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| The Practice News - May 2003 |
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The Practice to practice through season 8!
It's Official - The Practice is back for another season and is back to
Sunday nights!
Kelley pushing for The Practice
Compelling season (series?) finale makes a case for renewal
`Practice' not perfect but merits renewal
Is It Time 'Practice' Adjourns?
Camryn Manheim makes a case for `The
Practice' to go on
By KATE O'HARE
Zap2it
After having spent several seasons comfortably ensconced on Sunday
nights at 9 on ABC, "The Practice," which closes its season tonight, faces
an uncertain future.
A move to Mondays at 8 p.m. earlier in the season to make way for the
midseason police drama "Dragnet" has done David E. Kelley's veteran legal
drama no ratings favors, and series regular Camryn Manheim, who plays
defense attorney Ellenor Frutt, is worried.
"We're all a little concerned," she said on the last day of filming
this season. "We have had the luxury of knowing far in advance over the
past several years whether or not we're coming back. This is the first
year it's been on the fence.
"I'm not going to lie to you. It's a little nerve-racking, trying to
make plans for our futures -- not just the actors, but the crew and the
executives too. But there's no dilemma for me; there's no place else I'd
rather be than be bringing quality television to the public."
Some people have forgotten that "The Practice" started out on Tuesdays
in March of 1997 as a temporary sub for "NYPD Blue." After finally
settling in on Sunday, "The Practice" proved a solid performer until the
Monday move put it up against reality genre shows like Fox's "Joe
Millionaire."
"It seemed a shame to shake up a good thing," Manheim says. "But when
we moved to Monday night, I literally took it as a compliment from ABC
that they felt we were strong enough to anchor a new night.
"(But) we had a rocky start with the `Joe Millionaire' competition,
because flukes like that, you just can't protect yourself against. But
after a while, we did hit our stride."
"The Practice" will finish with back-to-back episodes starting at 7
p.m. Thinking this might be it, Kelley and Peter Blake wrote the closer,
called "Goodbye."
"I'm not just giving you the party line...there is not one cast member
who wants to leave or feels that it is time to go," Manheim said.
There have also been rumors that Kelley's focus has shifted to his CBS
drama pilot, "The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H."
"No, no, no," Manheim says. "David's focus has never shifted off `The
Practice.' I feel like we've been the favorite child all along. He's proud
of the show and would be as sad as all of us to see it go before its
time."
*********************************
Is It Time 'Practice' Adjourns?
The jury's still out, but the verdict looks grim for ABC drama
Noel Holston
May 5, 2003
'Law & Order" czar Dick Wolf told me in an interview last year that
while he understood the necessity of adversarial relationships in
court, the right to adequate counsel and all that other Sixth
Amendment stuff, he couldn't help being put off by what defense
attorneys do for a living - "which, in most cases, is get guilty
people off." Man, I wish that I had thought to ask him how he liked
"The Practice."
Writer-producer David E. Kelley's dramatic series about a scrappy,
sometimes sanctimonious Boston law firm broke with a TV tradition
older than "Perry Mason" when it premiered in March 1997 on ABC.
Occasionally, Donnell, Young, Dole & Frutt championed the unjustly
accused, but mostly they did what real defense attorneys are called
upon to do. They did what they could to keep justly accused clients
out of prison - or at least minimize their sentences. They did it
proudly, too, often speechifying about the importance of doing a
sometimes dirty job that our judicial system demands somebody do.
In the pilot episode, Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott) successfully
represented a 17-year-old girl who had been arrested with $100,000
worth of cocaine and other drugs on her. Most recently, his firm
argued against capital punishment for a drug dealer who killed a young
mother when he opened fire on a street rival he feared. In between,
clients have included rapists and serial killers, some wrongly
accused, most not. When you think about it, it's amazing "The
Practice" has had the run it has. These are the sort of lawyers we
normally tell merciless jokes about.
"The Practice" is awaiting a verdict. After tonight's two-part
seventh-season finale (9 p.m., WABC/7), it may be available only in
reruns. Its ratings, off a bit in the fall, plummeted when ABC shifted
it from its long-time Sunday slot to Mondays. The onetime, top-20 hit
now typically finishes about 80th among prime-time shows.
