Around 2010, Dick Wolf’s vast television empire was suddenly coming undone.

First, NBC abruptly canceled his network mainstay, “Law & Order,” which had been on the air for two decades, a move that stunned Wolf’s small production company. A year later, two “Law & Order” spinoffs were unceremoniously shown the door. All that was left was “Law & Order: SVU,” a relatively slim slate for a company that prized multiple lines of revenue and that had made Wolf a very rich man. After all, Wolf has repeated a mantra for decades: “No show, no business.”

“It was a little tight there for a minute,” said Peter Jankowski, Wolf’s longtime No. 2.

The TV industry was migrating away from a decades-old staple that had made Wolf a dominant figure in prime-time viewing: the close-ended “procedural.” That popular genre of programming presented a conflict and a tidy resolution, all within an hour’s time.

Instead, streaming outlets like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu were beginning to take flight, prestige TV was ascendant, and complex, serialized programming was all the rage. Farewell, “CSI” and “Law & Order.” Hello, “The Crown” and “Big Little Lies.”

Well, that was then.

In recent years, as Hollywood studios have slashed budgets and bid adieu to the Peak TV era, Wolf’s style of programming is coming back into vogue. The evidence is everywhere: Year after year, repeats of years-old network standbys like “Criminal Minds,” “NCIS” or “Grey’s Anatomy” populate Nielsen’s list of most-watched streaming shows, even as the studios spend tens of millions on grittier, more cinematic fare. Older series like “Suits,” “Prison Break” or “Young Sheldon” became unexpected hits when they began streaming on Netflix. Vulture recently declared, “Network TV is officially back.”

Now, around 15 years after his career low point, Wolf has rebuilt his television business — and then some. At 78, he has a staggering nine scripted shows running on several networks. NBC executives even brought “Law & Order” back to life more than a decade after the network canceled it. It is now in its 24th season.

Wolf now also has a 10th show, one that he believes has the potential to be a significant game-changer and could position his company well into the future: his first streaming show, a series about a police force in Long Beach, California, titled “On Call,” now on Amazon Prime Video.

“I’ll tell you how important it is,” Wolf said in a recent interview. “It is the first project that I can truly say is Wolf Entertainment 2.0. I’m trying to position this company to be a player for the years to come.”

Though Wolf is finally entering streaming, the recent debut of “On Call” is really a moment that underscores how the streaming world and the television universe have gravitated back to him.

“Most really good writers can create one good show,” said Rick Rosen, Wolf’s agent at WME. “There’s a bunch that have done two. You can probably count on one hand those that have created five, let alone nine or 10. It’s unheard-of. As great as Aaron Spelling was or Steven Bochco was or David E. Kelley is, it’s a different type of thing that Dick does, and he does it better than anyone.”

And Wolf is not content on merely doling out a series or two to Prime Video and Peacock (another spinoff, “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” will move from NBC to Peacock this year). He wants to build a new television universe and for his creations to be seen on several streamers.

And he wants the show to shake up the very format of dramas. Each episode of “On Call” is 30 minutes long, a throwback, he said, to a decades-old era when series like “Adam-12,” “The Naked City” and “Dragnet” were all half-hours, unlike the occasionally bloated episodes of streaming dramas that can be 80 minutes or more.

In 2012, a year after “Law & Order: LA” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” ended, Wolf debuted a new NBC series about a different type of emergency worker in a new setting: “Chicago Fire.” It took off, and “Chicago P.D.” and “Chicago Med” followed. Within a few years, Wolf had “FBI” and two spinoffs on the air at CBS.

Still, year after year, the viewership totals were declining for anything on network or cable television. The company would need some sort of off-ramp if it wanted to be more than a reliable supplier of reruns.

It was time to enter streaming.

“On Call” is not just another Dick Wolf series. It also marks something of a generational shift, one that highlights the involvement of younger executives — including his 31-year-old son, Elliot — who Wolf believes could eventually take over his company.

Elliot arrived at the company about six years ago. Then in his mid-20s, he kept his early efforts at the company relatively modest. He encouraged the company to drop its outdated name of Wolf Films and rename it Wolf Entertainment. He helped start a merchandise line, built a social media presence and worked on podcast series.

But the younger Wolf knew the company was a “little late to the streaming game” and wanted to find a way in.

At the time, Jennifer Salke was just a few years into her position as the head of Amazon’s studios. Salke had spent nearly a decade at NBC and knew how addictive Wolf’s programming was.

Negotiations between Elliot Wolf and Amazon executives began about a series with 30-minute episodes.

“There’s a few half-hour serialized streaming dramas, but the procedural doesn’t really exist, and everyone’s attention span is changing with social media and so forth,” Elliot said. “Let’s give people an easier access point with a half-hour format. They really dug that direction.”

When Elliot approached his father about a shorter run time, the elder Wolf thought back to all those dramas from the 1950s and ’60s. “I said yes — that’s a very viable idea.”

Salke agreed. Amazon ordered “On Call.”

“On Call” centers on two beat cops. One is a fresh-faced rookie (Brandon Larracuente), the other a seen-it-all-before veteran (Troian Bellisario). “Keep that optimism as long as you can,” the veteran cop snorts at one point.

The series has — like all Wolf shows — close-ended plot lines, with a crime or two that need to be resolved before each episode concludes. But there is something of a serialized element, too, something that Amazon “asked for” to keep people invested, Elliot said.

The show was also much cheaper to make than Wolf Entertainment’s hourlong network dramas, something that delighted Amazon executives, and something the Wolf camp is aware is vital to a new television era.

“On Call” runs for only eight episodes, a departure from what Wolf Entertainment is accustomed to on network television, where seasons can include 20 episodes. But if “On Call” takes off, the shorter episode orders may be temporary.

“It’s not going to be some sort of modest, constipated version of an order of a limited series or something,” Salke at Amazon said. “The ambition is to deliver many hours of the show.”

Wolf has no retirement plans. He is, however, thinking about succession.

He said the company would most likely belong to Jankowski, his longtime right-hand man; executives Anastasia Puglisi and Rebecca McGill; and his son, Elliot.

“What does the future hold?” Wolf said. “It’s hubris to say it. But I just want the party to continue.”