"The Practice" ends tonight?

I don't think it is the end. They did announce one of the players will leave the show, but did not name her/him.

The head of the law firm has left the show ( I guess !).

For some reason, I'm gettting the idea that David Kelley has run out of steam and this might account for the course the show has taken.

I hope the show comes back in the Fall. I love it!

On the morning news the fate of the show is open to question.

I'm afraid it's dead.

The Practice will reclaim its place at Sunday night when the new season begins. Dragnet moves to Saturday. I don't know what takes The Practice's current spot.

Good to see The Practice come back to Sunday nights.

6 cast members, including Dylan McDermont, have been dropped from the show.

I saw the new show. The new characters take it in a different direction.

It wasn't terrible, but for some reason I feel the show has run out of steam and lacks something. If the new characters can happen upon some compelling moral dilemmas, it might work.

Believe it or not, my favorite character is Jimmy, the underdog who by hard work frequently rises to the occasion. So far, not enough Jimmy.

I saw Sundays nov 23rd show with david spader,
I think it was the best "practice" of all time, this guy is great, 10 times better than mcdermont,
I think they have a bigger hit with the new guy than anyone ever imagined.
In the show, Jimmy doesn't like him, I'll bet he also doesn't like him in real life, you just get that feeling, after all, Spader (the new guy) did come in and practically take over the show.
I love the new show much better, and I really liked the old show.

I don't really like the new guy. Much too devious and under the table.

Two seasons ago, The Practice was slipping because Law & Order, Criminal Intent was the becoming the big hourlong drama show on Sunday nights. So they moved The Practice over to another night.

It was a ratings disaster for the show.

The production company, (that is, David Kelley), cut salaries. McDermott and Kelli Williams were getting high popularity ratings, and figured they could hold out for more money.

When they left, they figured the show would fold. In most cases, that is what happens.

David Kelley decided to let the higher paid actors go and change the show around. So essentially, Spader was brought in to save the show.

Without Spader's super slick character, there probably would be no Practice, since the network probably figured that the remaining actors could not continue alone.

So I would say the Jimmy likes Spader in real life, since he was was brought on to save the show. As far as taking everything over, well, they had to introduce the main character, didn't they? Basically, Spader is replacing both McDermott and Kelli Williams, whose onscreen relationship had begun to dominate the show.

Besides, Jimmy is shaping up as Spader's main antagonist on the show. Thre is an excellent chance his role will expand if the show is a success.

Incidentally, I have Seen Spader around in movies, etc. He seems to specialize in exactly the kind of character he plays on The Practice-smile to your face while he sticks the knife in. The Practice seems determined to add a redeeming side to him, though.

kelticwizard, I wouldn't be so sure about Jimmy liking the idea of the producers taking on Spader just to save the show and leave him still playing second and third fiddle. his parts have become much smaller since and he has to feel neglcted.

I remember seeing a docu on the Dick Van Dyke show, Rose Marie was cast as the leading lady, that was untill they brought in MTM, the show was a huge success largely in part of the relationship between Laura and Rob.

Rose Marie admitted on the program that she was jealous and was never close to MTM because of that,
it's not only about the money or success of the show that matters with these people, we all know that actors have egos that are huge,

jimmy has been on the show for a very long time and to take a back seat to a new person is a strain on that ego.

I think the show has already shown his [spader] redeeming side, they are portraying him as a 21st century robin hood where in the last show he extorted 8 million dollars out of the insurance company that was playing hard ball with his client, a women that lost her husband to a drug that caused him to kill himself, he gave her the money [after his cut] and told her to take care of her kids, I loved that show.

Dakota:

I remember hearing on the radio that Carl Reiner was supposed to be the lead actor in what was actually to become The Dick Van Dyke Show. Sometime before filming started, there was a change and Reiner was no longer the lead. I heard this on the radio which devoted a whole day to the Dick Van Dyke Show.

The producer, (or was it writer?), of the showed laughed as he recounted the furious rewriting of the episodes to accommodate the change. "You can't take an episode written to star a New York Jew, substitute an Iowa Baptist and not do a lot of rewriting", he said.

I think Carl Reiner is somewhat older than Dick Van Dyke, and Rose Marie definitely looked older than Dick Van Dyke as well. I'm guessing that Rose Marie was supposed to be Carl Reiner's wife, and when Dick Van Dyke was brought in, she had to be moved to a supporting role since she just would have been too old for Van Dyke.
http://www.tvland.com/shows/dvd/actor5.jhtml

Rose Marie resented being cast for the lead and ending up in a supporting role, but she probably thought that Reiner would have been a hit as well, what with the same writers.

Her situation is different from Michael Badalucco's, (Jimmy).

First, although Jimmy is not featured in the first couple of episodes, the antagonism between him and Spader's character is being emphasized and it sure looks like there is an upcoming story, no doubt spread over several episodes, that deals with this obvious, palpable dislike.The writers wouldn't place such emphasis if they didn't plan something.

Second, Jimmy seemed to be the least of the characters when the show began, mostly meant for comic relief, but he played his character so well that he moved into equal status with the others. Although he is my favorite on the show, I don't see a lot of mention of him on various talk shows, etc. I did of some others. Badalucco is not a "hot" actor.

