2007 Fall TV Preview: Boston Legal On ABC

Boston Legal - Season 4

Premieres: Tuesday, September 25th at 10:00 p.m. EST
Network: ABC
Creator(s): David E. Kelley
Starring: Williams Shatner, James Spader, John Larroquette, Christian Clemenson, Gary Anthony Williams, Tara Summers, Saffron Burrows, Candice Bergen
Website: ABC.com

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What is genius without a bit of madness? Boston Legal centers on Crane, Poole & Schmidt, a law firm full of brilliant but emotionally challenged attorneys. Like all of David E. Kelley’s creations, the characters in this series all have their quirks. Denny Crane (Shatner) is one of the founding partners and also happens to have an ego the size of a small planet. Alan Shore (Spader) is Mr. Fix-it. He helps his clients using what many might consider unethical measures. Shirley Schmidt (Bergen) spends half of her time litigating and other half cleaning up Denny’s messes.

In the fourth season, John Larroquette will join the cast, playing Carl Sack, a senior partner at the firm who was transferred in from the New York office. More than likely, he’ll be just as quirky and ridiculously hilarious as his associates.


All season long, about one in three phone conversations with my father have involved him asking me, “Do you watch Boston Legal? To which I would respond, “No, dad but I’ve seen it and I agree, it’s great.” Perhaps it’s the ten o’clock timeslot or the fact that while I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every episode I’ve seen, I never really feel compelled to tune in the following week.

David E. Kelley has a way of turning the most ridiculous characters and situations into scenarios viewers can both laugh at and genuinely care about all at the same time. He did it with Picket Fences. He did it with Ally McBeal. He did it with Boston Public and now he’s doing it with Boston Legal. It’s humor with heart and a slice of brilliance and he’s good at it.

So while I don’t watch Boston Legal as regularly as I probably should, I cant deny that it’s a fantastic show. I’ve also noted that I was able to follow and enjoy the episodes I’ve seen without having seen every episode so if you’re new to the show, you’ll probably be able to get on board with it at the start of the new season without any problems, especially if you’re already familiar with Kelley’s work.