‘Boston Legal’ not likely to go gently in its finale

By ROB OWEN

No other current scripted TV series is as political, topical or self-referential as ABC’s “Boston Legal.” After Monday night, the show will disappear, ending its five-year run.

Created and largely written by David E. Kelley, “Boston Legal,” which began as a spin-off of Kelley’s “The Practice,” probably won’t go gently in its two-hour finale tonight (9 p.m.).

Already this fall, the series has addressed legal cases involving the tobacco industry, the USDA, pharmaceutical advertising, the presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama.

“We can give thanks for a lot of things today, but the defeat of racism is not one of them, especially at white-collar law firms like Crane, Poole & Schmidt,” said liberal lawyer Alan Shore (James Spader) in the recent Thanksgiving episode. “Just look around the table.”

Crane, Poole & Schmidt is the law firm at the center of the series, filled with eccentric lawyers, most of them Caucasian. Through the years, the firm’s attorneys have included a former madam, a cross-dresser and a man with Asperger’s syndrome.

“Our show is about ideas and it became very organic to make politics part of this show,” Kelley said in a phone interview recently. “Our best shows were the ones we’d sit down to write three or four weeks before they’d air. ... One of our writers was an ex-journalist and he used to get calls from his colleagues in the news business and at newsmagazine shows saying they were envious. We got to tell stories they wanted to do but were not allowed to because it was not hot-enough copy for the news.”

“Boston Legal” offered another showcase role for 77-year-old William Shatner — after Capt. Kirk on “Star Trek” and his lead in “T.J. Hooker” — who stars as Republican Denny Crane, who suffers from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, which he frequently refers to as “mad cow.”

“This is a country that regulates everything,” Crane said in a recent episode, “except Wall Street and the rich, who we let run amok, but everything else.”

Although never a ratings hit, “Boston Legal” has consistently ranked a competitive second in its time period as it did this past Monday against CBS’s “CSI: Miami” and NBC’s already-canceled “My Own Worst Enemy.” Last week it built audience from lead-in “Samantha Who?” in both demographic and household ratings.

Although there may be a perception that because of its older cast, which also includes 62-year-old Candice Bergen and 61-year-old John Larroquette, “Boston Legal” skews older, the series ranks No. 37 (out of 295 broadcast series) both in the 18-49 demo and in household ratings this season.

Kelley had a lot to say about ABC’s reasons for ending the series.

“ABC didn’t want us back,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. They didn’t even want us back for this year at all. We had to fight to get back on with 13. It’s not a product they care to market.”

The producer said he never received much feedback from the upper echelons of ABC management.

“Five years into the show, if anyone has ever seen the show at ABC, they’ve yet to bring it to my attention,” he said, noting that lack of network interest can be both a blessing and a curse. He was able to make the series as he saw fit, but ABC’s lack of interest resulted in limited promotion.