TVSquad

It's looking like David E. Kelley's plan is to have at least one of his legal shows on the air at all times.

The producer/writer is now pitching a new legal drama series to the networks. CBS and NBC are particularly interested. No word on whether or not ABC is interested in the new show, which would be odd since they've had some success with one of Kelley's other legal shows, Boston Legal, which is ending after this season.

To refresh your memory, here are the other legal shows that Kelley has created, written, and/or produced over the years: Ally McBeal, The Practice, The Law Firm, Girls Club, and L.A. Law. Actually, even some of his non-law shows have had strong law elements, including Picket Fences.

Kelley was working on the American version of Life On Mars, which premieres on ABC later this month, but left after the pilot. The show is getting good buzz so far.

After more than twenty years at 20th Century Fox TV, Emmy-winning writer-producer David E. Kelley is packing his bags.

One of the longest and most succesful collaborations in television history is coming to an end as Kelley announced that he is entering into a three-year partnership with Warner Bros. TV.

(S04E20) "Shirley, it was good that we oppose." - Carl Sack leaving himself wide open.

Shatner and Spader's celebratory dance upon learning they were accepted into the Coast Guard may have been the best acting I have seen out of the two of them all season.

When I read the synopsis of the season finale I really didn't know what to think. At first glance, of course, the idea of one city seceding from the United States seems ridiculous. However, this being Boston Legal I knew there had to be more to it.

Last week, it was Men in Trees. Now the end has officially come for another ABC drama series. ABC has confirmed that October Road is over. The long and winding road is no more, so to speak. ABC has no room in the fall lineup, apparently, and a plan to move October Road and Men in Trees to Lifetime never panned out. So all the die-hard fans who've been writing the network and crafting petitions can give it up. No amount of peanuts or blood drives -- oh, wait, that was Jericho and Moonlight. The Roadies had a different tack; buy the DVD, donate it to a library to get more people watching and writing to ABC. Despite the sincere efforts, the network still chose to end the road and move on to a newer, different show.

I don't know if this is good news or bad... David E. Kelley may be checking out of Life on Mars, the ABC pilot based on the hit BBC crime/time travel drama. According to Variety, the prolific Mr. Kelley -- Boston Legal, L.A. Law, Picket Fences, Ally MacBeal, The Practice, Chicago Hope, etc. -- is unhappy with the financial arrangements and if things aren't worked out, he's going to move on.

Life on Mars was a terrific show. The UK version has played on BBC America, starring John Simm and Philip Glenister. Following the British model, the series lasted just two years -- 16 episodes total. In the ABC pilot, which Thomas Schlamme directed, Jason O'Mara (Men in Trees) is playing Simm's role, Sam; Colm Meaney (Star Trek: The Next Generation) is Gene. Kelley wrote the American variation on the story of Sam Tyler, a police detective in present day who awakens from a car crash to find he's living in 1973. Has he really gone back in time or is it all in his head?

(S04E05) "It's not everyday you encounter compelling characters, is it?" - Patrice Kelly

There's been a lot of talk about the rhetoric that Boston Legal has concerned itself with lately. It seems a lot of you have an opinion on the political views taken by the show. In an effort to "reach across the aisle" let me point out something that I'm sure we can all agree on...Boston Legal has some of the most original storylines on TV.

Personally, I am hard pressed to think of any show wherein a character asks one of the stars to advise her on how to be found "not guilty by reason of temporary insanity" before committing the murder. This episode had me on the edge of my seat from the very first scene.

Well, if he couldn't be a noir-ish private eye maybe he'll have better luck as a confused, time-traveling cop.

Irish actor Jason O'Mara has been cast in the lead role in the American remake of the British series Life On Mars. The show is being produced by David E. Kelley (L.A. Law, Picket Fences, Ally McBeal, etc). The show will start production in mid August and could be ready as a midseason replacement on ABC.

It won Emmys for the best dramatic series, best dramatic actor and best dramatic actress. Right out of the box. In season one.

Nearly 15 years ago.

So how does the first season of the controversial Picket Fences stand up to time, in its new DVD collection? After watching the pilot episode, seeing all those shoulder pads, hearing the heavy-handed background music during some of the scenes and watching "tough" police interrogations in the form of raised voices, my initial thought was, "Picket Fences didn't age well."

Then I watched more episodes. And changed my mind.

Remember all that stuff about Six Degrees coming back? Never mind! ABC has pulled the show yet again. The show returned recently on Friday nights (which was a big surprise in itself), but almost no one watched. The show got terrible ratings. The move takes effect immediately. Something tells me this isn't a good sign for a second season.

So we have The Black Donnellys being pulled in favor of a reality show (The Real Wedding Crashers), and you're probably wondering what will replace Six Degrees in the time slot? That's right, a reality show! But this one is even more hard to take: they're replacing it with reruns of Wife Swap. Gah!

In other shows-going-on-hiatus news, David E. Kelley's The Wedding Bells has stopped production, though the remaining episodes will probably air. But don't hold your breath for a renewal.

Hot on the heels of The Onion's list of title sequences that are perfectly meshed with their shows comes this story from the Christian Science Monitor, detailing what goes into creating the all-too-brief title sequences you see on today's shows. Believe it or not, there are still some shows that have title sequences, even though most of them are a minute or less. This article goes into detail about the creation of title sequences for two shows: the new David E. Kelley dramedy The Wedding Bells and Marc Cherry's hit Desperate Housewives.

The detail Garson Yu, who designed the Housewives sequence, goes into about how he created the mini-movie for the opening makes for an interesting read. It is filled with desperate women through the centruies, makes for an interesting read. He took inspiration from Terry Gilliam's animation from Monty Python's Flying Circus, among other influences, and wanted to tell a story about these desperate women. The results, as millions of you see every week, are in the video after the jump.

American Idol appears to be the "show-that-can't-be-stopped." At last week's Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, executives referred to it as the "Death Star" because it consistently destroys the competiton. And few expected that Amercan Idol, now in its six season, would not only maintain its monstrous ratings -- but continue to grow.

It's no wonder then that Fox executives are planning on scheduling at least 45 hours of Idol -- and possibly more -- to take full advantage of their ratings powerhouse.

Because the man didn't have enough to do with a sci-fi and legal drama in development, the hardest working man in showbiz will be producing The Wedding Store, an hour-long dramedy for Fox set to premiere mid-season. Along with Tim Minear's Drive, the two series represent Fox's big Spring offerings.

The show has a strange, but not unfamiliar history, to Hollywood watchers. The series is based on a similarly-themed 2004 pilot project that Kelley and co-producer Jason Katims, now the showrunner for Friday Night Lights, developed for ABC called DeMarco Affairs and a Fox project that was in the process of being redeveloped. That project was entitled The Wedding Album. The amalgamation we'll be seeing on TV this Spring is described by Kelley as "a romantic comedy about a group of wedding planners dedicated to having their clients live happily ever after, or at least until they get to the parking lot."

The wedding industry has never been more ripe for satire than now. Let's hope the great premise ends in great results.

It doesn't get the best ratings on television, but it's a good show and has buzz, so ABC is giving Boston Legal a third season. Creator and writer David E. Kelley has another show coming up on ABC too, next year, titled Life On Mars.

You know, I've never seen one episode of Boston Legal, even though I watched a few eps of The Practice (until it got a little silly), I'm from the Boston area, and I'm a big fan of both James Spader and William Shatner. Weird.