"L.A. Law" All 8 Seasons Remastered in HD on Hulu November 3

[Soapsuds]

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2023/10/12/date-announcement-la-law-all-8-seasons-remastered-in-hd-on-hulu-november-3-245214/20231012hulu01/

Edited October 13, 2023 by Soapsuds

[soapfan770]

Excellent to hear, and now Northern Exposure is streaming as well my late 80s/early 90s forgotten faves are back. 

[soapfan770]

I wasn’t sure where else to post this scathing review from January 1992, but I’ll post it here as the old LA Law thread is archived.

Boy the show imploded in its last 2-3 years didn’t it? Obviously the constant turnover of cast, writers, and producers didn’t help. I liked Maisus & Tinker’s work on St Elsewhere and other work later on but their LA run was a misfire.

@DRW50 @Soapsuds @kalbir @Khan @Vee @Chris B

 

Entertainment Weekly January 31, 1992 (by Ken Tucker)

Sure, other series are having their problems these days — Designing Women, for example, still hasn’t found a way to work Julia Duffy’s tart comedic skills into its increasingly sweet mix; Knots Landing voluntarily stopped production for a while to lubricate its creaking joints, to apply a fresh coat of oiliness to William Devane. But no long-running show is floundering quite as badly as L.A. Law. What used to be the most brisk, unpredictable drama on television has become a Madmagazine parody of itself, teeming with corny caricatures instead of solid characters, clichés instead of crisp dialogue.

Once firmly lodged near the top of the Nielsens, Law‘s ratings have fluctuated wildly of late, and hasn’t your Friday-morning water cooler chat about the show taken on a grumpy, who-cares air?: Why has venerable Leland McKenzie (Richard Dysart) been reduced to brief comic bits , with monkeys? When did the pugnaciousness of Tommy Mullaney (John Spencer) sour into sneery smugness? When did Ann Kelsey and Stuart Markowitz (Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker) become the dullest couple on earth?

It’s significant that the worry and discontent of people involved with Law has become increasingly public. NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield recently told The New York Times: ”I’ve been very involved in trying to fix the show…Where are the wonderful character revelations we’ve gotten used to seeing?” In USA Today, Corbin Bernsen made an open plea to the show’s writers to enliven his character, the once-a-wise-guy, now-a-snooze divorce lawyer Arnie Becker. Nonetheless, Bernsen said that if ”you look at the worst of the shows, I still think they’re way up there in quality.” Compared with, say, Jake and the Fatman, I guess.
 

And this month, that journal of postmodern pop-cultural analysis, Redbook, has offered an article headlined ”The Devil in Miss Donohoe,” in which the actress who plays Law‘s blunt, frisky C.J. Lamb theorizes that NBC doesn’t want to show us an ”irretrievably gay” C.J. — one possible reason her role seems to have been de-emphasized this season. Sigh. Remember the good old days, when Amanda Donohoe’s character smooched Michelle Green’s Abby Perkins? Whatever happened to C.J.’s sexuality?

Sex, in fact — once one of Law‘s most potent elements — has become downright embarrassing on this show. Remember, long ago, the hot clinches between Harry Hamlin’s Michael Kuzak and Susan Dey’s Grace (”Oh, Mickey!”) Van Owen? Compare that couple with the new romantic duo of Arnie and his former secretary, Roxanne (Susan Ruttan). Here we have an ongoing plot line whose sole intention is to prove that consummated lust is a bore.

No, these days, interoffice trysting at the firm of McKenzie, Brackman has become so matter-of-fact that the affair between Cecil Hoffmann’s Zoey and Blair Underwood’s Jonathan seems less like spontaneous combustion than the writing staff’s statistical inevitability. (”All right now, which two characters haven’t we put in bed together yet? Zoey and Jonathan? Oooh-a little Jungle Fever thing! Great!”) Law‘s current cast even has an extremely promising candidate to heat up the show — sloe-eyed secretary Gwen, played by Sheila Kelley. Kelley is so inherently incendiary that Arsenio Hall threw a jacket over her miniskirted thighs when she recently appeared on his show. But in most episodes this year on Law, Gwen has been kept in the background, glowing, smoldering.

