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Boston Legal

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Boston Legal
Image:BostonLegalS2.jpg
The DVD Box for the second season

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Genre Legal Dramedy
Running time 42 minutes
Creator(s) David E. Kelley
Starring James Spader
Julie Bowen
Mark Valley
Rene Auberjonois
Craig Bierko
Constance Zimmer
with
Candice Bergen
and
William Shatner
Country of origin Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Original channel ABC
Original run October 3, 2004–present
No. of episodes 53
IMDb profile

Boston Legal is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television series that began airing on ABC in October 2004. The show is a spin-off of the long-running legal drama The Practice. The series, like its predecessor, was created by David E. Kelley. It follows attorney Alan Shore (a character introduced during the last season of The Practice, played by James Spader) to his new law firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt. It also stars veteran television actors Candice Bergen and William Shatner. Season 3 began on September 19, 2006.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about the transition from The Practice to Boston Legal follow.

Before the show's premiere, it had a working title of Fleet Street, an allusion to the real street in Boston where the fictitious Crane, Poole & Schmidt had its offices. The working title was later modified to The Practice: Fleet Street, but this title was dropped in favor of Boston Legal before the show premiered.

Most of the final episodes of The Practice were focused on introducing the new characters from Crane, Poole & Schmidt in preparation for Boston Legal's launch. Thus, the story of Boston Legal can be said to begin with the episode of The Practice in which Eugene Young and Jimmy Berluti of Young, Frutt & Berluti decided to fire Alan Shore without consulting Ellenor Frutt, beginning a story arc of several episodes. They give Alan a severance package of only fifteen thousand dollars, even though Alan has brought in over six million dollars of revenue to the firm. Tara Wilson gets fired for her loyalty to Alan, and Alan goes to Crane, Poole & Schmidt to represent himself in the matter, thinking he has a claim under Massachusetts law to take over Young, Frutt & Berluti. Denny Crane, Senior and Founding Partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt, takes an interest in the case and even argues at the trial, cross-examining Young. The jury awards Alan the millions of dollars of revenue he brought in to Young, Frutt & Berluti but does not order the firm to rehire him, so Denny hires Alan at his firm. After Young is appointed a judge, his first case (in the final episode of The Practice) happens to be with Alan for the defense, making Young wonder if Alan judge-shopped (this opens the door for Steve Harris to guest-star on Boston Legal as a judge).

Even with all this preparation, the official premiere episode for Boston Legal does introduce new characters, such as partner Paul Lewiston (Rene Auberjonois, in a role different from his tenure as a hapless judge on The Practice), and has an interesting cameo by Al Sharpton as himself.

In the second season premiere, Anthony Heald reprised his role as a California judge, Judge Cooper, on The Practice (it is rare for an actor in David E. Kelley's shows to repeat a guest role from an earlier show). Heald was part of the ensemble cast in another show created by David E. Kelley, Boston Public.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Boston Legal characters

Five of the Boston Legal characters (Alan Shore, Denny Crane, Tara Wilson, Sally Heep, and Catherine Piper) first appeared in The Practice.

