Boston Legal: Difference between revisions

*Boston Legal*
Boston Legal
Created by	David E. Kelley
Starring	James Spader; Julie Bowen; Mark Valley; Rene Auberjonois; Candice Bergen; William Shatner
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	38
Production
Running time	42 minutes
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	October 3, 2004 –; present

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Boston Legal is an ABC television series that is a spin-off to the long-running legal drama The Practice. The series, like its predecessor, was created by David E. Kelley. The show follows Alan Shore to his new law firm Crane, Poole & Schmidt. The premiere episode aired October 2004.

Origins

Template:Spoiler-about Prior to 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 (Steve Harris) and Jimmy Berluti of Young, Frutt & Berluti decided to fire Alan Shore (James Spader) without consulting Ellenor Frutt, beginning a story arc of several episodes. They give Shore a severance package of only a few thousand dollars even though Shore has brought in millions of dollars of revenue to the firm. Tara Wilson (Rhona Mitra) gets fired for her loyalty to Shore. Shore then goes to Crane, Poole & Schmidt to represent him in the matter, thinking he has a claim under Massachusetts law to take over Young, Frutt & Berluti. Denny Crane (William Shatner), senior partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt, takes an interest in the case and even argues at the trial, cross-examining Eugene Young. The jury awards Shore the millions of dollars of revenue he brought in to Young, Frutt & Berluti but does not order the firm to rehire him, so Crane hires Shore at his firm. After Young is appointed a judge, his first case (in the final episode of The Practice) happens to be with Alan Shore for the defense, making Young wonder if Shore judge-shopped (this opens the door for 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 with Reverend 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).

Characters

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

Season 2 main characters

Template:Spoiler-about

Alan Shore (James Spader) A crooked lawyer with a heart of gold. Blackmail, bribe, disguise, and illicit computer hacking are all tools he uses without hesitation. Wherever he works he treats his coworkers with levity and refuses to take himself seriously. He suffers from night terrors and has a sensitive fear of clowns his other attributed medical illness is word salad. He has resigned himself to the fact that he will never be made partner at the firm due to his unpredictable behavior and lack of trustworthyness. Shore and Crane are best friends. Mr. Shore is also an obscene womanizer.
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 he 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. Crane has no problem sleeping with wives of clients and judges. Crane is an ultra-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. Mr. Crane is also a womanizer.
Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) Founding and Senior partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. She first appeared in the middle of the first season. She used to have a romantic relationship with Denny Crane, a past she now views with sardonic detachment, often making jokes about it.
Paul Lewiston (Rene Auberjonois) Partner and legal advisor of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Unlike Crane and Shore, he generally does things strictly "by the book." He has had several antagonistic run-ins with Crane and Shore over their apparent lack of respect for the law. His middle-age daughter Rachel is introduced in Season 2 as a meth addict. Lewinston has her placed in a rehab center and takes custody of her daughter Fiona, his granddaughter.
Denise Bauer (Julie Bowen) 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.
Brad Chase (Mark Valley) Chase 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, accidently chopping off the priest's fingers in the process. Later, he went undercover to discover if Paul Lewinston's daughter was still using meth. Chase hated Alan Shore initially, but is now slightly more tolerant of him. He was made a partner in Season 2.

Former main characters

Lori Colson (Monica Potter) A junior partner and former prosecutor at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. She found herself inexplicably attracted to Alan during the first season. In the second season, she nearly filed a sexual harassment claim against Crane. She has since left the firm, either under pressure from or fired by Shirley.
Sally Heep (Lake Bell) 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, she broke up with him. Shortly after Shirley Schmidt entered the Boston offices, she fired Heep.
Tara Wilson (Rhona Mitra) A paralegal at Young, Berluti & Frutt, she graduated from law school in time to go with Alan Shore to Crane, Poole & Schmidt. After a long flirtation on both The Practice and the first half-season of Boston Legal, she and Shore finally began a sexual relationship. The arrival of an old boyfriend led her to break up with Alan and quit the firm.
Sara Holt (Ryan Michelle Bathe) Introduced in the second season premiere, a smart lawyer who isn't above using her own beauty to help her client.
Garrett Wells (Justin Mentell) Also introduced in the second season premiere, a brash young attorney who is obviously attracted to Denise. He 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.

