Just in time for the “Julie and Julia” movie: PBS has been airing marathons of Julia Child reruns on tv and on-line.
ABA Journal’s cover article in the latest issue: “The 25 Greatest Legal TV Shows” — well, I’d quibble with some of their choices.
Some (most, really) on the list were shows that lasted only one or two seasons – not necessarily because they were bad tv shows but because their ratings weren’t very good (“Eli Stone” is an example (although much too recent a show to be on a Top 25 on anyone’s list, in my opinion, frankly); “Murder One” – completely surprised me, since it is barely remembered by most tv viewers – season 1 was a good season, though).
“The Defenders” always ends up on these kinds of legal tv lists, but I was surprised that ABA Journal neglected the obvious bit of trivia about the show: that the junior lawyer was played by Robert Reed, best known for his later role as Mike Brady of “The Brady Bunch.”
Thought it was nice they thought about Rumpole and “Night Court,” and hilarious for the “Harvey Birdman” pick; mildly impressed that they even remembered “JAG” as a legal show.
Not impressed that they included “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order: SVU” (which I’m not even linking) – because as much as lawyers and judges like watching these two shows, both shows are much less about the lawyers than they are about law enforcement. Does L&O: CI even have an ADA on the series anymore?
I liked that they included a little article by Sam Waterston (ok, actually an excerpt of something he contributed to a book on law and tv), wherein he talks about that legal tv wonder, Jack McCoy, and observes how Jack McCoy as DA is getting his comeuppance (yeah, no doubt! He didn’t think his new gig would be so political, plus he has to deal with his own ADAs’ shenanigans – well, Michael Cutter is slightly crazier than McCoy ever was, I think).
Last, but not least: she’s now Justice Sotomayor: