The Practice
| The Practice | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre |
Legal drama Comedy-drama |
| Created by | David E. Kelley |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 168 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
David E. Kelley Bill D'Elia |
| Running time | 44 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
20th Century Fox Television David E. Kelley Productions |
| Distributor | 20th Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | March 4, 1997 – May 16, 2004 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Boston Legal |
| Related shows |
Ally McBeal Boston Public Gideon's Crossing NYPD Blue |
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 1997 to 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.
The Practice focused on the law firm of Robert Donnell and Associates (later becoming Donnell, Young, Dole, & Frutt, and ultimately Young, Frutt, & Berluti). Plots typically featured the firm's involvement in various high-profile criminal and civil cases that often mirror current events. Conflict between legal ethics and personal morality was a recurring theme. Some episodes contained light comedy. Kelley claimed that he conceived the show as something of a rebuttal to L.A. Law (for which he wrote) and its romanticized treatment of the American legal system and legal proceedings.
At the start of the series, attorney Bobby Donnell employs associate attorneys Ellenor Frutt, Eugene Young (who joined Bobby's practice seven years earlier), Lindsay Dole, and receptionist/paralegal Rebecca Washington (with whom Bobby started his practice). By the fourth episode, Bobby's friend Jimmy Berluti is hired as an associate. Before that, Jimmy is an attorney working as a loan officer. When he falsifies loan documents to help Bobby's struggling practice, he loses his job, and Bobby hires him.
Bobby originally opens his practice with idealistic dreams of protecting the innocent; but, during the firm's early days of financial struggle, Bobby quickly learns that drug dealers and other undeniably guilty clients tend to be the ones who provide the business that keep the firm running.
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