I remember him from a Rosie O'Donnell show I chanced across. A few years before The Practice, Rosie pointed out that Badalucco was working at this theater which Rosie played on her way up some years before. Only thing is, Badalucco was not a performer-he was a stagehand. that was the state of his career a few years before The Practice.

Believe me, Badalucco wants this show to be a success, and Spader is the fellow in charge who can make it happen. One more year on the show equals one more year of syndication rights that Badalucco will be paid for 20 or 30 years down the line. I think Badalucco likes Spader just fine.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/07/17/tem_tvpix17.html

actually kelticwizard, Carl Reiner did film the Dick Van Dyke show that he starred in called "Head of the Family", same characters but a different cast, he could not figure out why the show did so poorly, the writing was good, the acting was good but the show "stunk" according to Sheldon Leonard, who was brought in to try and salvage the show, he told Carl Reiner that the only thing wrong with the show was you, and that he would like to recast the show, Sheldon leonard then came on as executive producer and said he saw a very talented young man [Dick Van Dyke] that had just done bye bye birdie, he sings, he dances, he acts, so they hired him, they then hired Rose Marie, she actually believed she had the lead role playing off dick Van Dyke, but then they found MTM, and the rest is history,

I actually don't know how Jimmy feels, I was just guessing that he felt the same way that Rose Marie felt when she was sort of demoted,

In any event, the dick Van Dyke show was my favorite show of all time, The practice, with David Spader is agreat show and I feel it will do just fine in the ratings and this show will make Spader a bigger star than he's ever been.

Dakota:

The Rose Marie as Carl Reiner's wife was just a guess on my part, since I heard that he was planned for the role.

Funny, when I first heard the radio show and the insider talking about it, I distinctly got the impression that this was a last minute switch. Reading that website I linked and your post, I now realize that it was well planned in advance.

I might start a thread on the Dick Van Dyke Show, but I will float this out: I think that Rose Marie-at least as shw played her supporting character, would not have made the show as popular as Mary Tyler Moore. Even though Rose Marie played her supporting part perfectly.

Why?

In my opinion, the Dick Van Dyke Show was the first Lifestyle Sitcom. Before that, most sitcoms were left over from vaudeville, and the jokes came fast and snappy.

Dick Van Dyke is the first sitcom where the audience tuned in because they wanted to BE the characters. It didn't have to be that laugh-a-minute funny. It was funny, but people identified with the main characters so much it didn't even have to be.

At the time of Dick Van Dyke, America was undergoing a profound change-the suburbs. Most people lived in towns and cities before WWII, after WWII everybody took their GI Bill money and bought a house in the suburbs. By 1960, the trend had become so pronounced that a new class of people emerged. I was too young to partake at the time, but all the magazines were talking about 'young moderns" or "young marrieds".

These were largely the folks who moved into the suburban houses, many of whom had never lived in their own house before. A lifestyle of barbecues, and all the rest ensued. "The neighbors" meant the people living 50 feet away next door-not the people in the apratments above and around you in the apartment building. Instead of urban ethnic neighborhoods, with people speaking foreigh languages on the street and in the stores, these people did things "the modern way".

Rose Marie was a sassy, wisecracking women of a city type. It is easy to see her going back to an apartement with a city type.

Mary Tyler Moore was so the perfect smart, chic-but-practical suburban wife. She doesn't work-but she could if she wanted. It is easy to imagine here throwing big parties in the back yard. In her relationship with Dick, she didn't get combative, but spoke her mind directly.

Rose Mrie was a delightful city girl of the 1940's mode, Mary Tyler Moore was the perfect heroine for the just emerging suburban mother. If you look at the show, Mary Tyler Moore rarely said anything really funny-buit she seems so completely indispensable.

The Dick Van Dyke Show was the first Lifestyle Sitcom. It was funny besides-but the appeal was that the title couple represented something the audience liked and wanted to be-and which were nowhere else to ge found on TV.

A later very successful sitcom, not super funny but successful, is Friends. Six people in Manhattan in their twenties-an exciting part of their lives. The people who watch are more drawn to that, I think, than the plots and dialog, which are ordinary at best. It is the setting and age of the characters that are it's appeal.

Your thoughts?

kelticwizard, good observation, I watched the bio on the show, they interviewed some of the writers of the show such as Gerry Belson, Gary marshall and others, they said that they were all told by Carl Reiner not to write jokes, but tell the truth, tell what you know to be embarassing moments, stupid things that really happened, stories from their own experiences, that's how the audience was able to identify with the show in many cases.
When Laura and Rob dressed in the show, they were the best looking couple in the world, they were so classy, so beautiful, they lit up that show like no one else has ever done.
you're right, Rose Marie could have never carried that show, however, (in her own words) she was still jealous, MTM said that the relationship was "colored" because of the tension between her and Rose Marie, but, it was MTM and DVD that made the show.

Just thought I would throw this in. "The Practice" morphed into Boston Legal starring James Spader. It starts at 10 PM tonight on ABC, (about an hour and a half from now).

"The Practice" fans would want to watch, I think.

Prediction: Michael Badalucco, (Jimmy), becomes a recurring guest, and beats beats Spader in court for big bucks in a case. Jimmy is just too much the perfect opposite of Alan Shore not to have it happen.