Is Denny Crane Sluttier than Captain Kirk

One television show I like and can't explain why is "Boston
Legal." In some ways it is as though two shows are occupying
the same space. One show is a rather brilliant legal comedy
starring two marvelous about Denny Crane and Alan Shore. The
other is a rather mediocre feel good legal melodrama starring
everyone else in the cast, except when they are needed to play
second banana to Bill Shatner and Alan Shore.

To begin with, the show was started as a spin-off of "The
Practice." On that show, James Spader and William Shatner shared
screen time, but their interaction was different. Denny Crane
was a wonderful lawyer. Alan Shore was a schemer. The actors
both won Emmys, and then suddenly the show was about their man
love on "Boston Legal." They problem is that both Denny Crane
and Alan Shore are, essentially, loonies. Well, loonies need
straightmen. Hence the rest of the cast.

They had Lake Bell, Rhona Mitra, Monica Potter, Rene
Auberjenois, and Mark Valley. Currently they have Candice
Bergen, Christian Clemenson, Saffron Burrows, John Larroquette,
Tara Summers and Gary Anthony Williams. In between, they've
had Betty White, Julie Bowen, Craig Berko, Contance Zimmer and
various others. These actors are not hacks. They are
substantial talents. And the show has burned through them like
Shaggy and Scooby eating in a 7-Eleven. They are there to
backup to Shatner and Spader.

Of course you cannot just hire Betty White, Henry Gibson and
Craig Bierko and do nothing with them. So they do all kinds of
typical tv story lines like love triangles, a professional
issues and occasionally even standard issue court room drama.
It's all padding. The real stories are Alan and Denny doing
their various wacky hijinks and occasional forays into
complicated legal issues.

Tuesday, for instance, they took on abortion and father's
rights. They took on Katrina lat year. They are constantly
haranguing the war in Iraq. It's pretty impressive how topical
they get. Another issue is the guest stars they have from
Michael J. Fox to Tom Selleck to Al Sharpton. I think they get
the actors because David Kelly seems to be running an Emmy
Nomination machine, but never the less, they are on the show.


Also, they seem to have a a lot of ex-Star Trek guys on the
show. But that's just an odd quirk.