The Times on Sunday: ‘Law & Order,’ ‘Breaking Bad’ and more

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Here’s a brief look at the television stories that are featured in this Sunday’s Calendar section and were posted on Latimes.com earlier in the week.

• ‘Law & Order’ and a stiff upper lip NBC’s police procedural franchise gets translated for the telly with British settings, accents and pacing. Pitted against edgy procedurals, trendy reality shows or ensemble dramas, NBC’s ‘Law & Order’ for nearly 20 years has persevered as one of TV’s most recognizable and durable brands. And if it lasts a few more seasons, the hybrid cop-and-lawyer series would eclipse ‘Gunsmoke’ as television’s longest-running drama. Read the full story.

• Bryan Cranston of ‘Breaking Bad’: On the Set He has an Emmy to show for his painstaking work playing poor Walter White on the well-regarded AMC series. Producers tend to be worried, and today a producer is worried about this story. ‘You’re not going to write about the flies, are you?’ Read the full story.

• ‘Wife Swap’: Voyeurism with a message (sometimes) The name calling. The judgmental attitude. Besides entertainment, is there a point? ‘Wife Swap’ (ABC, 8 p.m. Friday) relies on a belief in the power of domestic diplomacy, an acknowledgment on the part of parents committed to their household customs that there may in fact be other options and that dialogue is better than resistance. Read the full story.