We’ve spent a lot of time singing the praises of “Ally McBeal,” and why not? The Fox show is smart, fresh and funny — a gleaming monument that shines against the cookie-cutter skyline of the new season.
But now please direct your attention to ABC Saturday nights, where you’ll find another quality legal drama. It’s called “The Practice” (9 p.m. on WLS-Ch. 7), and while it doesn’t trigger nearly the same buzz as “Ally,” it’s threatening to become the finest hour on television.
“Ally McBeal” (8 p.m. Mondays, WFLD-Ch. 32) and “The Practice” are stablemates of sorts. Both were created by TV mastermind David E. Kelley and both revolve around single attorneys practicing law in Boston. But that’s where the similarities end.
Ally (Calista Flockhart) is in her late 20s. She graduated with honors from Harvard and is just starting her career. Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott), of “The Practice,” is in his mid-30s and heads up a fledgling firm of underdog lawyers.
Ally is a peculiar whirlwind of emotions — a woman groping to figure out life. She’s sexy and smart and can beat the legal briefs off any man. But there are times when she melts into a little whiner.
Bobby is much less spacy, although he did raise some eyebrows earlier this season when he fell hard for a beautiful client accused of murder. It was a big-time screwup, but not in the same league as Ally, who got arrested for assaulting a woman in a grocery store and stealing a tube of spermicidal jelly.
Perry Mason probably would relate more to the idealistic Bobby, who fights stress while struggling to keep his modest firm afloat. While Ally’s prestigious place of employment is all glitz and glamor, Bobby’s offices are drab, cluttered and cramped.
Even their co-workers are wildly different. Ally’s place is full of yuppies with perfect teeth. Bobby’s partners, meanwhile, are all over the map. There’s Eugene, who’s a big, bald black man; Jimmy, an irritating nerd; and Ellenor, a stern, chubby woman with no social life.
“The Practice” doesn’t immerse itself in frivolity as much as “Ally McBeal,” but like any Kelley effort (he also produces “Chicago Hope”), there’s a taste for quirkiness. On one episode, for example, Jimmy defended a man who was fired for looking like a monkey.
But “The Practice” is also a sophisticated show crammed with moments of intense drama. Earlier this season, guest star John Larroquette was brilliant as a caustic, cunning man implicated in the murder of his gay lover.
Alas, “The Practice” is stuck on Saturday, TV’s least-watched night. Although the show is ABC’s best performer in the 9 p.m. time slot in years, it still lags in the Nielsens and usually gets hammered by the idiotic “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
It’s a shame, really, because any Kelley production is worthy of more attention. Watch his shows and it’s hard not to be awed by his writing talent and the flair for unconventional theatrics.
