NBC Writers: Football Fans or Lazy Hacks?

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Here's a little secret. When you work in scripted programming, made up names tend to sound made up. Think about it, parents spend nine months trying to craft the perfect name for their kid, you spend 4 seconds coming up with "Johnny Waltershine."

Actually, that's not bad for off the top of the head.

Anyway, half of the names you hear in sit-coms or TV dramas are actually lifted from guys the writers went to high school with. Or sometime they get cute. So when last night's 'Law and Order' needed some Russian mobsters, they went EPL on their (likely) unsuspecting cast: Abramovich, Pavlyuchenko, and Arshavin. That's as in Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, and Arsenal transfer target Andrei Arshavin. The only clever part was that they made the latter a loan shark, which, if he's holding up the Arse for more cash, ain't all that far off.

But someone on that staff clearly likes his London footie. Still, seeing how crime shows lift 90% of their story lines from actual real-life crimes, they're still kinda hacky.

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