularly called “branding” and, to be a bit loftier about it, an American classic, a gift that keeps on giving.

Today, despite ripping its stories from the headlines and sometimes deliberately pushing people’s hot buttons, L&O tends to blend in with the landscape. Others, after all, aren’t just pushing buttons, they’re stomping on them.

24 bounded onto the scene in 2001—just a few months before 9/11. What timing: The show, predicated on the fight against terrorism, seemed prescient, and its hard-boiled, take-no-prisoners attitude turned Jack Bauer into a conservative action hero and thrust the show into the national discourse on torture. It was a massive departure from shows like Law & Order, which relied on self-contained, syndication-friendly episodes, and, because of its real-time, serial conceit, 24 blossomed on DVD—opening the door for other shows to follow.

It was regularly outlandish and often incredibly, horribly shocking. But as much as Plugged In railed against its wanton violence and mishmashed ethics, its creators argued that that was the show’s whole point. Robert Cochran told USA Today:

The overall theme of the show, which was reflected in Bauer's character, was how far can you go in fighting evil without becoming evil? That was always the moral knife edge the show walked.

Lost’s way was paved, in many respects, by 24. It too relied on a serial format and can’t-turn-away storylines. But it was far more thoughtful and ambitious—earning both fanatical devotion from viewers and love from the critics. I found myself intrigued by the show’s quasi-spiritual themes and characters and sheer braininess, even as I took issue with some of its coarser aspects. Many critics have pulled out their thesauri to try to describe how groundbreaking the show has been. USA Today’s Robert Bianco calls Lost “one of TV’s greatest series—at any time, of any genre, on any platform.”

lost.JPGIt’s interesting to see the manner in which these shows are winding down, however. Critical darling Lost will end with a massive, 2 1/2 hour sendoff Sunday night. ABC’s charging $900,000 per 30-second ad spot—more than anything but the Oscars and the Super Bowl. Yet other shows that have tried the Lost formula have struggled. Maybe Lost wasn’t such a game-changer after all.

24, a victim of declining ratings, leaves Monday with a veritable whimper. There are rumors that Jack will live on, saving the world on the big screen, but I wonder whether the concept has simply run its course.

No, it’s long-lived Law & Order, also airing its final show Monday, that has cast the longest shadow, what with its legion of copycats. Much of the television landscape now looks an awful lot like L&O.

So perhaps it’s appropriate that even the show itself isn’t quite dead yet. Its creators are actively looking for a new home for the series, and it may find one—perhaps on cable.

Could Jack McCoy undergo an improbable, Jack Bauer-style resurrection? How strangely appropriate.