Legal Eagle
Just Legal
Just six years ago
Jonathan Shapiro was working as an assistant to the lieutenant governor of California and thinking about running for statewide office. But he underwent a major career shift after he wrote a script for
The Practice and was hired by producer
David E. Kelley. On Sept. 19, Shapiro's own creation,
Just Legal, will premiere on WB. Based on Shapiro's family experiences, the show stars
Jay Baruchel as an 18-year-old prodigy who passes the California bar exam but can't get a job with a decent law firm. He gets his break when he's hired by an ambulance chaser with an alcohol problem (
Don Johnson). The Biz recently spoke with Shapiro about his new show and about how TV may have saved him from a life of unsuccessful political fundraising.
TVGuide.com: Before you got into television, you were counting on having a career in politics.
Jonathan Shapiro: I planned my entire life to run for office. I was a speechwriter for the attorney general of California. In my heart of hearts, I would have served out the full term limit in the state assembly and then run for attorney general. It's funny, because I got so far as to have a political consultant to discuss a campaign committee. I went to some events and I did some fundraising.
TVGuide.com: How did that go?
Shapiro: My political handler noticed that every time I asked people for money, I'd break out into flop sweat like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News. The consultant said, "Yeah I've seen that before. Some people have real trouble asking people for money." I realized I did. I could not comfortably raise money. And as my political consultant told me, every politician needs a good first two minutes. He very sensitively told me that most people didn't like me in my first two minutes. You need to get to know me for at least six years.
TVGuide.com: So was it tough to give up on a career in politics for TV writing?
Shapiro: I had always written; I've been a newspaper reporter. When my wife and I decided that running for office wasn't conducive to having three little kids, on a lark I wrote a script (for The Practice) that got to David E. Kelley. That's the only show I ever interviewed for. If I hadn't walked onto that one, I don't know.
TVGuide.com: How close is Just Legal to the actual experiences of your brother David?
Shapiro: He was about this age. In California, you have to be 18 to practice law. What my brother found was that even though he had done so well, he looked young, and no law firm wants to give a big antitrust case to a guy who looks 12. It was his dream to be a trial lawyer. He's still trying cases.
TVGuide.com: And he really did start out working with a lawyer like the one portrayed by Don Johnson on your show?
Shapiro: For a low-rent lawyer who had a serious drinking problem. David was basically too young to get into L.A. county jail to interview most of their clients. And they met through David's golf caddying.
TVGuide.com: What was it like to grow up with an overachieving brother who was practicing law at such a young age?
Shapiro: When my brother was skipping grades, I was a very slow starter. Back when I was growing up, in the L.A. unified school district, I was in the fifth grade and I asked a woman there, "Why do you test me every year?" She very sensitively said, "Because we think you're mildly retarded." In my family — I'm a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar — my mother continues to refer to me as the "slow son."
TVGuide.com: Your wife, Betsy Borns [the executive producer on UPN's All of Us] used to work on Roseanne. That must have provided some good conversation during your courtship.
Shapiro: When I met my wife, I was at the U.S. attorney's office and was set up on a blind date by Ann Hornaday, a film critic for the Washington Post who was a good friend of my wife's. We went out on a date. I was in the middle of a racketeering trial. Betsy was writing on Roseanne. We saw our friends for drinks. I never really met anybody in show business, and she was describing a party for Roseanne where she hired a tattoo-removal artist to take Tom Arnold's name off her a--. I remember thinking — "Wow, I'm a federal prosecutor, and what she does scares me. This might be an interesting woman." We were engaged six weeks later.
