Philly (ABC):
Executive Producer, Steven
Bochco, has transplanted Kim Delaney from her Emmy Award winning role as
Detective Diane Russell on NYPD Blue to her own series, as Philadelphia
lawyer, Kathleen Maguire. As head of her own firm, Maguire is faced with an
overload of cases when her partner
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suffers a breakdown following weeks on a fad diet.
Pressured by a charming, but opportunistic, lawyer Will Froman (Tom Everett
Scott) to join her firm, and thereby get out of the Public Defender's office,
Maguire finally acquiesces and thus begins a partnership that is sure to be
strained at best.
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According to Bochco, Philly was in the works for
quite awhile before it actually went into production. "When Jimmy Smits'
character died on NYPD Blue, Kim's character was an underused resource
in the show. That wasn't accidental or an oversight. It was true to the nature
of her character, in she would be grieving and that was a significant dramatic
distraction for the character. Kim's a real television star, and I'd been
monkeying around with the idea of a law show. When I did L.A. Law
fifteen years ago, it was a bit of a fantasy. It was very upscale. I think this
is a little more real. Philly is about the criminal justice system, and
to that extent it's a profoundly different show in its look, feel and in its
focus."
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After so many
years of portraying Detective Russell, Delaney admits creating a new persona
was an intimidating challenge. "The characters are different," she
acknowledges. "The look is different. She's probably a little more
vulnerable and not as guarded as Russell was. She's a mother, so she's more
nurturing. There's so much there on the page that I just have to discover
what's underneath and keep adding to it."
Philly is the seventh
series about lawyers in Primetime and the third one to air on Tuesday nights, a
fact that Bochco recognizes and addresses. "I think we have a very unique
take on the system that comes through in this show that clearly and
entertainingly sets this one apart."
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