ABC hasn't said yet if it's going to renew "The Practice," but Kelley
seems to have prepared for a yea or a nay. Donnell left his wife and
law partner Lindsay Dole (Kelli Williams) two Mondays back, and
tonight, in an episode that wasn't available for preview, he resigns
from the firm and appoints Eugene Young (Steve Harris) senior partner.
Either it's a cliffhanger that Kelley will get to resolve next fall,
or it's a wrap.
The guess here is the latter. Despite some worthy recent efforts,
including a dandy screed against "reality" TV, "The Practice" has a
been-there, done- that quality these days.
Even in the early going, when it won a best drama Emmy as well as the
prestigious Peabody and Humanitas awards, "The Practice" sometimes
made me think of an old George Carlin routine in which Catholic
schoolkids dream up convoluted theological questions just to torture
the priest. There was one, for example, about an elderly widow with
Alzheimer's who married an old friend that her daughter disliked and
mistrusted. The daughter sued to have the marriage annulled on the
grounds that her mother wasn't competent. Called to testify, the woman
stunned the court by intimating that her current spouse had murdered
her first husband, who apparently had been abusive. And that wasn't
the end of the curveballs or the ethical dilemmas.
The problem with relying on such complicated and sensational stories
is that, eventually, you can top yourself only by edging into
absurdity, a la "Ally McBeal," a Kelley creation that flamed out even
faster. Donnell and associates can defend only so many genius
sociopaths. Ellenor Frutt (Camryn Manheim) can have only so many old
high school friends who need help beating a murder rap. Lindsay can
shoot only so many clients.
Kelley told The Associated Press last week that he's not ready to
quit. "We're in a very strange place in our country in terms of
privacy laws that are now in jeopardy," he said. "Even freedom of
speech, which has been so fundamental to who we are as a people,
doesn't enjoy the same protection. A lot of these issues in our new,
post-9/11 world are ripe for exploration."
I agree, and I know Kelley has the writing chops to turn such issues
into thorny, entertaining cases. But I also think he needs to develop
a new forum to do it in. This one's had its day.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
**********************************
Making a case for its renewal
'Practice' still strong in court
Final arguments: 'The Practice's' Kelli Williams and Dylan McDermott
THE PRACTICE. Tonight at 9, ABC.
The fate of ABC's "The Practice" hasn't been decided yet, but series
creator David E. Kelley is being more realistic than optimistic with
his planning of tonight's two-hour, seventh-season finale.
The title of the second hour is called, quite simply, "Good-Bye."
ABC, of course, all but killed the series earlier this season by
moving it from Sunday to Monday, a relocation that cost the show a
significant percentage of its viewership.
The aging show's repetition and wayward direction, though, had set in
even before that. By the time Dylan McDermott's Bobby and Kelli
Williams' Lindsay got married, and Lindsay seemed to get attacked by
some former client every other week, "The Practice" had fallen off its
game as well as its ratings high.
Tellingly, the Bobby-Lindsay scenes in tonight's season finale (at 9)
are the show's weakest. They aren't consistent with what the
characters should be saying or doing, based on years' worth of
information about their relationship.
Scenes between Steve Harris' Eugene and Jessica Capshaw's Jamie are
more compelling, partly because Harris has been so woefully underused
outside of the courtroom.
These scenes, though, don't dominate.
Instead, there are two strong and surprising legal cases - one in each
hour - that remind viewers, and should remind ABC, what made this
series an Emmy-winning standout in the first place. When it's in the
courtroom, tossing out twists when we least expect them, "The
Practice" still can charm and entertain.
Tonight, for the most part, it does.
Also, near the end, the show provides a flashback or two to underscore
just how much time has passed, and how much mutual history these TV
lawyers have shared.
And though the finale allows for a continuation if the network renews
the show for an eighth season, the final hour also gives some sense of
closure should it not return.
Originally published on May 5, 2003
David E Kelley is still holding the torch for our beloved
"Practice"... Keep watching...
‘ The Practice ’ awaits verdict
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