Feature: Primetime

Boston Legal

William Shatner and James Spader star in this spin-off from legal drama The Practice; we find out why it’s going to be very different from its parent show…

When prolific writer/producer David E Kelley became aware last year that his long-running series The Practice was in its final season, he ingeniously used the show to spin off an entirely new franchise called Boston Legal. Executive Producer Bill D’Elia admits, “It was unusual, exciting, interesting and fun to take five or six episodes and slowly end a show that was extremely successful for eight years, and take those same five or six episodes and begin to construct a new world.”

The ‘new world’ stars James Spader and William Shatner as Alan Shore and Denny Crane, high-priced civil litigators in an upscale Boston law firm, where the professional and personal lives of these brilliant, but often emotionally challenged, attorneys is spotlighted each week.

“It will be as different from The Practice as it can be,” acknowledges D’Elia. “We have no intent to visit those heavy criminal cases. They will be a lot more fun, a lot more civil, with a lot of money involved in these cases. There are no plans currently for the cast members that were in The Practice to visit this world. High-priced attorneys are a very different world than the grittiness of The Practice.”

by Judy Sloane

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TV Zone #186

Photo © ABC
Feature © Visual Imagination 2005. Not for reproduction

Taken from

TV Zone #186
March 2005
ships from Feb 3 2005
News-stand Price
UK £3.99 / US $7.99

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