Question: According to the SAG Awards, Boston Legal is a comedy. James Spader, William Shatner, Candice Bergen and the show itself all received nominations in the comedy category. The show is hilarious at times, don't get me wrong. But after all these episodes and all those Emmy/Golden Globe wins in the drama category, I never knew it was a comedy series. What gives?
Answer: Excellent question, and it comes with an interesting answer. David E. Kelley's company submitted Boston Legal to the SAG Awards as a comedy, feeling that the show has evolved this year into a hybrid that's more comedic than dramatic, regardless of the drama awards the show has reaped previously at the Emmys and at the Globes (which ignored the show this year). Last time I checked, Kelley's camp hadn't yet decided how to enter the show when the time comes for Emmy consideration. The debate goes like this: Given the past wins in the drama category, why fix what isn't broken? But given that the show itself isn't likely
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Boston Legal bested the rest of the TV pack with four SAG nominations in the Comedy category — William Shatner, James Spader and Candice Bergen included — while Grey's Anatomy was a close second with three Drama contenders, including lead nods for Patrick Dempsey and Sandra Oh. In the Drama Series Ensemble contest, it's The Closer versus Grey's, Lost, Six Feet Under and The West Wing, while the Comedy Ensemble category pits Arrested Development against Boston, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Desperate Housewives, Everybody Loves Raymond and (catch breath) newbie My Name Is Earl. Lastly, a catfight alert: Felicity Huffman is Housewives' lone individual acting nominee. Someone tie down the blenders.
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Question: Once again, your humble readers call upon you to settle an argument, Mr. T. My dope of a brother claims that years after Dan Quayle criticized Murphy Brown for its single-mother story line, Candice Bergen came out and said she agreed with him after all. I can't believe that. Is there any truth to that?
Answer: None whatsoever, Dee. For those who have already forgotten, the whole dustup assumed gigantic proportions when then-vice-president Quayle took his famous potshot at the show as part of the GOP's 1992 "family values" campaign. It again reared its ugly head briefly when former Quayle speechwriter Lisa Schiffren claimed in a 1998 Los Angeles Times op-ed column that Bergen had seen the light and stated in an interview that "the body of the speech was completely sound." Bergen fired back in a letter to the p
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Magnum P.I. himself, Tom Selleck, will guest-star on the Feb. 21 episode of ABC's Boston Legal. In a role written for him by series creator David E. Kelley, Selleck will play Ivan Tiggs, the eccentric and cocky ex-husband of Candice Bergen's Shirley Schmidt, whom he asks to be the best man at his wedding to Monica Geller. Oops, sorry. [Sigh] I miss Friends.
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