James Spader
John Larroquette
Christian Clemenson
Gary Anthony Williams
Tara Summers
Saffron Burrows
Candice Bergen
William Shatner

Boston Legal is an American legal drama created by David E. Kelley that has aired since October 3rd, 2004. It is a spin-off of the long-running legal drama The Practice and follows the professional and personal lives of attorneys at the law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt.

The 90-minute fourth season premiere of Boston Legal will air on September 25, 2007 on ABC.

History
Before the show's premiere, it had a working title of Fleet Street, an allusion to the real street in Boston where the fictitious Crane, Poole & Schmidt had its offices. The working title was later modified to The Practice: Fleet Street, but this title was dropped in favor of Boston Legal before the show premiered.

Most of the final episodes of The Practice were focused on introducing the new characters from Crane, Poole & Schmidt in preparation for Boston Legal's launch. Thus, the story of Boston Legal can be said to begin with the episode of The Practice in which Eugene Young and Jimmy Berluti of Young, Frutt & Berluti decided to fire Alan Shore without consulting Ellenor Frutt, beginning a story arc of several episodes. They give Alan a severance package of only fifteen thousand dollars, even though Alan has brought in over six million dollars of revenue to the firm. Tara Wilson gets fired for her loyalty to Alan, and Alan goes to Crane, Poole & Schmidt to represent himself in the matter, thinking he has a claim under Massachusetts law to take over Young, Frutt & Berluti. Denny Crane, senior and founding partner of Crane, Poole & Schmidt, takes an interest in the case and even argues at the trial, cross-examining Young. During this period, Ellenor also has a run-in with Hannah Rose (Rebecca DeMornay), a partner at Crane Poole, who Ellenor ends up seriously injuring when they get into a fight due to Hannah's condescending remarks to Ellenor. However, Hannah Rose did not make the transition to the new series and the character was dropped prior to the pilot being filmed.

The jury awards Alan the millions of dollars of revenue he brought in to Young, Frutt & Berluti but does not order the firm to rehire him, so Denny hires Alan at his firm. After Young is appointed a judge, his first case (in the final episode of The Practice) happens to be with Alan for the defense, making Young wonder if Alan judge-shopped (this opens the door for Steve Harris to guest-star on Boston Legal as a judge, although to date no Practice characters have made guest appearances on Boston Legal).

Even with all this preparation, the official premiere episode for Boston Legal does introduce new characters, such as senior partner Paul Lewiston (Rene Auberjonois, in a role different from his tenure as a hapless judge on The Practice), and junior partners Lori Colson (Monica Potter) and Brad Chase (Mark Valley). The premiere also introduced a new set and a recurring cameo role by Al Sharpton as himself.

In the second season premiere, Anthony Heald reprised his role as a California judge, Judge Cooper, on The Practice (it is rare for an actor in David E. Kelley's shows to repeat a guest role from an earlier show as the same character, but not uncommon for a David E. Kelley star to appear in another Kelley show as a different character). Throughout the early episodes of the second season both Monica Potter and Rhona Mitra were written out of the show, replaced by the newly introduced Julie Bowen as Denise Bauer a tough, experienced senior associate determined to make partner, Ryan Michelle Bathe as Sara Holt and Justin Mentell as Garret Wells, both these cast members were let go by the middle of the season.

The second episode of Season 3 introduced Craig Bierko as Jeffrey Coho and Constance Zimmer as Claire Simms. In episode 3x11 Gary Anthony Williams was added to the main cast as Clarence Bell, a role he had played twice earlier in the season, also introduced in this episode was Nia Long as Vanessa Walker, in a guest role that lasted 3 episodes. In the 15th episode of the third season Craig Bierko left the show.

On June 4, 2007, it was announced by TV Guide that Rene Auberjonois, Julie Bowen, Mark Valley and Constance Zimmer would not be returning for the fourth season.[1] On June 13, 2007, it was reported that actor John Larroquette would join the cast as a senior partner transferred from the New York offices of Crane, Poole & Schmidt; and actress Tara Summers would be joining as a young associate. Also Christian Clemenson, who appeared occasionally as Jerry Espensen, a brilliant but socially inept lawyer, would be upgraded to contract player;[2]. (Note that Larroquette previously appeared on BL forerunner The Practice as another character, a hyper-intelligent man on trial for killing his gay lover; this role earned Larroquette an Emmy Award.) Rene Auberjonois, Mark Valley, Julie Bowen, and Constance Zimmer may return in guest roles.[3] On July 2, 2007 it was reported [4] that both Rene Auberjonois and Mark Valley would return in recurring roles, furthermore it was announced that Taraji P. Henson would join the cast later in the fourth season, with Saffron Burrows appearing in a recurring role. It was subsequently reported [5] that Burrows would become a full-time cast member.

On July 19, 2007, Boston Legal was nominated for six Emmy awards, including Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series (James Spader), Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (William Shatner), and its first nomination for Best Drama Series in three years. On September 14, 2007, James Spader won the Emmy for his role as the lead character in the show, whilst nominations were lost for William Shatner and Christian Clemenson in their roles for Supporting and Guest Actors, respectively. Also, the show itself lost as Best Drama Series to The Sopranos.