[edit] Main characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about recent Season 2 events follow.
  • Alan Shore (James Spader)– A crooked lawyer with a heart of gold. Disguise, blackmail, illicit computer hacking, and bribery are all tools he uses without hesitation. Wherever he works, Alan treats his coworkers with levity and refuses to take himself seriously. He suffers from night terrors, has a fear of clowns, and in one episode, suffered from word salad. Alan has resigned himself to the fact that he will never be made partner at the firm because of his unpredictable behavior and lack of trustworthiness. He is best friends with Denny, and was once married, but his wife died; however, as Denny notes, Alan rarely speaks of his wife.
Image:ShatnerSpader BostonLegal.jpg
  • Denny Crane (William Shatner) – Founding and Senior Partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. He considers himself a legend and loves to say his own name to "sign" his verbal utterances. In one of the final episodes of The Practice, Denny explained that often people don't believe they're in the room with a legend, so he says his own name to let them know it's true. He has no problem sleeping with the wives of clients and judges. Denny is a conservative who believes gun control is for "communists" and refuses to defend anyone who is accused of extremely heinous acts; in fact, in one episode, he shoots a client because of the nature of his crime.
  • Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) – Founding and Senior Partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. She first appeared in the middle of the first season. Shirley used to have a romantic relationship with Denny, a past she now views with sardonic detachment, often making jokes about it. In one episode, Denny makes reference to the fact that Shirley apparently left him for "a secretary", whom Shirley immediately clarified was the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
  • Brad Chase (Mark Valley) – Brad is the man that the others turn to when they need something done, relying on his Marine Corps background to intimidate others. He helped Denise Bauer rescue a kidnapped child by extracting information from a priest, accidentally chopping off the priest's fingers in the process. Later, Brad went undercover to discover if Paul's daughter was still using meth. He hated Alan initially, but is now slightly more tolerant of him. Brad was made a partner in Season Two.
  • Paul Lewiston (Rene Auberjonois) – Partner and legal advisor of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Unlike Denny and Alan, he generally does things strictly "by the book." Paul has had several antagonistic run-ins with Alan and Denny over their apparent lack of respect for the law. His adult daughter, Rachel, is introduced in Season Two as a meth addict. Paul has her placed in a rehab center and takes custody of her daughter, Fiona.
  • Denise Bauer (Julie Bowen) (Season 2+)- An aggressive young attorney introduced in the second season premiere, she's thrown when her husband files for divorce and insists she pay him so he can live while setting up his career as a mediocre golf pro. Her distractions over the divorce cause her trouble with some cases.
  • Jeffrey Coho (Craig Bierko) (Season 3+)– An intense, grandiose criminal defense attorney as comfortable with making enemies as he is making friends.[1] He is the most recent addition to the firm, and was made partner immediately after transferring in from the New York office.
  • Claire Simms (Constance Zimmer) (Season 3+)– An enigmatic and abrasive associate uncomfortable with making new friends and honest when she is uncomfortable. She transferred from the New York office with Coho and has found herself in the middle of a murder trial and a discrimination suit.

[edit] Former main characters

  • Lori Colson (Monica Potter) (Season 1)– A former district attorney, she is an associate at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. She found herself inexplicably attracted to Alan during the first season. In the second season, Lori nearly filed a sexual harassment claim against Denny. Shirley then "deftly ushered [her] out of the firm," as Alan said in the episode, "The Cancer Man Can."
  • Tara Wilson (Rhona Mitra) (Season 1)– A paralegal at Young, Berluti & Frutt, she graduated from law school in time to go with Alan to Crane, Poole & Schmidt as an attorney. After a long flirtation on both The Practice and the first half-season of Boston Legal, Tara and Alan finally began a sexual relationship, but the arrival of an old boyfriend led her to break up with Alan and quit the firm.
  • Sally Heep (Lake Bell) (Season 1)– Associate at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Introduced in The Practice, she began a relationship with Alan that crossed over into Boston Legal. However, after he used her to get information from a witness against their client so they could subdue his testimony, Sally broke up with him. Shirley later fired her. Sally briefly returns in Season 3 with a new and improved attitude. Bitter about her firing and fuelled by her desire to beat Alan Shore in court she comes up against him in a case relating to Scientology. After Alan beats her again the pair sleep together.
  • Sara Holt (Ryan Michelle Bathe) (Season 2)– Introduced in the second season premiere, she was a smart lawyer who isn't above using her own beauty to help her client. Sara has since disappeared from the show.
  • Garrett Wells (Justin Mentell) (Season 2)– Also introduced in the second season premiere, he is a brash young attorney who is obviously attracted to Denise. Garrett does go over her head with some clients but aids her by blackmailing her ex-husband's attorney/pastor to get him to back down from his demands for money. He has since disappeared from the show.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Boston Legal episodes

[edit] Criticism

  • Allegations of a liberal bias/agenda have been formed by various people and groups <ref>http://newsbusters.org/node/4552</ref>. Lead character Alan Shore is a self-identified Liberal Democrat, which is reflected often through comments in his closing arguments regarding the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, and Shirley Schmidt has identified her politics as left-leaning. The only character who is a self-identified conservative is Denny Crane - a character suffering from Alzheimers - although the political agenda of the other characters is rarely identified. Brad Chase is a former Marine and has expressed some conservative-leaning views before.

