Boston Legal
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Boston Legal is an American television series that began airing on the ABC network 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, which stars James Spader) to his new law firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Also co-starring is veteran television actor William Shatner.
Origins
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). Heald was part of the ensemble cast in another David E. Kelley show, Boston Public.
Characters
5 of the Boston Legal characters (Alan Shore, Denny Crane, Tara Wilson, Sally Heep and Catherine Piper) first appeared in The Practice.
Main characters
- 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, has a fear of clowns, and in one episode suffered from 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 trustworthiness. Shore and Crane are best friends. He was once married, but his wife died. However, as Denny Crane notes, he rarely speaks of his wife.
- 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.
- 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. In one episode, Denny makes reference to the fact that Shirley apparently dated (and possibly left Denny for) a 'secretary', who later Shirley clarified was the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
- 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, accidentally chopping off the priest's fingers in the process. Later, he went undercover to discover if Paul Lewiston'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.
- 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.
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. Shirley then "deftly ushered [her] out of the firm," as Alan Shore said the episode "The Cancer Man Can".
- 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.
- 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. Shirley Schmidt later fired Heep.
- 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. She has since disappeared from the show.
- 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. He has since disappeared from the show.
Episodes
DVD releases
On the 9th of February tvshowsondvd.com announced that Fox Home Entertainment were releasing Boston Legal Season 1 on DVD on May 23rd 2006. [link] 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. Following this, on June 16 tvshowsondvd.com announced that the Complete Second Season would be released on DVD on September 26, 2006 [link], just prior to the debut of the shows third season on the ABC network.
| DVD Name | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Legal Season 1 | May 23 2006 | July 24 2006 | August 9 2006 |
| Boston Legal Season 2 | September 26 2006 |
NOTE: Some of the Season 1 DVDs included an additional DVD featuring the episodes from "The Practice" that introduced Alan Shore and the firm of Crane, Poole, and Schmidt. However, this appears to have only been included in the very early (first week) sales of the DVD, probably as a promotion. Those who purchase later are denied these episodes, and will either have to wait for the release of the final season of "The Practice" on DVD or check auction sites or other third party sources for this material.
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 , both of which were released in 1994.
- Rene Auberjonois previously appeared as Security Chief Odo in , 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.
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 Shore is asked if there is "someplace he'd rather be" to which Shore quips that he'd like to be on cable as that is where all of the best work is being done.
- 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.
- Denny Crane complained that he was "tired of [his] Alzheimer's being a story point".
- Alan Shore says to Denny Crane, "Ah, there you are. I've hardly seen you this episode."
- Denny also says, in a late episode in season 2, 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," Crane references a new character on the show, expressing that he can't wait to "see her next week."
- During the second season finale on May 16, 2006, Denny Crane attempted to persuade Shirley Schmidt to kiss him by stating: "Shirley, this is the sweeps episode." At the end of the episode, Crane and Shore toasted to "next season," with the hopes that it would be on the same night.
- In an early Season 2 episode, shortly after the series moved from its original Sunday night schedule to its new Tuesday home, Denny and Alan are fishing in a sewer grate, during which Denny bemuses various changes in his life he has had to endure. Among them, he states, "I miss my old timeslot."
- In a middle episode of the second season, Alan Shore talks to Denny Crane about the sea lice, and how they're called cling-ons. Denny Crane, in surprise, asks "Klingons?". This is an obvious allusion to William Shatner's Star Trek career.
- Another season two episode features Denny trying out a new cell phone. The 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 bride suggests the pair live in Hawaii. Denny responds by asking if he should “beam to Boston” for work, a reference to the transporter system on Star Trek.
- In the second episode of the second season, Denny asks Alan "Show over already? You look beaten."
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)
- Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series James Spader (2004)
- Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series William Shatner (2004)
- Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV William Shatner (2005)
- Boston Legal won the Peabody Award for its 2005 season.
Awards nominated
Emmy Awards:- Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series William Shatner (2006)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Candice Bergen (2006)
- Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series Michael J. Fox (2006)
- Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series Christian Clemenson (2006)
- Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series Nikki Valko, Ken Miller (2006)
- Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Phil Neel (2006)
- Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Series Craig Hunter, Peter Kelsey, Clark King, William Butler (2006)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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
- [Boston Legal DVD website]
- [Boston Legal Source]
- [The Original Boston Legal Yahoo Group]
- [Boston Legal] at the TV IV
- [Boston Legal] at EPisodeWorld.com
- [Boston Legal Unofficial fan site]
- [Boston Legal Fan Site]
- [Legal live webcast] May 15, 2006 MT&R
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