Recurring characters

Catherine Piper (Betty White) Shore's former assistant, first introduced in The Practice; a church-going woman who enjoyed being privy to the goings-on at Crane, Poole & Schmidt, she took to the matricidal Bernard Ferrion in an attempt to introduce him to God. Convinced he would kill again, she later murdered him. With Shore's representation she was acquitted of the crime, but was subsequently fired by Schmidt. However, Catherine Piper returned on January 24, 2006 and was hired as a food delivery person at Crane, Poole & Schmidt.
Melissa Hughes (Marisa Coughlan) - Alan's secretary, hired when Catherine was fired by Schmidt, who has various financial problems. She is attracted to Shore's determination and sense of morality, but has had her advance rebuked, an unusual show of restraint by Shore.
Edwin Poole (Larry Miller) The other named Senior Partner at Crane, Poole and Schmidt. He escaped from a psychiatric hospital, much to friend Crane's concern and he successfully participated in one case before deciding to go back.
Jerry 'Hands' Espenson (Christian Clemenson) - a brilliant lawyer with Asperger's syndrome who earned his nickname by constantly placing his hands on his thighs. He was so irate over missing out on partner status that he pulled a knife on Shirley Schmidt, only backing down when Alan Shore agreed to be his lawyer. Shore convinced Schmidt to drop any charges against Hands when his condition became known.
Bernard Ferrion (Leslie Jordan) A small man who first met Alan Shore when he whacked his mother over the head with a frying pan. She proceeded to die from that blow, but Shore got him off because the police had no evidence on him. Later, he intentionally whacked a neighbour over the head with a frying pan to keep her from contacting the police regarding the incident with his mother. Shore refused to represent him, claiming him "evil", and instead turned him over to Tara Wilson, who preceded to keep him out of prison due to lack of evidence. Shore's secretary Catherine Piper met Bernard shortly after and tried to introduce him to God. Convinced he would kill again, Catherine struck Bernard down with a frying pan, killing him.
Chelina Hall (Kerry Washington) Prior to coming to work for Crane, Poole & Schmidt in Boston, Hall worked on behalf of deathrow inmates for the Texas Innocence Project by petitioning the Texas High Court to reconsider execution sentence. She lost her temper during her final appearance before the court, calling the Chief Judge "a disgusting, fat pig." Later, when one of her previous cases comes up for appeal, she fears this incident may have prejudiced the judge against her and convinces Alan Shore to argue the case in her stead. Hall was originally intended to appear in several episodes near the end of the first season, but when these episodes were retooled to appear near the end of the second season, her burgeoning romance with Shore was apparently cut short. Shore reencounters Hall in the second season episode titled "Race Ipsa," and while it is never explicitly stated, it is implied that she has left the employ of Crane, Poole & Schmidt "to be in movies."
Clark Brown (Henry Gibson) - a 70 year-old judge who still lives with his mother and is a virgin. He likes to humiliate criminals he convicts in addition to normal punishment.
Ivan Tiggs (Tom Selleck) - Shirley Schmidt's ex-husband. Though he marries another woman in Season 2, he still pines for Schmidt.
Donny Crane (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) - a young lawyer who was believed to be Denny's illegitimate son; the product of an affair with an anonymous woman. Denny, however, confessed to Shore that when his mother slapped him with a paternity suit, he settled, and Donny's mother later admitted that he wasn't the father. Many jokes were made about the closeness of Donny and Denny's names. Just like Denny, Donny Crane also uses his own name as an exclamation at inappropriate times.

Guest characters

Daniel Post (Michael J. Fox) - Denise Bauer's love interest with terminal lung cancer. He is a hugely wealthy businessman that initially goes to Bauer for help winning a case against a man who is suing him for using his influence to get a test drug that might save his life. Their relationship develops until he restarts his radiation therapy then goes off to Europe, presumably to die.
Donald Diddum (Kurt Fuller) A perverted minister who is also a lawyer. He is the lawyer for Denise Bauer's ex-husband who handles his divorce. He starts being targeted by Garrett and Sara after they find out he has three sexual harassment complaints. Sara approaches him and coerces him to make a deal in the divorce proceedings in favor of Bauer. Eventually the Reverend requests a whiff of Sara's panties so that he does not disclose this potentially damaging information.
Malcolm Holmes (Rupert Everett) An old flame of Tara Wilson's who eventually got her to leave the firm after he started trying to come on to her.
Al Sharpton (as himself) - he helps Alan Shore twice in cases involving a black Annie and a gay Santa Claus at the request of his old friend, Denny Crane.

Episodes

DVD Releases

File:BostonLegalS1.jpg

Boston Legal Season 1 R1 DVD Cover art

On the 9th of February tvshowsondvd.com announced that Fox Home Entertainment were releasing Boston Legal Season 1 on DVD on May 23rd 2006. [1] This will be the first David E. Kelley show that Fox are releasing on DVD in the US (though Ally McBeal has been released on DVD in other countries). The Cover art was announced on 1st April 2006 and shows,from left, Candice Bergen as Shirley Schmidt, James Spader as Alan Shore, and William Shatner as Denny Crane

DVD Name	Region 1	Region 2
Boston Legal Season 1	May 23 2006	July 24 2006

Trivia

James Spader (Alan Shore) and William Shatner (Denny Crane) each appeared in one of the first films to have an official website: Spader in Stargate, and Shatner in Star Trek: Generations, both of which were released in 1994.

