The Practice


The Practice is an American legal drama created by David E. Kelley centering on the partners and associates at a Boston law firm. Running for eight seasons on ABC from March 4, 1997 to May 16, 2004, the show won the Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Best Drama Series, and spawned the spin-off series Boston Legal, which ran for five more seasons, from 2004 to 2008.
Conflict between legal ethics and personal morality was a recurring theme with light comedy being occasionally present. Kelley claimed that he conceived the show as something of a rebuttal to L.A. Law and its romanticized treatment of the American legal system and legal proceedings.

Overview

In Season 1, Robert Donnell and Associates features Bobby Donnell as the sole senior partner, Ellenor Frutt, Eugene Young, and Lindsay Dole as his associates, and Rebecca Washington as the firm's receptionist. Later, Jimmy Berluti is hired as an associate.
In Season 2, Robert Donnell and Associates becomes Donnell, Young, Dole, and Frutt after Eugene, Lindsay, and Ellenor become partners. Assistant district attorney Helen Gamble becomes regularly entangled in the cases and personal lives of the employees of Donnell, Young, Dole, and Frutt.
In Season 3, Rebecca Washington, who had been attending law school in secret, becomes an associate after passing the bar exam. Lucy Hatcher is then hired as the new receptionist.
In Season 4, assistant district attorney Richard Bay, like Helen, becomes a frequent ally and opponent of Donnell, Young, Dole, and Frutt.
In Season 5, Lucy becomes a rape crisis counselor in addition to her job as the firm's receptionist. Richard is later assassinated after refusing to throw a murder trial.
In Season 6, assistant district attorney Alan Lowe becomes another antagonist against the firm for a short period of time.
In Season 7, Lindsay leaves Donnell, Young, Dole, and Frutt to start a new law firm with Claire Wyatt. Donnell, Young, Dole, and Frutt is then renamed to Donnell, Young, and Frutt. To fill in the void left by Lindsay, Jamie Stringer is hired as an associate. Bobby later leaves the firm.
In Season 8, Donnell, Young, and Frutt has been renamed once again to Young, Frutt, and Berluti. Eugene has taken Bobby's place as a senior partner, Lucy has left the firm to become a full-time rape crisis counselor, Rebecca has also left the firm for unknown reasons, and Helen is no longer present at the firm's cases. Tara Wilson is hired as a paralegal and Alan Shore becomes an associate. After firing Alan and Tara as well as being sued by the former, Young, Frutt, and Berluti dissolves. Eugene then becomes a judge, Ellenor focuses her attention on motherhood, Jimmy and Jamie begin a new firm, and Alan and Tara are hired by another firm known as Crane, Poole, and Schmidt.

Main cast

The series holds the Emmy Award record for most wins in the Guest Actor and Actress categories for a single series, as well as most nominations in those categories. Emmys went to John Larroquette, Edward Herrmann, James Whitmore, Beah Richards, Michael Emerson, Charles S. Dutton, Alfre Woodard, Sharon Stone, and William Shatner. In addition, Tony Danza, Paul Dooley, Henry Winkler, Marlee Matlin, René Auberjonois, and Betty White were nominated but did not win. Larroquette, who won for his guest appearance during the second season, was nominated again for an episode from the sixth season, but did not win. The series won the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for five consecutive years.
By the end of the seventh season, faced with sagging ratings, ABC conditioned the show's renewal on a drastic budget reduction. As a result, Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Chyler Leigh, Marla Sokoloff, and LisaGay Hamilton were fired as regulars with McDermott and Sokoloff reappearing as a special guest star and a recurring character respectively in the eighth season. The addition of James Spader and Rhona Mitra to the cast somewhat revived the ratings as Spader went on to win an Emmy for his appearance. However, on March 11, 2004, ABC announced that The Practice would not return for a ninth season; rather, Kelley would create a new spin-off series Boston Legal, starring Spader, Mitra, Lake Bell and William Shatner.

Episodes

The Practice had 8 seasons and a total of 168 episodes.

Crossovers

Additionally, Bobby Donnell appears in the Ally McBeal season 1 finale "These Are the Days", while Lara Flynn Boyle and Michael Badalucco each make cameos in "Making Spirits Bright" and "I Know Him by Heart".

Home media

The Practice, Volume 1, was released as a Four-Disc DVD Set in North America on June 12, 2007. The set includes all six episodes of season 1 and the first seven episodes of season 2. It also includes a featurette, "Setting Up The Practice".
The set was also released in Region 4 on June 6, 2007 and in Region 2 on June 29, 2008.
On January 3, 2014, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1 and would release the final season on DVD on April 15, 2014.
In 2012, Medium Rare Entertainment acquired the rights to the series in Region 2 and released "The Practice: The Complete First and Second Seasons" on DVD in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2012.
In 2014, StudioCanal released the first and second seasons over three volumes in Germany with German and English audio. The third, fourth and eighth seasons have also been released in 2016 with plans to release the fifth and sixth at a later date.
On July 1, 2007, Volume 1 was released in Italy and Greece.
In March 2019 all seasons and episodes of The Practice were released on Amazon Prime.
DVD NameEp#Region 1Region 2Region 4
The Practice: Volume 113June 12, 2007June 29, 2008June 6, 2007
The Practice: The Complete First and Second Seasons34February 27, 2012
The Practice: The Complete Third Season23January 21, 2016
The Practice: The Complete Fourth Season22January 21, 2016
The Practice: The Final Season22April 15, 2014April 7, 2016

Broadcast sydication
The series began airing in reruns on Ovation starting in 2019. While the spinoff, Boston Legal has yet to air on the network, The Practice will air on the network by itself.

U.S. television viewership

Viewer numbers per season of The Practice on ABC.
Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. The first two seasons include the household rating. Seasons 4 and 5 reached the top 10 rankings.
SeasonTimeslot
Season PremiereSeason FinaleTV SeasonViewers
Viewer
Rank
1stTuesday 10:00PMMarch 4, 1997April 8, 19971996–19979.2#43
2ndSaturday 10:00PM
'

Monday 10:00PM
September 20, 1997May 11, 19981997–199810.0#82
3rdSunday 10:00PMSeptember 27, 1998May 9, 19991998–199912.7#34
4thSunday 10:00PMSeptember 26, 1999May 21, 20001999–200017.9#8
5thSunday 10:00PMOctober 8, 2000May 13, 20012000–200118.3#9
6thSunday 10:00PMSeptember 23, 2001May 19, 20022001–200212.9#26
7thSunday 10:00PM
'

Monday 9:00PM
September 29, 2002May 5, 20032002–20039.8#55
8thSunday 10:00PMSeptember 28, 2003May 16, 20042003–20049.1#63

The exposure from its January 30, 2000, post-Super Bowl episode plus their weekly lead-in from early 2000 to mid-2001, the then mega-hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, helped the series reach its ratings peak.