How to Spend $20
By David Mumpower
June 12, 2007
For Allen Iverson: The Practice Volume One
Iverson's rant still stands as one of my favorite sports quotes of all time: " "If I can't practice, I can't practice. It is as simple as that. It ain't about that at all. It's easy to sum it up if you're just talking about practice. We're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we're talking about practice. I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last but we're talking about practice man. How silly is that?
Now I know that I'm supposed to lead by example and all that but I'm not shoving that aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important, I honestly do but we're talking about practice. We're talking about practice man. We're talking about practice. We're talking about practice. We're not talking about the game. We're talking about practice. When you come to the arena, and you see me play, you've seen me play right, you've seen me give everything I've got, but we're talking about practice right now."
None of this has anything to do with The Practice, the television show, but I find myself thinking of the above quote and get distracted. As for The Practice itself, no one remembers this now but the show was given almost no network support upon release. An eight episode order was given, the type of token purchase for a mid-season replacement with no hope of renewal. David E. Kelley has never been the type of writer who would run to the middle in hopes of finding some moderate public reception, though.
In eight episodes, Kelley crafted a fascinating back-story for a group of struggling attorneys who were the living, breathing definition of ambulance chasers. They were struggling to keep their business afloat and their paychecks from bouncing. Their sole hope was a potential rainmaker of a lawsuit involving big tobacco. While the employees of the firm attempted to come up with the money to wage war against one of the largest and most accredited law firms in the country, a second storyline emerged that made the show must-watch television for me. A rabbi and friend of the firm went on national television and declared that he had counseled a man that if he committed an act of murder as retribution for another slaying, God would forgive him. This "eye for an eye" story arc was the most daring legal exploration television had ever done up until that time.
The shocking nature of the show's secondary storyline unexpectedly captured the attention of the network as well as a loyal core of weekly viewers. The Practice shockingly received a pick-up for the fall season, two of the episodes initially ordered were held off until then, and the show went on to not only run for eight dynamic seasons but also spawned a beloved spin-off, Boston Legal. Since the first season technically only aired six episodes, this box set includes more than just season one. The package contains the first 13 episodes comprising all of season one as well as the first portion of season two, which contains 28 episodes, a massive amount by network standards. Presumably, Volume Two will be comprised of the other 22 episodes from that season and the distribution pattern for the rest of the seasons will be normalized after that.
For the three remaining living fans of Stan Jones: Ghost RiderStan Jones wrote (Ghost) Riders in the Sky. A quarter century later, a not quite legally actionable comic book character of roughly the same premise arrived. And 30-some years after that, Nicolas Cage starred in a movie that critics and mainstream movie-goers agreed was not good. Despite this, it opened to $52.0 million on its way to $115.8 million in total box office. Have we learned nothing from Daredevil? Apparently not.
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