Boston Legal: Difference between revisions

''Boston Legal'' was a legal [[Dramedy]] series than ran on [[ABC]] from 2004 to 2008. It was to the [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] trope what ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' is to [[Dr. Jerk]]. The series starts as a senior partner at the firm goes completely insane and has to be hauled off to a mental hospital, and the rest of the employees aren't much more stable. They include a renowned trial lawyer in the early stages of Alzheimer's (affectionately referred to as Mad Cow Disease by him and the rest of the firm), several lawyers suffering from everything from extreme shyness to [[Useful Notes/Asperger Syndrome|Asperger Syndrome]], and the lead, who is merely lecherous and corrupt (although he, too, suffers from occasional [[Word Salad|mental issues]]). Together they take on cases that are almost as odd as they are.

* [[Accuse the Witness]]

** Jeffrey Coho takes this [[Up to Eleven]] during his big trial. He accuses three separate witnesses of being the murderer, including the husband and the neighbor of the victim. Lastly, he accuses the mother of a defendant of being the real murderer of the defendant's lover, in order to get the son acquitted. {{spoiler|While Jeffrey thinks their story of the mother being in an incestuous relationship with her son and having killed out of jealousy is just a cover story, it's actually true.}}

** How could people forget to mention that Shore is the trope namer?

** Literal in several cases.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Denny Crane. He says his own name often enough for it to be considered such.

{{quote| '''Denny Crane:''' Denny Crane!<br />

* [[Oscar Bait|Emmy Bait]]: ''Amazingly'' parodied and lampshaded. Denny talks about how he likes to pretend "that everything I'm doing is on television" and calls an abortion case bad television. Alan tells him to "just think of this as our Emmy episode." Denny Crane even says at one point that he's won an Emmy. Note that this is Denny Crane (a lawyer) saying this!

* [[End of Series Awareness]]: The show is absolutely relentless about this.

* [[Fake American]]: Canadian [[William Shatner]] as staunch, gun-loving Denny Crane.

* [[Friends With Benefits]]: Denise attempts to maintain a friends-with-benefits arrangement with both Brad and Jeffrey simultaneously, without either of them knowing about the other.

* [[Funny Aneurysm]] / [[Reverse Funny Aneurysm]] (depending on your politics): One episode airing in early 2005 was about the firm successfully defending a school district that forced science teachers to teach Intelligent Design (creationism with the serial numbers filed off) as an alternative to evolution, firing those that refused. In real life a similar case really happened later that year, with the plaintiffs and school board using arguments essentially identical to those from the show (although at much greater length and with everyone showing their work). The school board lost so badly the movement to get ID taught in schools <s> basically died that day.</s> had to go into hibernation for a few years.

* [[Hanging Judge]]: Judge Clark Brown.

{{quote| '''Denny:''' ''[to Alan, as he fixes Denny's tie]'' I wish you and I were getting married. That's you and I. Both of us. To others... I'm not gay.<br />

'''Alan:''' I heard you the first Freudian slip. }}

* [[Homoerotic Subtext]] : Alan and Denny. At the end of the show, {{spoiler|they make it legal}}.

* [[I Am Not Spock]]: For a lot of people, this show was responsible for [[William Shatner]] not just being Captain Kirk. In fact inverted, now people make Denny Crane jokes about old ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episodes.

{{quote| '''Alan''': You're an extra. You don't get to talk.}}

*** And, of course:

* [[No Sense of Humor]]: Brad Chase.

* [[Not Love Interest]]: Denny and Alan, for each other.

* [[Running Gag]]: Denny referring to his Alzheimer's as "mad cow."

* [[Sarcasm Failure]]: usually during the [[Code Silver]].

* [[Sinister Minister]]: Standouts include such [[Smug Snake|Smug Snakes]] as Reverend Donald Diddum (the "[[Catch Phrase|Think on it, pray on it]]" guy with the fetish for used panties), and Father Ryan, who "[[Lawful Stupid|cloaks himself in canon law]]" to shield a pedophile kidnapper who confessed to him.

* [[Smug Snake]]: On a show about amoral, high-powered lawyers? [[Sarcasm Mode|I'm shocked.]]

* [[Strawman Political]]: Alan Shore very frequently goes up against broad conservative caricatures, and always wins. Oddly, he himself resembles the conservative straw man of a corrupt liberal trial lawyer.

** Denny Crane is a straw man political caricature of a conservative gun nut, although this did allow him to save the day a few times. Keeping guns in your office seems so much less crazy when you just used them to shoot the man about to kill your friends.

* [[Sympathetic Murderer]]

* [[Take That]]: Texas, Fox News, the New York Yankees.

* [[Third Person Person]]: Denny full-names himself on a regular basis.

* [[Verbal Tic]]: Lincoln has a particularily noticable one. He uses heavy emphasis every time he says "Shirley Schmidt" (and he says it ''a lot''). It doesn't really help that the camera almost always zooms in on his face when he says it.

* [[Wanting Is Better Than Having]]: Denny tells Alan that "it's better to want a woman you can't have than to have a woman you don't want."

* [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]: Clarence/Clarice

** Alan and Shirley on the other hand, {{spoiler|don't}}.

* [[You Look Familiar]]: John Larroquette, who plays Carl Sack, earlier played [[Magnificent Bastard]] Joey Heric on ''[[The Practice]]'', from which this show spun off.