Rene Auberjonois previously appeared as Security Chief Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a spinoff of Star Trek. William Shatner had the role of Captain James T. Kirk on the original series. Many of the episodes reference Star Trek.

Hannah Rose, played by Rebecca De Mornay in The Practice, was initially going to be a regular character on the new show as well. She was eventually replaced by Monica Potter as Lori Colson, although some of her traits were retained in the new character (e.g. both were former prosecutors).

Some of the show's first season episodes were moved to the second season after the success shown by the series Grey's Anatomy in Boston Legal's timeslot.

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. In one episode, Denny Crane refers to the fact that he won an Emmy, when in fact it was the actor playing Denny, William Shatner, who won the award. In another episode, Denny Crane complained that he was tired of his "mad cow" disease being a story point. In another, Alan Shore says to Denny Crane, "Ah, there you are. I've hardly seen you this episode." In yet another, 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."

Awards

Awards won

Emmy Awards:

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series James Spader (2005)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series William Shatner (2005)

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

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series James Spader (2004)
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series William Shatner (2004)

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.

Awards nominated

Golden Globe Awards:

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

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)

External links

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 *'''Jerry 'Hands' Espenson''' ([[Christian Clemenson]]) - a brilliant lawyer with [[Asperger's syndrome]] who earned his nickname by constantly placing his hands on his thighs. He was so irate over missing out on partner status that he pulled a knife on Shirley Schmidt, only backing down when Alan Shore agreed to be his lawyer. Shore convinced Schmidt to drop any charges against Hands when his condition became known.
 * '''Bernard Ferrion''' ([[Leslie Jordan]]) A small man who first met Alan Shore when he whacked his mother over the head with a frying pan. She proceeded to die from that blow, but Shore got him off because the police had no evidence on him. Later, he intentionally whacked a neighbour over the head with a frying pan to keep her from contacting the police regarding the incident with his mother. Shore refused to represent him, claiming him "evil", and instead turned him over to Tara Wilson, who preceded to keep him out of prison due to lack of evidence. Shore's secretary Catherine Piper met Bernard shortly after and tried to introduce him to God. Convinced he would kill again, Catherine struck Bernard down with a frying pan, killing him.
+* '''Chelina Hall''' ([[Kerry Washington]]) Prior to coming to work for Crane, Poole & Schmidt in Boston, Hall worked on behalf of deathrow inmates for the Texas Innocence Project by petitioning the Texas High Court to reconsider execution sentence.  She lost her temper during her final appearance before the court, calling the Chief Judge "a disgusting, fat pig."  Later, when one of her previous cases comes up for appeal, she fears this incident may have prejudiced the judge against her and convinces Alan Shore to argue the case in her stead.  Hall was originally intended to appear in several episodes near the end of the first season, but when these episodes were retooled to appear near the end of the second season, her burgeoning romance with Shore was apparently cut short.  Shore reencounters Hall in the second season episode titled "Race Ipsa," and while it is never explicitly stated, it is implied that she has left the employ of Crane, Poole & Schmidt "to be in movies."
-*'''Clark Brown''' ([[Henry Gibson]]) - a 70 year-old judge who still lives with his mother and is a virgin. He likes to humiliate criminals he convicts in addition to normal punishment.
+* '''Clark Brown''' ([[Henry Gibson]]) - a 70 year-old judge who still lives with his mother and is a virgin. He likes to humiliate criminals he convicts in addition to normal punishment.
-*'''Ivan Tiggs''' ([[Tom Selleck]]) - Shirley Schmidt's ex-husband. Though he marries another woman in Season 2, he still pines for Schmidt.
+* '''Ivan Tiggs''' ([[Tom Selleck]]) - Shirley Schmidt's ex-husband. Though he marries another woman in Season 2, he still pines for Schmidt.
-*'''Donny Crane''' ([[Freddie Prinze, Jr.]]) - a young lawyer who was believed to be Denny's illegitimate son; the product of an affair with an anonymous woman. Denny, however, confessed to Shore that when his mother slapped him with a paternity suit, he settled, and Donny's mother later admitted that he wasn't the father. Many jokes were made about the closeness of Donny and Denny's names. Just like Denny, Donny Crane also uses his own name as an exclamation at inappropriate times.
+* '''Donny Crane''' ([[Freddie Prinze, Jr.]]) - a young lawyer who was believed to be Denny's illegitimate son; the product of an affair with an anonymous woman. Denny, however, confessed to Shore that when his mother slapped him with a paternity suit, he settled, and Donny's mother later admitted that he wasn't the father. Many jokes were made about the closeness of Donny and Denny's names. Just like Denny, Donny Crane also uses his own name as an exclamation at inappropriate times.
 ===Guest characters===