Boston Legal

Main characters

• Alan Shore (James Spader) A crooked lawyer with a heart of gold. Blackmail, bribe, disguise, computer hacking are all tools he uses without hesitation. Wherever he works he treats his coworkers with levity and refuses to take himself seriously.
• Tara Wilson (Rhona Mitra) A paralegal at Young, Berluti & Frutt, she graduated from law school in time to go with Alan Shore to Crane, Poole & Schmidt.
• Lori Colson (Monica Potter) A legal assistant and former prosecutor at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. She was attracted to Brad during the first season.
• Brad Chase (Mark Valley) A lawyer who does things by the book, he hates Alan Shore. He served in the Marine Corps and has the ability to defuse bombs.
• Sally Heep (Lake Bell) Associate at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. In the second episode with Shirley Schmidt, Schmidt fired Heep, but Heep promised that this would not be the last of her.
• Paul Lewiston (Rene Auberjonois) Partner and legal advisor of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Unlike Crane and Shore, he generally does things strictly "by the book." He has had several antagonistic run-ins with Crane and Shore over their apparent lack of respect for the law.
• Denny Crane (William Shatner) Founding and Senior partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. He considers himself a legend and loves to say his own name to "sign" his verbal utterances. In one of the final episodes of The Practice he explained that often people don't believe they're in the room with a legend, so he says his own name to let them know it's true. Crane has no problem sleeping with wives of clients and judges.
• Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) Founding and Senior partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. She first appeared in the January 9, 2005 episode. She used to have a romantic relationship with Denny Crane, a past she now views with sardonic detachment, often making jokes about it.
• Denise Bauer (Julie Bowen)
• Garrett Wells (Justin Mentell)
• Sara Holt (Ryan Michelle Bathe)

Crane is portrayed as somewhat of an idiot savant. On a case involving seniors and prescription drug prices, he forgot the details of the case and gave opening statements that caused a mistrial, to his client's benefit. He then finally took seriously Alan Shore's suggestion that he might have Alzheimer's, and went to get tested for it. Late in the first season, he admitted to Shore that he had been taking a type of amphetamine drug to help him focus on trial procedures; he later stopped taking the drug. Now he he thinks he has mad cow disease. - Denny Crane

Related Topics:
Idiot savant - Alzheimer's

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An avid rifleman, Crane claims to be a Marine Corps veteran, but he couldn't remember whether he was a pilot or a sniper in an episode where he shot a man who was threatening to shoot Alan Shore. This scene was particularly amusing, since Crane had Tara open the intervening door by yelling "Pull" (as in Skeet shooting), afterwhich he shot the assailant.

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