CS Weekly Archive> DVD > 06/22/07

Now Entering Kelley City Limits
Population: Quirky

by jason davis

Encompassing the legal, medical, and police genres within the confines of a family-based drama, David E. Kelley's first solo creation, the Emmy-winning Picket Fences, staked out the perimeter of the soon-to-be-prolific writer's oeuvre while laying the foundations for the social commentary and eccentricity that would become the hallmarks his later work.

Picket Fences: Season One

David Assael, Kimberly Costello, David E. Kelley, and Mark B. Perry
Created by David E. Kelley

Removed from the hustle and bustle of busy cities, the city of Rome, enjoys a sedate—if slightly strange—existence in the wilds of Wisconsin. Serving as a microcosm for America, issues like euthanasia, gender reassignment surgery, and circus animal liberation create continual calamities for Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt), his wife Dr. Jill Brock (Kathy Baker), and their kids: Kimberly (Holly Marie Combs), Matthew (Justin Shenkarow), and Zack (Adam Wylie). Spanning every major TV genre from cop shows to medical dramas and spiced with the topicality that pervaded early '90s drama, Picket Fences is Kelley's unintentional precis of a career to come like Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, and Boston Legal.

After getting his start on L.A. Law and co-creating Doogie Howser, M.D. with Steven Bochco, ex-attorney David E. Kelley set out on his own with a series that put the whole of the mainstream television landscape under one roof, with the elder Brocks representing the police and medical genres while their kids make for family drama and teen soap operatics. Toss in shyster lawyer Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkle) and acerbic Judge Henry Bone (Ray Walston) to tackle the legal proceedings and all the genre bases are covered. With occasional forays into science fiction, horror, and mystery to boot, Kelley uses his seemingly limitless canvass to explore the topical issues of the era in stories that, though they often cross the line into the absurd, still have a heart. Oddities like a serial bather utilizing the tubs of unsuspecting residents, psychic twins, and men dressing as frogs provide fodder for unlikely explorations of the human condition while never straying into over-used TV clichés.

The heart of Rome, and Kelley's writing, is a social conscience that's compelled to examine controversial issues from every angle, no matter how unlikely. Fifteen years before Big Love tackled polygamy, Kelley was already using it to complicate a story of complicated family dynamics. Before Ellen was outed, Kimberly Brock was questioning her sexuality after kissing a female friend. Euthanasia, teenage sex, and incest are all here. In each case, Kelley and his cohorts tackled touchy subjects with a blend of sympathy and humor that took the curse off the taboo and made an entertaining show an enlightening one as well.

- All Roads Lead to Rome

Like the recent release of The Practice, Picket Fences is supplemented by a single featurette focused on Kelley and the cast. Unlike The Practice's disc, though, "All Roads Lead to Rome" is a performance-oriented piece that, shamefully, offers minimal insight into the writing process for Kelley's first solo series outing.

Picket Fences could claim any television genre, but its social conscience, quirky characters, and outlandish stories place it firmly in the genre of David E. Kelley, paving the way for a decade dominated by a writer-producer with seemingly inexhaustible stories and no shortage of yellow legal pads.

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Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly , a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.

Picket Fences: Season One courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

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