John Tinker and John Masius almost destroyed the show with their ignorance of law and their soap oriented storytelling. No show in history had such a disaster befall it when NBC hired those two to take over L.A. Law. Certainly the sixth season wasn't great but it had good episodes. Tinker and Masius (who did do great work on St. Elsewhere) flat out did not know what to do with L.A. Law. This episode which terribly botched the L.A. riots showed what the show was in for. Instead of focusing on the legal ramifications of the riots which I am sure David E. Kelley would have done Tinker and Masius had Stuart beaten, Brackman and arrested and a whole lot of other ridiculous stuff. Luckily their reign of terror only lasted for 14 mind-numbingly awful episodes until William Finkelstein took over and in dramatic fashion saved the show and did well enough for it to get an eighth season before it went off the air.