Many may not remember, but when the show began, it was not only excellent, it was also, if not conservative, at least complex in its worldview. Early episodes took hard looks at liberal laws that prohibited the use of valid evidence against criminals (“Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die”); politically correct excuses that hid dirty motives for murder (“Prisoner of Love”); and even a Tawana Brawley style hoax in which a black girl wrongly accused white police officers of rape (“Out of the Half-Light.”). When conservative actor Michael Moriarty played ADA Ben Stone—and even for a while after liberal Sam Waterson took over as ADA Jack McCoy—the L&O prosecutor’s office was less concerned with parsing PC verities than with putting away bad guys.