There`s an old saying known to creative writers struggling to concoct powerful storytelling: Write what you know.
Earl Hamner Jr. did it in the early 1970s, exploring his rural Virginia roots in the long-running hit series ”The Waltons.” Gary David Goldberg started off the new fall television season by looking back on his heart-warming childhood on ”Brooklyn Bridge.” And William M. Finkelstein is thumbing through old legal briefs and recalling his parents` lawyerly, dispassionate accounts of marital warfare around the dinner table for ABC`s
”Civil Wars.”
In a clear case of art imitating life, the weekly dramatic series-moving this week to 9 p.m. Tuesdays on WLS-Ch. 7-centers on a small Manhattan law firm where the two partners specialize in matrimonial law. As series creator and executive producer, Finkelstein-a veteran of ”L.A. Law”-is himself a former New York City attorney who grew up watching his parents-both matrimonial lawyers-go to bat for clients terminating ruined marriages.
”I probably absorbed more than I knew,” said Finkelstein. ”I knew a lot of big words from a very early age.”
The 38-year-old graduate of Brooklyn Law School practiced law for several years at the family-owned law firm and personally handled a number of divorce cases. ”I liked the writing part,” said Finkelstein, sitting in his comfortable, sun-dappled office at 20th Century Fox Studios, ”but there was stuff that I found tough to take. The human aspect used to be a little daunting.”
Finkelstein stops, shaking his head at the memory. ”I think divorce law for a lot of lawyers was viewed as a bit unseemly. My experience is that these are decent people. But I don`t know if what they do is considered a step up or a step down from personal injury law.”
Whatever their position on the legal food chain, the referees for matrimonial bloodbaths have already proven a rich vein for dramatic storytelling. As supervising producer on ”L.A. Law,” Finkelstein helped breathe life into ethically-challenged divorce lawyer Arnold Becker. But a major frustration for the writers was that the story lines were narrowly limited by California`s no-fault divorce laws.
”New York is a fault state,” said Finkelstein, explaining the shift of
”Civil Wars” to the East Coast. ”And that means you can go into court and litigate all that stuff that with Becker we could never litigate:
adultery, abandonment, cruelty. Even small events assume great significance when two people are married to one another.”
Finkelstein`s mother, Miriam Robinson-who has practiced matrimonial law for more than four decades-agrees. ”There is much more human emotion in the family law sector,” she said. ”There is nowhere that feelings run higher than between two people who no longer want to live together.”
To maintain authenticity and keep up-to-date with New York law, Robinson- along with one of her partners, Jeff Liddle-acts as technical adviser to
”Civil Wars.” The two are on the payroll to back-stop producers on the smallest details.
”Billy will call me up and say, `What do jurors” buttons (the lapel pins used to identify jurors) in the New York Supreme Court look like?` Or,
`What does a prenuptial agreement look like?”` said Robinson.
The producers overnight copies of each new script to Robinson and Liddle, who check them for accuracy and fax their comments back to Los Angeles. Such is the cache of Hollywood that Robinson says that despite her 42 years of legal experience, she is now known in the New York courts as ”Bill Finkelstein`s mom.”
”I had very mixed emotions about the show when Bill first told me about it,” said Robinson. ”I said that No. 1, I didn`t want to be a prototype. But I am happy to report that the whole experience has been very positive.”
Finkelstein`s father, Samuel, was more concerned that his son create a series that would serve him as well as ”L.A. Law.” ”To blaze new trails was something fraught with imponderables,” said Samuel Finkelstein. ”But when he told me about `Civil Wars,` I thought it was a natural for him. He wouldn`t have to plow through unfamiliar territory.”
”I never felt as if I wanted the protagonists in the show (played by Mariel Hemingway and Peter Onorati) to be like my parents,” said Finkelstein. ”But in sitting down to write the thing, I got comfortable very fast. What we`re doing is extracting from real life.”
Or perhaps portraying a life that might have been. ”Whether he admits it or not,” said Onorati, taking a quick break from an intense courtroom scene, ”it is my opinion that I am Bill`s alter ego on screen: what he would`ve been had he stayed with the law. It`s really funny-to the point where there are things that I want to wear in wardrobe that he won`t let me wear because he probably wouldn`t have worn them.”
”It brings such credibility to what we`re doing,” said co-star Hemingway, waiting for her makeup artist to arrive at an outdoor trailer. ”By virtue of Bill`s having that kind of expertise behind him and around him, inevitably we`re going to be doing better work. The clarity and the truth just comes through. I never question our stories as they come in because of that.” Finkelstein left real-life courtroom drama behind in 1987 after a play he had written-not surprisingly, about a divorce settlement-came to the attention of Hollywood heavyweight producer Steven Bochco. Finkelstein had been writing seriously-short stories, poetry, plays and even a novel-since the age of 18.
Onorati isn`t at all surprised that Finkelstein left the world of torts and civil procedures behind. ”If he was a lawyer, he was a sick lawyer,”
said Onorati, laughing. ”I know because of the great stuff that he`s written for me.”
Robinson said she knew early on that her son`s days at the family-owned law firm were numbered. ”Friends would tell me: This is not his calling. Billy really wants to write.”
Finkelstein senior-who had edited a book during World War II-said he worried about his son`s ability to make a living in a creative field. ”I was ambivalent about it-and sorry to see him go because I love him. But once he made the decision and Hollywood beckoned, I knew he could make it far more remunerative that I ever could.”
And more public. New York lawyers are apparently not at all shy about expressing their opinions on ”Civil Wars.” The courtroom hallways are rife with morning-after comments. But Finkelstein knows his parents can handle it- and then some. ”If they catch wind of somebody saying some less than complementary remarks about the show, they hunt them down,” he said, laughing. ”They don`t believe in each to his own.”
Finkelstein reverts to New York street slang: ”They want to know who don`t like the show and they want names.”
”I think it`s extraordinary to have a situation where you are actively involved with your family,” said Hemingway, sounding genuinely envious.
”Usually, you fly the coop and nobody`s involved in anything anybody else is doing. It`s really kind of wonderful that (Finkelstein) can bridge the entertainment field with reality.”
But isn`t the notoriety something of a two-edged sword? ”Oh, yes,” said Samuel Finkelstein. ”I remember one day I appeared late at a trial and the judge said-in front of everybody-`Finkelstein, on ”L.A. Law” do they come in at any time at all?` It was so embarrassing.”
