Boston Legal is an American legal drama-comedy (dramedy) created by David E. Kelley, which originally ran on ABC from October 3, 2004 to December 8, 2008. A spin-off of the long-running series The Practice, Boston Legal followed the personal and professional exploits of a group of attorneys working at the law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt.

Production details

Before the show's premiere, it had a working title of Fleet Street, an allusion to the real street in Boston where the fictitious Crane, Poole & Schmidt had its offices. The working title was later modified to The Practice: Fleet Street, but this title was dropped in favor of Boston Legal before the show premiered. The real building shown as the law office is located at 500 Boylston Street, 12 minutes away from Fleet Street.

Premise: The Practice

Most of the final episodes of The Practice were focused on introducing the new characters from Crane, Poole & Schmidt in preparation for Boston Legals launch. Thus, the story of Boston Legal can be said to begin with the episode of The Practice in which Eugene Young and Jimmy Berluti of Young, Frutt & Berluti decided to fire Alan Shore without consulting Ellenor Frutt, beginning a story arc of several episodes. They give Alan a severance package of only fifteen thousand dollars, even though Alan has brought in over six million dollars of revenue to the firm. Tara Wilson gets fired for her loyalty to Alan, and Alan goes to Crane, Poole & Schmidt to represent himself in the matter, thinking he has a claim under Massachusetts law to take over Young, Frutt & Berluti. Denny Crane, senior and founding partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt, takes an interest in the case and even argues at the trial, cross-examining Young. During this period, Ellenor also has a run-in with Hannah Rose (Rebecca De Mornay), a partner at Crane Poole & Schmidt, whom Ellenor ends up seriously injuring when they get into a fight over Hannah's condescending remarks to Ellenor. The character of Hannah Rose was dropped prior to the Boston Legal pilot being filmed.