[edit] U.S. television ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Boston Legal on ABC.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. All times mentioned in this section were in the Eastern & Pacific time zones.

Season Timeslot Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Season
Rank 		Viewers
(in millions)
1st Sunday 10:00PM October 3, 2004 March 20, 2005 2004-2005 #27<ref name="0405">"2004-05 Final audience and ratings figures", Hollywood Reporter, May 27, 2005.</ref> 12.5<ref name="0405">"2004-05 Final audience and ratings figures", Hollywood Reporter, May 27, 2005.</ref>
2nd Tuesday 10:00PM September 27, 2005 May 16, 2006 2005-2006 #46<ref name="0506">"2005-06 primetime wrap", Hollywood Reporter, May 26, 2006.</ref> 10.3<ref name="0506">"2005-06 primetime wrap", Hollywood Reporter, May 26, 2006.</ref>
3rd September 19, 2006 2007 2006-2007 ??? ???

[edit] Broadcasters

[edit] DVD releases

On February 9, tvshowsondvd.com announced that Fox Home Entertainment were releasing Boston Legal Season 1 on DVD on May 23, 2006. [2] It is the first David E. Kelley show that Fox has released on DVD in the United States (though Ally McBeal has been released on DVD in other countries).

DVD Name Cover Art Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
Season 1 Image:BostonLegalS1.jpg May 23, 2006 July 24, 2006 August 9, 2006
Season 2 Image:BostonLegalS2.jpg November 21, 2006 TBA TBA

NOTE: Some of the Season 1 DVDs, provided by select offline retailers, included a promotional DVD featuring the episodes from The Practice that introduced Alan Shore and the firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. This was only included in the very early sales of the DVD as a promotion.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Meta-reference

The show has increasingly adopted the devices of breaking the fourth wall and meta-reference, but usually in a sly manner that can also be interpreted as the characters only jokingly pretending they're on a television show. Some examples are:

  • In the episode "An Eye for an Eye", Alan is asked if there is "someplace he'd rather be" to which he quips that he'd like to be on cable as that is where all of the best work is being done.
  • Denny refers to the fact that he won an Emmy, when in fact, it was the actor playing Denny, William Shatner, who won the award.
  • Denny complained that he was "tired of [his] Alzheimer's being a story point."
  • Alan says to Denny, "Ah, there you are. I've hardly seen you this episode."
  • Denny also says, in a late episode in Season Two, that everything he wants to express in life is bottled up inside of him like a "kidney stone", which is a possible reference to the kidney stone that William Shatner passed and later auctioned.
  • Alan jokingly refers to the fact the show had switched the nights on which it aired as a reason why he hadn't seen a recurring guest star sooner. In the same episode, a co-worker cautions Alan not to get involved with the same woman, noting "She's only a guest star."
  • In the episode “Squid Pro Quo" Denny references a new character on the show, expressing that he can't wait to "see her next week."
  • During the second season finale, Denny attempts to persuade Shirley to kiss him by stating: "Shirley, this is the sweeps episode." At the end of the episode, Denny and Alan toast to "next season," with the hopes that it would be on the same night.
  • In an early Season Two episode, shortly after the series moved from its original Sunday night schedule to its new Tuesday home, Denny and Alan are fishing in a rain sewer grate, during which Denny muses on various changes in his life he has had to endure. Among them, he states, "I miss my old time slot."
  • In the second episode of the second season, Denny asks Alan, "Show over already? You look beaten."
  • In the season premiere of the third season, Alan is speaking of how his recent casual sexual relationship with Marlene Stanger (Parker Posey) allowed him to act more like his true self and says, "These past few years I've felt this inexplicable compulsion to be somewhat redeeming as if I were some series regular on a television show."
  • In the second episode of the third season, "New Kids on the Block," a new male law partner and a law associate arrive at the firm and tell Denny they're the new guys, to which Denny responds "If there were new guys they would have shown up in the season premiere." Then, Denny grabs the new girl's buttocks and says "Welcome to Boston Legal." After she complains, Denny looks at the camera and says, "cue the music," at which point the opening credits begin. As the opening logo to the show slides on from off camera, Craig Bierko's character Jeffrey is seen to be looking back and forth as if 'seeing' the credits transition on screen.
  • After winning a case involving a homeless man who ate his best friend while cremating him, Alan Shore asks Shirley Schmidt, as if asking the audience, "Do you think we win so much that we lose all suspense?"
  • At the end of the episode "Fine Young Cannibal," the closing shot focuses on the smoke rising from Alan’s and Denny’s cigars. At a certain point, the vocalist singing the end theme begins coughing as if enveloped in this cloud of smoke.
  • After a tirade on the modern implementation of the constitutional right granting freedom of religion: "Yes I know, I'll get letters." -Alan Shore
  • Denny's advice to Bethany in "Lincoln" is read off large cue cards held by Alan, which Bethany apparently does not notice.
  • Also in "Lincoln," when Lincoln kidnaps Shirley, he comments that if this were a movie, we'd hear a real ominous chord right about now. Immediately thereafter, the audience does hear such an ominous musical chord.
  • When Denny and Alan are smoking cigars together at the end of the episode "Lincoln," Denny asks when Alan's trial is. Alan says it is Tuesday at 10. Although "Lincoln" was aired on a Sunday, Boston Legal's regular timeslot on ABC is Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time, and it was then that the episode featuring Alan's trial was aired.

