My Library...

Who Knew The New York Post Cares about what I Read?

"IN MY LIBRARY: DAVID FEIGE

We all remember what Steven Bochco did for the image of New York cops (they look like Dennis Franz); now he's turned his attention to New York lawyers and public defenders (they look like a long-haired Mark-Paul Gosselaar).

Bochco certainly has the right guide: David Feige, a former defender in The Bronx who wrote a book of his experience called "Indefensible: One Lawyer's Journey into the Inferno of American Justice." He's the co-creator of "Raising the Bar," the Bochco series that starts tomorrow night on TNT.

"The world view and perspective of 'Raising' are very much drawn from 'Indefensible'," Feige says. "Though none of the characters of plotlines of the show are directly based on the book, it is certainly the thing that most influenced the feeling of the show."

When he's not writing or producing, Feige is reading - though not always for pleasure. "Most law related books feel like a busman's holiday," he says. Still, "a few certainly standout," and those are the ones in his library:

Bikers and barristers | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/31/2008

"Everyone on this show is ambitious and overworked. They're all trying to make the best of a legal system that is irretrievably broken, a bureaucracy that continually misses the forest for the thorny underbrush.

On Raising the Bar, urban criminal law is a blind and brutal assembly line covered with tears and blood. Yet the harried attorneys on this show find time to get involved in their clients' lives while bored judges do crossword puzzles on the bench."

Well, at least they get it...

Steven Explains how it all happened...

...Bochco also noted his relationship with David Feige, his co-creator on the series.

“David had just published a book called “Indefensible” and wanted to get it to me, as there had been some interest in the television community. I read it, and I thought it was wonderful, the book really chronicles up to 15 years of his life as a public defender in the Bronx.

I said I didn’t want to do a series about a public defender, as we had done ‘Philly’ with Kim Delaney, which I thought was a terrific show, but I didnlt feel found its audience, especially with attorneys who rep scumbags and such. So I told David, ‘great book, thank you and goodbye.’

Next thing I know, I get this 10 foot long e-mail from this guy with an impassioned defense of that world and why it’s worthy. I told my wife Dayna ‘you know, this man is so passionate about what he does and what he believes in, we should be in business with passionate people, because that’s what we do.
I coincidentally wound up having a meeting with TNT’s Senior VP Michael Wright and in just talking through some ideas, I said, ‘well I’ve been talking to this author in New York about his book,’ and literally in two minutes Michael said I should do this show.

I called David and said if you want to do a show abut a really dysfunctional criminal justice system where the point of view isn’t just skewed towards public defenders but to prosecutors and judges as well, I said that is something I would be interested in doing with you. He said ‘well okay, let’s do that.’ I said ‘good, because I already sold it.’ ”

Today's LA Times...

Can Raising the Bar raise Steven Bochco to Emmy glory again? - Los Angeles Times

Go Jami!

They're coming fast and furious...

Steven Bochco is still intent on raising the bar - The Los Angeles Times

Warriors for Justice - WSJ?

Interesting that the Wall Street Journal sees it this way...

The Defense Rests...

From the ABA Journal

The good, the bad and the ugly...

Well this guy thinks that Raising the Bar may be the worst show I have seen in the 2+ years I have been writing this column.

John Leonard ain't much happier: "Raising the Bar is professional television, but no more than that." But out there somewhere is a mom who "will be tuning in this Fall along with my husband who enjoyed watching it." Ah reviews, how I love thee.

I've got some thoughts about the John Leonard piece, which actually surprised me, but maybe later...

I'll take those odds...

Fancast's Odds for the success of RTB: (As predicted by Vegas Odds-Maker Johnny Avello, Executive Director of Race & Sports - Wynn Las Vegas)

It'll Evaporate First This Season: 18 to 1

It'll Live To See A Second Season: 16 to 1

I'll Become A Mega-Hit: 60 to 1

Someone put a hundred bucks on live to see a second season for me...

Just 'Cause I can't Help It...

More Cool Press...

What do you do when the entire culture thinks you're a bunch of crappy lawyers in bad suits who can't get better jobs?

Change the culture. Tell the people. This one makes me proud...

Mark-Paul Gosselaar got a real-life dose of the public defender's world before assuming the role on TV, in Steven Bochco's TNT "Raising the Bar" series that debuts Sept. 1. Due to the show's cocreator David Feige's ties with his former colleagues in the The Bronx Defenders office in the South Bronx, he relates, "They allowed me to become an intern for a week."
...
"Television has had an obsessive focus on prosecutors and high end defense attorneys," he points out. "I thought of public defenders as being schleppy attorneys who only became public defenders because they weren't good enough to go elsewhere. But that's not David's world with The Bronx Defenders. You find Ivy Leaguers, people who want to make a difference, to use the power of their law degrees to help the powerless. Their clients need protection from the system. Usually they have about 100 cases going on all at once. Obviously they're not doing this for money. They have such a connection with their clients.

Yeah.

MPG, JB & Me...

The Wisconsin State Journal (more on that soon) dug up this picture of me on the set...

Let the Reviews Begin...

Ok, sorry to be such a crappy blogger of late. I've been packing up my west coast apartment, and moving back to NYC (with an absolutely amazing trip to Paris and Namibia in between). But I'm back, getting settled in the old apartment, picking up at the law school, and watching as the RTB tide begins to rise. I've got lots of thoughts, and my meditation on seeing your show on a billboard or on TV will follow at some point, but first, a preview of some reactions to the show as they start to trickle in. This one just came in. And I particularly like it not just because it's nice, but also because it compares us to The Defenders...



"But if the potential displayed in the trailers is fulfilled, the new TNT show Raising the Bar, which debuts Sept. 1 at 9 p.m., may become this century’s equivalent of The Defenders. "

Nice.