By now it’s obvious that every one of the characters introduced this season has been a disaster. Michael Cumpsty seems to be a talented actor miscast as the chesty hunk Frank Kittredge. Conchata Ferrell’s Susan Bloom, who spends entirely too much time blowing kisses at Leland, has succeeded only too well in making her pushy, obnoxious entertainment lawyer a figure to be avoided at all costs. (We’ve already said bye-bye to rookie Tom ”We Hardly Knew Ye” Verica, whose never-established character got booted from the firm at Christmastime.)

Lately, Law has been calling in its markers, attempting to recapture the old glory by squeezing scripts out of former executive producer David E. Kelley (whose Jan. 9 story was a disappointing one, save for a showstopping turn by Kevin Spacey as a wealthy loony-bird) and the series’ cocreator himself, Steven Bochco. The Jan. 16 show, cowritten by Bochco and David Milch, was, if anything, a bit worse than Kelley’s. The episode fell back on an an- noying trick the series has used throughout its history, the old when-in- doubt-get-Benny-in-troublebit: Hauled into court for taking in a 12-year- old boy without adopting him, sweet Benny (Larry Drake) was used once again to jerk our tears, and this time, the manipulation was just too mechanical, too crass.
 

The person most likely to take the fall for Law‘s present droopiness is new executive producer Patricia Green. But maybe it’s not entirely Green’s, or anyone else’s, fault. In 1986, L.A. Law debuted at the height of the Reagan era as a shrewd celebration of the yuppie ethos, reveling in the revitalized wealth, power, and glamour of the corporate world (it would take thirtysomething, a year later, to raise the specters of doubt and guilt — which is why it was never as popular as Law).

But in 1992, L.A. Law is disintegrating as fast as the economy: It’s Bushed. Perhaps, like Hill Street Blues before it, L.A. Law is a TV groundbreaker that stayed around a season or two after its pop-cultural moment had passed. Maybe it’s time McKenzie, Brackman went belly up. C-

[I Am A Swede]

^^

Harsh perhaps, but no lies were spoken....

[kalbir]

L.A. Law final three seasons overlaps w/ NBC in a brief primetime mess era. Remember almost all their big 1980s shows were winding down in that time: The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, Matlock NBC run, In the Heat of the Night NBC run, Night Court ended Spring 1992. Cheers and A Different World ended Spring 1993. L.A. Law ended Spring 1994.

[soapfan770]

Ah yes the Tartikoff era was over, and really  for a lot of 80s leftovers that 1991-92 season was rough on them. 
 

LA Law’s ratings definitely reflect the rise and fall of the show from a creative standpoint as well as other factors you mentioned:

1986-87: #21 (tied with My Sister Sam, originally aired on Friday nights against Falcon Crest til moving to Thursdays mid season.)

1987–88: #12 (tied with Moonlighting)

1988-89: #10

1989-90: #14 (Tied with Murder She Wrote)

1990-91:  #13

1991-92: #19

1992-93 #40

1993-94: #36 (tied with Unsolved Mysteries and cancelled).

[kalbir]

December 4, 1986 L.A. Law first episode head-to-head w/ Knots Landing and that L.A. Law episode was Jeanne Cooper's first appearance as Gladys Becker. I see what you did there NBC, you're not fooling me.

[DRW50]

@soapfan770 Thank you for tagging me. I think this was around the point I stopped watching. I remember Gwen's introduction and enjoying her as a character (although I never thought Sheila Kelley was especially hot, even though I thought she had a good spark [Ken Tucker must have worn out his DVR when she did pole dancing on Soap Talk!)). That's about as far as I went. 

I think the show just ran too long. The show, as Tucker mentions, was a product of the late Reagan era. If you watch To Live and Die in LA, you can feel the same haze between them. I remember those early episodes drowning in sunlight, flooding the windows. You could feel the stickiness through the screen. And the early cast had that same pent-up energy and charisma. 

