Production details
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. Incidentally, the actual building shown on TV as the home of the law offices is located at 500 Boylston Street, 12 minutes away from Fleet Street.
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. During this period, Ellenor also has a run-in with Hannah Rose (Rebecca De Mornay), a partner at Crane Poole & Schmidt, who Ellenor ends up seriously injuring when they get into a fight due to Hannah's condescending remarks to Ellenor. The character of Hannah Rose was dropped prior to the Boston Legal pilot being filmed.
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, although to date, no starring Practice characters have made guest appearances on Boston Legal).
The pilot was originally produced with James Spader, Lake Bell, Mark Valley, Rhona Mitra and William Shatner playing the main characters, with an expanded storyline featuring Larry Miller as Edwin Poole, and with John Michael Higgins as senior partner Jerry Austin. Monica Potter was later cast as junior partner Lori Colson. After completing several episodes, the producers felt the show needed grounding, and Rene Auberjonois was cast as senior partner Paul Lewiston, effectively replacing John Michael Higgins. Despite this, Higgins's character still appeared in the first two episodes. The pilot premiered on ABC on October 3, 2004, following the series premiere of Desperate Housewives.
On November 30, 2004, it was announced that Candice Bergen would join the cast as senior partner Shirley Schmidt. [1] The producers had been looking to introduce the character since the fall. [2] Lake Bell and Executive Producer Jeff Rake subsequently left the series, while Rene Auberjonois was made a main cast member. [3][4][5]
Boston Legal was renewed for a second season on 5 April, 2005. The final five episodes of the first season were initially pre-empted until April 24, 2005 for several weeks to expose midseason series Grey's Anatomy to a larger audience behind Desperate Housewives. [6] Grey's Anatomy, however, was highly successful in the timeslot, and Boston Legal was pre-empted until the fall of 2005, where it would take over NYPD Blue's Tuesday timeslot for an extended season of twenty-seven episodes. [7][8] Both Rhona Mitra and Monica Potter departed the series over the hiatus, while Julie Bowen was cast as Denise Bauer. [9] Ryan Michelle Bathe and Justin Mentell were later cast as junior associates Sara Holt and Garrett Wells [10]. A new writing staff headed by Janet Leahy took over as of episode four of the second season.
The second episode of Season 3 introduced Craig Bierko as Jeffrey Coho and Constance Zimmer as Claire Simms. In episode 3x11 Gary Anthony Williams was added to the main cast as Clarence Bell, a role he had played twice earlier in the season. Also introduced in this episode was Nia Long as Vanessa Walker, in a guest role that lasted 3 episodes. In the 15th episode of the third season, Craig Bierko left the show.
On June 4, 2007, TV Guide announced that Rene Auberjonois, Julie Bowen, Mark Valley, and Constance Zimmer would not return for the fourth season.[11] On June 13, 2007, it was reported that actor John Larroquette would join the cast as a senior partner transferred from the New York offices of Crane, Poole & Schmidt; and actress Tara Summers would be joining as a young associate. Also, Christian Clemenson, who appeared occasionally as Jerry Espenson, a brilliant but socially inept lawyer, would be upgraded to contract player.[12] (Note that Larroquette previously appeared on BL forerunner The Practice as another character, a hyper-intelligent man on trial for killing his gay lover; this role earned Larroquette an Emmy Award.) The possibility was left open that Rene Auberjonois, Mark Valley, Julie Bowen, and Constance Zimmer could return in guest roles.[13] On July 2, 2007, it was reported that both Rene Auberjonois and Mark Valley would return in recurring roles;[14] furthermore, it was announced that Taraji P. Henson would join the cast later in the fourth season, with Saffron Burrows appearing in a recurring role. It was subsequently reported that Burrows would become a full-time cast member.[15]
On July 19, 2007, Boston Legal was nominated for six Emmy awards, including Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series (James Spader), Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (William Shatner), and its first nomination for Best Drama Series in three years. On September 14, 2007, James Spader won the Emmy for his role as the lead character in the show, whilst nominations were lost for William Shatner and Christian Clemenson in their roles for Supporting and Guest Actors, respectively. Also, the show itself lost as Best Drama Series to The Sopranos.
On May 13, 2008 ABC announced that Boston Legal would return for a fifth (and final) season in the fall. [16][17] Saffron Burrows will not return as a series regular, having joined the cast of My Own Worst Enemy. The final season will consist of 20 episodes to bring it over the "100" episode mark, setting it up for a successful syndication run. [18]
Despite ABC's initial announcement in May that Boston Legal would have one final 13-episode run in the Fall, speculation has since surfaced that Boston Legal may receive an additional episode-order if the show has another strong showing in the Emmy Awards this summer and produces solid ratings in its new Fall time slot. [19]
It has since been confirmed that the original 13-episode order would be the show's last episodes.
On June 18 and June 20, 2008 it was reported [20][21] that Gary Anthony Williams and Taraji P. Henson would not return for the fifth season as Clarence Bell and Whitney Rome respectively.
On July 17, 2008, Boston Legal was nominated for a series high seven emmy-nominations, including for Best Drama Series for a second year in a row. Spader, Bergen and Shatner were also nominated for their respective roles.
Ratings and audience profile
Though the show has never produced blockbuster ratings, it has maintained the majority of its audience over the past seasons and continues to be one of ABC's most influential shows because of the audience it draws. According to Nielsen Media Research, Boston Legal draws the richest viewing audience on television, based on the concentration of high income viewers in its young adult audience (Adult 18–49 index w/$100k+ annual income).[22] During the fourth season, "Boston Legal" moved to Wednesdays at 10:00 pm on April 30, 2008.
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 and Pacific time zones.
