Boston Legal question

[ToddKent]

I started Netflixing Boston Legal and am in the middle of the first season (no spoilers please).

I understand that it is a spin off of The Practice and was just wondering about the details of that. I never watched The Practice so my question(s) is: How many BL characters first appeared on The Practice? Were there plot elements/storylines that began in The Practice and then carried on into BL?

Just curious.

 

[nx1701g]

Alan Shore was a main character in The Practice in its final season and worked for the firm in that series. During the last couple of episodes Alan sued the firm from "The Practice" for (I believe) not paying his fees and he sued them through Crane, Poole, and Schmidt. Denny appeared during the final arc.

 

[TGTheodore]

Correct. Alan was fascinated by Denny Crane and joined their firm. There's nothing else you need to know about The Practice to enjoy BL.

--Ted

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ I've only ever watched Alan & Denny in Boston Legal, though I've recently caught a couple of episodes of The Practice from the first couple of seasons, with Dylan McDermott & Co. Apparently the characters of Denny and Alan were quite different in TP. Is that right? Just out of curiousity.

Regardless of the answer to that question, I'd probably buy season 5 of the Practice on DVD because I'm such a fan of those two and the Spader Shatner (Spadner? Shate?) chemistry but sadly it doesn't seem to be available over here.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I started Netflixing Boston Legal and am in the middle of the first season (no spoilers please).

I understand that it is a spin off of The Practice and was just wondering about the details of that. I never watched The Practice so my question(s) is: How many BL characters first appeared on The Practice? Were there plot elements/storylines that began in The Practice and then carried on into BL?

Just curious.

Not really, Boston Legal has a different cast and very different "feel" than The Practice. Alan Shore is pretty much the only thing connecting the two shows, and even he almost appears like a different person.

 

[Harvey]

Regardless of the answer to that question, I'd probably buy season 5 of the Practice on DVD because I'm such a fan of those two and the Spader Shatner (Spadner? Shate?) chemistry but sadly it doesn't seem to be available over here.

Season five? I thought it was a much later season of the Practice that featured Alan Shore, Denny Crane, and a few other secondary characters who were spun off to The Practice (I seem to recall that Rhona Mitra, Betty White, and perhaps one other character appeared on The Practice first as well).

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ It could well have been (in fact, it probably was) a later season. For some reason, I had it in my head that BL and TP both ran for the same length of time.

 

[nx1701g]

The Practice ran for 8 seasons. It was only the last handful of episodes where Shore and Crane interact. I believe that they were a bit different in The Practice as well.

 

[bigdaddy]

I didn't watch The Practice when they were added to the cast, however I did watch the series finale. BL and TP have really nothing in common, you don't need any background other what what you already have.

 

[Harvey]

I haven't seen The Practice at all, but have greatly enjoyed the first three seasons (so far) of Boston Legal.

I would like to see The Practice at some point, though.

Looking at Wikipedia, it appears Shore, Crane, as well as the characters played by Rhona Mitra, Lake Bell, and Betty White all started out on The Practice. A judge played by Anthony Heald appears on both shows as well. Many other actors appear on both programs as different characters. And there's at least one crossover with the principal from Boston Public, though he goes unnamed in the (season one?) episode he appears in.

 

[Jax]

I went back and watched The Practice season 8 and loved it, pity its hard to find the show would love to watch the entire run of the Practice.

 

[DWMarch]

Characters who cross over:

Alan Shore
Denny Crane
Tara (Rhona Mitra)
Sally Heep
Catherine Piper (Betty White)

Characters who don't make it:
Michael Billings
Hannah Rose
Judge Eugene Young
Everyone else from Young, Frutt and Berlutti

New characters (1st season):
Brad Chase
Lori Coulson
Shirley Schmidt
Paul Lewiston
Edwin Poole

Graham Currie and Mark Vann were on both shows but played different characters. Currie was a DA on both shows and could and should have been the same character but wasn't. Vann played a jury consultant on The Practice ("Mr. Shore Goes to Town") but was the DA that Alan tried to undermine by playing up Brad's political prospects in Seasons 2's "Breast in Show."