As the show went on it just became generic, or worse than generic, because they were trying to force wackiness (which also doomed Picket Fences and Northern Exposure). 

I also don't think characters like Arnie were that compelling to sit through so many years of them. I do think the attempt at making Arnie and Roxanne a couple was just a bad idea.

[Vee]

I never watched this but my dad did. He went on about Rosalind Shays and the elevator shaft for years. I assume the attempt at a revival (like so many other fizzled pitches for other classic shows in the streaming boom) has been quietly sunsetted.

I know A Martinez did a stint on the show as they tried to shore up the sex appeal after some exits near the end. Was he successful on it or not at all?

[DRW50]

The elevator shaft was in the long run a real mistake - shock value that got some buzz but cemented the show as a joke. 

[Khan]

Thanks for the tag, @soapfan770!

Whenever KNOTS LANDING was done for the summer, I'd switch over to "L.A. Law" and watch some of what I had missed throughout the season.  For the most part, I thought "L.A. Law" was well-done, but I definitely agree with those who feel David E. Kelley's leaving for "Picket Fences" really hurt the show.

[DRW50]

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Debi Mazar and Alan Rosenberg were brought in from Civil Wars or another Bochco show, weren't they? How did they fit into this show? In that last opening, they look like fans who edited themselves into the credits of their favorite program.

[soapfan770]

You’re welcome!!! I knew we discussed it a long time ago so I knew you would enjoy. You definitely make some great points especially about the forced wackiness. 

As for Sheila Kelley as a gay man I definitely never found her attractive in that manner LOL, but she was pretty and was very charismatic. I think her character development arc was one of the better things about the later years. I had wanted Kelley to succeed when she was later on Sisters but the preposterousness of her character’s story was a non-starter ended up DOA.

And the whole Arnie/Roxanne/Dave triangle story was so…boring and weird. They even continued that plot in the 2002 reunion movie. 
 

 

A thankless role…he had at least one multiple episode arc in Season 7 about a crazy stalker. He didn’t even make it all through the final 8th season as he was dropped for another actor/character they hired in a last minute rush to save the show. But it was already too late.

That and  the “lesbian” kisses between Abby and CJ that went completely unresolved. 

 

 

You’re welcome!!! I did the same for the most part although Linda’s murder on Knots left me in the cold for a good while there. I finally caught up on everything LA Law when it used to be rerun constantly on A&E.

Rosenberg fit in decently and was something fun, but Mazar was obviously too NYC for the show (Mazar to me always has had limited range but that’s another story). The show also tried pushing a a naive fundamentalist Christian character this season but flopped as the actress was terrible.

[DRW50]

Thanks @soapfan770 . That may also be why I never saw Kelley's charms. I remember her joining Sisters but by that point I was DONE with that show due to the wrecking ball done to Georgie and her family. I agree with you about Debi Mazar - I know she's mentioned some roles she turned down that could have helped her, but I think that while she's a striking presence, she never was going to be a lot beyond what she was. Yes, the lesbian kiss was such an obvious stunt, and the show wasted Amanda Donohoe so badly - she truly lit up the screen at times. I can't even remember if she had an exit. Or what Abby's exit was either. 

I do remember liking Conchata more than Tucker did. A few years before she passed she was interviewed by AV Club and seemed hurt by being fired, and then having to go to the Emmys as a nominee after being fired.

Edited June 22, 2024 by DRW50

[j swift]

40 years later, I just realized how dumb the core concept of the show was. 

Why would a law firm in a large city contain criminal defense attorneys, civil litigants, entertainment contract specialists, and divorce lawyers?  The idea of a big firm is that they share costs and split revenue.  So, wouldn't Arnie, who was doing a two-day divorce hearing on his own, get screwed by the cost of Kuzak's seven-week criminal trial with several paid experts? And why would a lawyer negotiating a multimillion dollar film contract want to share fees with someone taking a pro bono custody case.  

That wouldn't happen in Podunk or LA.  It's one of those things that I took for granted when I watched it, and then on further inspection, it doesn't make sense. 

Edited June 22, 2024 by j swift