The Yin Blog

What is with David E. Kelley's shows not being released on DVD?

I'm teaching Professional Responsibility for the first time this semester, and as part of my class preparation, I've been dutifully watching episodes of "The Practice" while using the treadmill, looking for interesting scenes to trigger discussion of ethical issues.  (It's a hard job, but I'm happy to make the sacrifice.)  For some reason, however, the only set that has been released is titled "Volume 1," consisting of all six season 1 episodes and seven from season 2.

That's it, 13 episodes out of the 168 that aired over 8 seasons.  Moreover, this set was released a year and a half ago, and amazon.com has no information about upcoming releases.

At first, I wondered if this was something to do with the TV studio that produced the show, but then I noticed that David E. Kelley has released very few of his shows on DVD.  There's only one compilation of random "Ally McBeal" episodes available, none of "L.A. Law" (though that was created by Steven Bochco), and only one season of "Picket Fences."  For some reason, "Boston Legal" is the exception -- it's up to date to last season.

The first elected woman President on TV is a Republican?

Over winter break, I watched the extended version of "24: Redemption," and of course, the 4 hour premiere of season 7 earlier this week.

The most striking thing for me is that the new President of the country, Allison Taylor, is apparently a Republican!  (I put "first elected" in the blog title because Geena Davis played the President in "Commander-in-Chief" a few years ago, but I believe her character ascended to office from the Vice Presidency.)

How do we know this about President Taylor?  Well, she defeated her predecessor, President Noah Daniels.  Played expertly by Powers Boothe in season 6 and in "Redemption," Daniels is reptilian, loathsome, and disloyal -- all of which would ordinarily be Hollywood-speak for being Republican! Moreover, Taylor is thoughtful, compassionate, and decent -- Hollywood-speak for being Democratic.

Yet, Daniels was previously Vice President to Wayne Palmer's President.  And Wayne Palmer was the younger brother of David Palmer, President in seasons 2 and 3.  And from season 1, we know that David Palmer was a Democrat, because at the end of the season, he wins the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.  Of course, mere family relationship is not enough to impute equivalent political party, but from season 3, we know that Wayne was David's chief of staff.  So if David is a Democrat, so is Wayne, and so too is Daniels.  (Yes, I suppose Wayne could have been truly bipartisan, but that seems rather unlikely.)  And Taylor beat Daniels, so she must be a Republican.

Of course, one might chalk this all up to the fact that the co-creator of "24," Joel Surnow, is a self-described right wing nut, but Surnow left somewhere during season 6, so this doesn't appear to be his doing.

Anyway, on other fronts of "24," it's nice to see that the FBI is just as (in)competent as the old CTU was; it too is incapable of setting a "hard perimeter" that can't be breached by simply driving away.  What, when CTU was disbanded, did the FBI swoop in and hire all those perimeter-setting CTU agents?!?

Also, here's an interesting Iowa connection: the Chief of Staff on the show, Ethan Kanin, is named after a University of Iowa professor, Ethan Canin.