[edit] Star Trek references and allusions

  • Several episodes of Boston Legal allude to Star Trek. William Shatner (Denny Crane) gained fame for playing the role of Captain James T. Kirk in the original series and seven of the ten feature films that followed. Rene Auberjonois (Paul Lewiston) previously appeared as Security Chief Odo in the spin-off series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Auberjonois also appeared in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in the uncredited role of Colonel West.
  • Jeri Ryan, the actress who played Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager, appeared on an episode of the second season of Boston Legal
  • In the second episode of the third season, "New Kids on the Block," the husband of a murder victim, a judge, is played by Armin Shimerman, who appeared along with Rene Auberjonois on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a bartender named Quark.
  • In several of the third season episodes, four Star Trek alumni appear together: William Shatner, Rene Auberjonois (Odo in Deep Space Nine), Armin Shimerman (the Ferengi barkeep Quark in Deep Space Nine), and Ethan Phillips (Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager).
  • In a middle episode of the second season, when Denny and Alan are on a fishing trip to British Columbia, Alan refers to a sea-lice ailment suffered by some local fish as ‘cling-ons’; Denny, as though recalling something from vague, distant memory (past cobwebs, as it were), comments “Klingons?”
  • Another Season Two episode, "The Cancer Man Can," features Denny trying out a new cell phone. The clamshell-style phone flips open and makes the exact beep used on the old Star Trek communicators.
  • In the Season Two episode "There's Fire,” Denny’s new wife Beverly suggests that they move to Hawaii. Denny asks her, “What am I supposed to do? Beam myself to Boston every morning?” (a reference to the transporter system on Star Trek).
  • In the ninth episode of the second season, Denny shoots a homeless man named Kirk, another reference to Shatner's Star Trek character. Later in the episode Alan Shore calls to Mr. Kirk while seemingly speaking to Denny.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Awards won

Emmy Awards:

The Emmys won in 2004 were for The Practice, but for the same characters as they play on Boston Legal

Golden Globe Awards:

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV William Shatner (2005)

Peabody Awards:

  • Boston Legal won the Peabody Award for its 2005 season.

[edit] Awards nominated

Emmy Awards:

Golden Globe Awards:

  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV Candice Bergen (2006)
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Drama James Spader (2005)

Screen Actors Guild:

  • Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Comedy Series (2006)
  • Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series James Spader (2006)
  • Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series William Shatner (2006)
  • Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Candice Bergen (2006)

Satellite Awards:

  • Outstanding TV Series - Comedy (2005)
  • Outstanding Actor in a TV series - Comedy James Spader (2005)
  • Outstanding Actress in a TV series - Comedy Candice Bergen (2005)
  • Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV William Shatner (2005)
  • Outstanding TV Series - Drama (2004)
  • Outstanding Actor in a TV series - Drama James Spader (2004)


[edit] U.S. broadcast history

  • October 2004 - March 2005 -- Sundays 10:00pm/9:00pm
  • September 2005 - present -- Tuesdays 10:00pm/9:00pm

[edit] References

<references />


[edit] External links

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