The office of Crane, Poole and Schmidt also undergoes a significant renovation between TP Season 8 and BL Season 1. This is probably why a bunch of characters didn't come back- they moved to other CP&S offices and didn't come back for whatever reason.

 

[bigdaddy]

Season 4 (20 episodes) is on sale this week at Best Buy USA for $13.

Amazon USA has seasons 1-4 for $13 each.

 

[hyzmarca]

Essentially, when Season 8 came around The Practice was dead and everyone knew it. The show had run it's course, the stars quit (or were fired, depending on who you ask), and the network didn't want it anymore. But it got one more season anyway.

David E. Kelley, not being an idiot, seized the opportunity to continue his career of making quirky Boston-based legal dramas by turning the entire 8th season of The Practice into one giant pilot for a then unnamed spinoff.

New stars were introduced to replace the ones who had been lost, stars who were always intended to be move onto the new show. Most notably, Alan Shore. Spader was recruited as the new star of The Practice with the intent that he star in the spinoff when it was picked up.

The supporting characters of The Practice who remained were given closure, but the season is essentially Boston Legal season 0 as much as it is The Practice season 8. Some of the characters were tweaked dramatically between the end of The Practice and the beginning of Boston Legal, and the tones are very different (that wasn't the original intent, but it just turned out that way), and you don't really need to watch season 8 of the The Practice to understand BL. But it doesn't hurt.

Also, all of David E. Kelley's Boston shows take place in the same universe. This includes Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Public, and Boston Legal. Minor characters occasionally cross over, and major characters occasionally appear as guests in other series. He also likely to reuse actors for differenct characters, and these two facts combined can make things a little confusing.

 

[bigdaddy]

The vice principle of Boston Public (A show that needs to be on DVD) is a judge on Boston Legal. DEK is just a crazy wacko through.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

You don't need to know anything from the Practice to get Boston Legal. That being said, the Practice is a great show (different tone, though), so I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

I'm kinda sad that Eugene didn't get to appear on Boston Legal to clear up his dispute with Alan Shore.

 

[od0_ital]

Season 4 (20 episodes) is on sale this week at Best Buy USA for $13.

Amazon USA has seasons 1-4 for $13 each.

Best Buy actually has the first four seasons on sale for $12.99 each. The Sunday circular only has the fourth listed, but if ya go to the store or the website, it has four out of five for cheap.

 

[bigdaddy]

Season 4 (20 episodes) is on sale this week at Best Buy USA for $13.

Amazon USA has seasons 1-4 for $13 each.

Best Buy actually has the first four seasons on sale for $12.99 each. The Sunday circular only has the fourth listed, but if ya go to the store or the website, it has four out of five for cheap.

That explains the Amazon prices, they price match everything now.

If my camera didn't go boom this weekend (literally) than I would buy some.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Off the top of my head, as regards the 'Kelleyverse' and crossovers, I can think of the following:

- the cast of the Practice (McDermott era) appeared in Ally McBeal, with Ally and McDermott's character almost (inevitably) getting romantically intertwined

- Peter McNichol from Ally appeared in Boston Legal but as a different character from Ally's 'Biscuit'

-Chi McBride reprised his Stephen Harper character from Boson Public in Boston Legal. However, Anthony Heald, who played the deputy head in BP appeared in BL as a different character, a judge. Interestingly enough, his character in BP once mentioned that he had a brother who was a lawyer. Perhaps he went on to be a judge, but my recollection was that they had different names. Jeri Ryan from Boston Public also guested in Legal but as a different character

- Armin Shimerman played a judge in Ally McBeal on a few occasions but appeared in BL as a different character

- John Larroquote, who played Carl Sach in BL played a different character in The Practice.

 

[SlyCardie]

Season 4 (20 episodes) is on sale this week at Best Buy USA for $13.

Amazon USA has seasons 1-4 for $13 each.

Best Buy actually has the first four seasons on sale for $12.99 each. The Sunday circular only has the fourth listed, but if ya go to the store or the website, it has four out of five for cheap.

Wow, that's cheap. I might have to look for that next time I'm out at BB.