La Law
It was one of the most popular American television shows of the late 1980s and early 1990s. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s.
History
It was co-created by Steven Bochco (who had created the NBC show Hill Street Blues and would later co-create ABC's NYPD Blue) and former entertainment lawyer Terry Louise Fisher.
The show's quirky sort of humor can be shown in the opening of the first episode of the series, where we see only the back and hand of partner Chaney, seated at a desk, suddenly gripping the pages of a tax manual, drop dead of a heart attack. Later in that episode, in front of his partners, friends and his wife, a man appears to speak at Chaney's eulogy, to announce how "I first met him at a gay bar," and thus Chaney had been in the closet as either bisexual or a gay man with a wife.
A running gag throughout the series was the overtly promiscuous lifestyle of divorce lawyer Arnie Becker, and his chronic and constant liaisons with women, up to and including bedding some of his own clients.
This would end up causing problems when a client would use him to set up her (estranged) husband to be murdered. Steven Bochco used a similar incident in Hill Street Blues when a woman bedded one of the police officers in the squad and tricked him into shooting her ex-husband when he (apparently) broke into her house.
To some extent, the sexual peccadillos of almost the entire cast would become fodder for episodes of the series.
After Grace Van Owen makes a comment that he'd have to be a monkey before she'd be interested in Michael Kuzak, he woos her on the courthouse steps in a monkey suit.
Benny Stulwitz, a developmentally disabled clerk at the office, has sex with the developmentally disabled daughter of a client of the firm. When the elevator bell rings to signal its arrival, Rosalynd turns and steps into the elevator, only to have us hear her screams as we discover she had stepped into the elevator shaft, when the elevator doors had opened without the elevator car present (a type of malfunction that is not possible with modern elevator systems).
The show did not shy away from controversy, with a scene in one episode where one of the female lawyers, Abby Perkins, has an on-screen (romantic) kiss with C.J.
Law took over NBC's prized Thursday 10PM (9PM Central) time slot from another Bochco-produced show, Hill Street Blues, and was itself eventually replaced by another hit ensemble drama, ER. Law's original time period was Friday 10PM following Miami Vice but after struggling there, NBC decided to move it to Thursdays as Hill Street Blues was winding down.
An encore of the movie aired in place of Saturday Night Live on September 27 being a rare scripted rerun in that late-night slot.
The car with the California "L A LAW" rear registration plate was originally a Jaguar XJ, but was replaced with a Bentley in the final seasons. Bochco and Fisher had also co-created the 1987 John Ritter series Hooperman for ABC.
The scene where Leland McKenzie, played by Richard Dysart, was shown in bed with his enemy Rosalind Shays, played by Diana Muldaur, was ranked as the 38th greatest moment in television (the list originally appeared in an issue of EGG Magazine).
Rosalind Shays' demise, falling into an open elevator shaft, has also been a famous scene from the series. At the end of the biography of the Pulaski character, it says "There is no truth to the rumor that an ancestor of Dr.
Pulaski was killed falling down the elevator shaft at a prestigious Los Angeles law firm. Kelley was hired by Bochco in the series' first season after having written the feature film, From the Hip.
Shortly after, Bochco was offered the job as President of ABC Entertainment but turned it down.
At the height of the show's popularity in the mid-1980s, attention was focused upon a fictitious sexual technique named the "Venus Butterfly". The only clue describing the technique was a vague reference to "ordering room service".
Fans and interested persons flooded the show's producers with letters asking for more details about this curious kink.
During the seventh season, the executive producers John Tinker and John Masius were fired midseason, and while the show went on hiatus, William Finkelstein was brought in to fix it. Bochco and Kelley each returned to pen episodes until Finkelstein took over.
Lifetime Television also reran the show until the late 1990s.
Cast and characters
The show's original ensemble cast:
Harry Hamlin as Michael Kuzak (1986-91; seasons 1-5)
Susan Dey as Grace Van Owen (1986-92; seasons 1-6)
Corbin Bernsen as Arnie Becker (1986-94; seasons 1-8)
Jimmy Smits as Victor Sifuentes (1986-91; seasons 1-5)
Jill Eikenberry as Ann Kelsey (1986-94; seasons 1-8)
Alan Rachins as Douglas Brackman, Jr. (1986-94; seasons 1-8)
Michele Greene as Abigail "Abby" Perkins (1986-91; seasons 1-5)
Michael Tucker as Stuart Markowitz (1986-94; seasons 1-8)
Susan Ruttan as Roxanne Melman (1986-93; seasons 1-7)
Richard A.
Dysart as Leland McKenzie (1986-94; seasons 1-8)
Over the run of the show, additional cast members included:
Larry Drake as Benny Stulwitz (1987-94; seasons 2-8)
Blair Underwood as Jonathan Rollins (1987-94; seasons 2-8)
Dana Sparks as Jennifer Kepler (1988-89; season 3)
Dann Florek as Dave Meyer (1988-90; seasons 3-4)
Diana Muldaur as Rosalind Shays (1989-91; seasons 4-5)
John Spencer as Tommy Mullaney (1990-94; seasons 5-8)
Amanda Donohoe as Cara Jean "C.J." Lamb (1990-92; seasons 5-6)
Cecil Hoffman as Zoey Clemmons (1991-92; seasons 5-6)
Sheila Kelley as Gwen Taylor (1990-93; seasons 5-7)
Conchata Ferrell as Susan Bloom (1991-92; season 6)
Michael Cumpsty as Frank Kittridge (1991-92; season 6)
A Martinez as Daniel Morales (1992-94; seasons 7-8)
Lisa Zane as Melina Paros (1992-93; season 7)
Alexandra Powers as Jane Halliday (1993-94; season 8)
Alan Rosenberg as Eli Levinson (1993-94; season 8)
Debi Mazar as Denise Ianello (1993-94; season 8)
Awards
The show won numerous awards, including the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 1987, 1989, 1990, and 1991. The series shares the Emmy Award record for most acting nominations by regular cast members (excluding the guest performer category) for a single series in one year with Hill Street Blues and The West Wing.
For the 1988-1989 season, nine cast members were nominated for Emmys.
The others nominated were Michael Tucker (Lead Actor), Jill Eikenberry and Susan Dey (for Lead Actress), Richard Dysart and Jimmy Smits (Supporting Actor), Amanda Plummer, Susan Ruttan and Michele Greene (for Supporting Actress).
It was listed as #42 on Entertainment Weekly's list of The New Classics in the July 4, 2008 issue.
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