I see dead people. Lots of dead people. And lots of bodies that have been shot, stabbed, raped and robbed.

I see them on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami.

I see them on NYPD Blue and Crossing Jordan. On Law & Order, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: SVU.

With strong ratings for new shows such as Without a Trace, Boomtown, Hack and CSI: Miami, we'll see many more.

That's the lesson from this "crawling with cops" fall TV season. Whatever format draws the most viewers is always copied and copied again by the networks. Imitation is the sincerest form of television, humorist Fred Allen once said.

"The history of television is `Send in the clones.' Every really successful show invites repetition," says Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of NBC's Law & Order franchise.

His Law & Order trio, all top 20 shows, inspired CBS to clone CSI, TV's top-rated show this fall and unleash a prime-time crime wave.

CBS doubled its number of police/detective series, from four to eight. The eight hours represents more a third of CBS' 22 hours of series.

Call it the Crime Broadcasting System. But you must call it a success. We love to watch this stuff, at least this year.

Spin-off CSI: Miami ranks No. 6 this fall, the highest-rated new show. CBS also has ordered a full season of Without A Trace, the missing-persons drama (No. 14 against ER) and Hack, to go with JAG, The District and The Agency.

Ratings for NBC's Boomtown have been strong enough to earn a full-season order on NBC, whose police lineup includes Third Watch, the Law & Orders and Crossing Jordan, that other coroner show.

CBS president Les Moonves has defended his crime-time programming by noting that police series have been around for 50 years, since Jack Webb's Dragnet (1952).

"Lawyer shows, doctor shows and crime-and-cop shows . . . have been the staple of television for time immemorial," Mr. Moonves says.

Police shows, in particular, are a TV constant because they deal with the possibility someone may die, Mr. Wolf says.

"It's life-and-death. I think that that's the biggest dramatic stake on a weekly basis," says Mr. Wolf, who has written for Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice. "Most successful cop shows have a dead body in it somewhere. . . . Medical shows, cop shows, and westerns - those are the ones where people live and die - and there's a price to be paid for action or inaction."

Viewers also enjoy seeing good triumph over evil, says Steven Bochco, NYPD Blue co-creator and executive producer.

"I think we look to police dramas as kind of a contemporary morality tale," he says. "In a world that's increasingly gray, where we see so much injustice and so many horrible things happening, there's a certain satisfaction in seeing police drama that catches the bad guys."

CSI creator Anthony Zuiker credits the popularity of his series to a forensics fascination started with the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

"Forensics is an untapped market for America. I don't believe America was privy to forensics until the O.J. trial happened," says Mr. Zuiker, who was a tram driver for the Las Vegas Mirage Hotel when he researched and wrote the CSI pilot five years ago.

No mystery

To Mr. Bochco, it's no mystery why the airwaves are filled with the versatile format.

"Not every cop show is just a cop show," he explains. "Law & Order is a procedural show. CSI isn't a cop show, it's really a mystery. NYPD Blue, while yes it's a cop show, it also has a very complex personal arc to it. All of these shows have very different characteristics."

Ann Donahue, the Loveland High School graduate and CSI executive producer, calls CSI a "how-done-it," not a who-done-it.

Hack creator David Koepp, who also wrote the Spider-Man and Jurassic Park screenplays, calls David Morse's disgraced cop turned vigilante cab driver "a superhero with no superpowers."

Fox's hip Fastlane, about two undercover cops (Peter Facinelli, Bill Bellamy) who have a warehouse of fast cars seized from drug dealers, is pure fantasy.

"I don't really want to apologize for it, because we're not splitting atoms here. We're trying to really entertain and have a great time," says Fastlane creator Joseph McGinty "McG'' Nichol, an award-winning music video director ("Walkin' on the Sun," "All Star'').

Cops and robbers also run wild this fall because shows like Law & Order and NYPD Blue, in their 13th and 10th seasons respectively, have outlived their normal life expectancy, thanks to repeated cast changes.

Retiring U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) joined Law & Order in October as District Attorney Arthur Branch. In the last two years, NYPD Blue has replaced Kim Delaney, Rick Schroder, Andrea Thompson and James McDaniel with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Charlotte Ross, Esai Morales and Jacqueline Obradors.

Law & Order producers call their show "actor proof," says Michael Chernuchin, executive producer. "It's a plot-driven show. It's the story that counts, not so much the characters. If you notice, each (new) character that comes in has a different point of view."

Quality product

Mr. Wolf compares his Law & Order family to rows of Campbell's Soup on a grocery shelf.

"If you want tomato or chicken noodle, they're all going to be good if they've got that red label on it," he says. "The audience, they see Law & Order . . . and they're expecting a certain level of quality writing and production value, which we've been able to supply."

Mr. Zuiker credits Mr. Wolf with paving the way with multiple spinoffs from a franchise concept. "If I could do one-tenth of what Dick Wolf has done, I'd be very happy," says Mr. Zuiker.

But he's not anxious to do more right now.

"If a third (CSI) happens in the future, I hope it's later rather than sooner. Let's do this well for a couple of years before we talk about a third one," he says.

Ultimately, it's up to us.

"Until the audience begins leaving cop shows in droves," Mr. Bochco says, "the networks are going to keep making them."

You want to see more dead bodies and criminals on TV? That's what you'll get.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com