Picket Fences - Season 1
WhileAlly McBealgarnered more attention,Picket Fencesgarnered more acclaim. It was justified. Set in Wisconsin, the Emmy-winning drama plays likeThe Andy Griffith Showby way ofThe Commish. The focus is on small-town life from a law and order perspective. The action revolves around Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt), his physician wife Jill (Kathy Baker), and their children, Kimberly (Holly Marie Combs), Matthew (Justin Shenkarow), and Zack (Adam Wylie). Storylines alternate between personal issues, like puberty and pre-marital sex, and criminal cases. As Matthew quips, "Things happen around here." At city hall, Jimmy works with officers Kenny (Costas Mandylor) and Max (Lauren Holly), dispatcher Ginny (Zelda Rubinstein), and coroner Carter Pike (Kelly Connell), who likes to exclaim, "Let me exhume the body!" Judge Henry Bone (Ray Walston) and attorney Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel) dominate the courthouse. Cases include such tragi-comic crimes as a serial bather ("Frank, the Potato Man") and a cupid killer ("Be My Valentine"), but serious issues also come into play, such as assisted suicide ("Sacred Hearts") and incest ("Nuclear Meltdowns"). UnlikeTwin Peaks, to which it was sometimes compared,Picket Fencescould be heavy-handed, but piety never trumped entertainment, and Baker, Skerritt, Walston, and Finkel all won Emmys for their work.Notable guests are a hallmark of every David E. Kelley production, fromChicago HopetoBoston Legal(and beyond). The first season attractedCarnivále's Michael J. Anderson ("Mr. Dreeb Comes to Town"),Evening Shade's Michael Jeter ("Frog Man"), andMan of La Mancha's Richard Kiley ("Thanksgiving"). The series also features one of the last of the old-fashioned orchestral scores, Stewart Levin's distinctive piano theme.Picket Fencesran for four seasons on CBS (when Kelley left between seasons three and four, ratings took a nosedive). Afterwards, Combs joinedCharmed, Baker joined Kelley'sBoston Public, and Holly joinedNCIS.--Kathleen C. Fennessy