Let's begin...

Boston Legal, ABC
IMDb; TV Tome

This is a spin-off of The Practice (see lower this page), which I haven't watched in years. But I'm watching this, another show about a Boston law firm (Crane, Poole, and Schmidt), because I generally like creator David E. Kelley's shows, and because there are some familiar actors, including Mark Valley from Keen Eddie (see shows that didn't last long enough), though he doesn't seem to get to do much on this show; Rene Auberjonois from Deep Space Nine, in a minor if reasonably important recurring role; and most importantly, William Shatner (see Star Trek) as Denny Crane, who is certainly a most important and interesting character- one of the senior partners in the firm's name, and a really great lawyer, though he has a huge ego, while simultaneously worries that he may not be as good as he used to be. My favorite character is Alan Shore, who's rather funny and clever, even if I don't always like the guy- though he does grow on you. I guess he was on the Practice, but that was long after I stopped watching. Denny and Alan seem to be pretty good friends, and certainly get along better with each other than with anyone else. And eventually Candice Bergen joined the show, as Shirley Schmidt, another of the senior partners in the firm. I wish I could tell you about some of the other lawyers on this show, but I don't really care much about them, yet. Dunno what else to tell you. Just there's some interesting cases and stuff. It can be both quite amusing and quite serious and interesting. I'm sure it deserves to be on a higher tier, but... it's not something I care about watching on a regular basis. I might watch regularly... but it's not something I generally mind if I miss a few episodes.

The Practice, ABC
IMDb; TV Tome; TWoP

A clever and engaging lawyer show set in Boston with some interesting characters and stories and stuff. But I haven't watched it in quite awhile, though I used to quite like it. We definitely like Lindsay. I'm rather sorry I fell out of the habit of watching it, and I understand there were plenty of cast changes after I stopped watching, so there's alot I don't know about. (A couple of later characters I never saw on the show eventually spun off onto Boston Legal (see higher this page). Ah, well. I'd say a great deal more, including stuff about some of the characters, except that I stopped watching long before I started this whole TV reference project, and now I don't remember enough and can't muster enough interest to care. But while I was watching, I'm sure I would've put it on a higher tier. It really was quite interesting....