the practice

The Practice was an American legal drama created by David E. Kelley centering on the partners and associates at a Boston, Massachusetts law firm. The show won the Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Best Drama Series, and spawned the spin-off series Boston Legal, which began airing in the fall of 2004 and deals with similar subject matter, though often taking a lighter, more character-oriented approach.

The first seven seasons of the show aired in Britain on ITV3.

The Practice originally focuses on the law firm of Donnell and Associates (which eventually becomes Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt, and finally Young, Frutt and Berluti), featuring the firm's involvement in a number of high-profile criminal and civil cases that often mirror events unfolding in the real world. There are a number of crossovers with other David E. Kelley shows, including Boston Legal, Ally McBeal and the short-lived medical drama Gideon's Crossing, but The Practice is overall one of David E. Kelley's more serious shows, lacking the comedic elements of McBeal, Legal and others.

When the show began it starred Dylan McDermott, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Steve Harris, Camryn Manheim and Kelli Williams (With the exception of McDermott, all cast members had previously appeared on Law & Order). Part way through season one Michael Badalucco joined the cast and at the beginning of the second season Lara Flynn Boyle joined as Helen Gamble, a role she played for six seasons.

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, six cast members were fired: Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Chyler Leigh, Marla Sokoloff, and Lisa Gay Hamilton. The addition of James Spader and Rhona Mitra to the cast for the eighth season helped to revive the ratings somewhat. In fact, Spader went on to win an Emmy for his one season on the show. However, on March 11, 2004, ABC announced that it would not renew the series for a ninth season, but that Kelley would instead create the new spin-off series Boston Legal, starring Spader, Mitra and William Shatner.


**wikipedia.org