NEW YORK -- It is perhaps the most anticipated first script of the fall season. 'L.A. Law,' the Emmy-winning best new drama last year, returns Oct. 15 (NBC, 10-11 p.m. EDT) with a humdinger of a program.
As is always the case with 'L.A. Law,' there are several storylines in 'The Lung Goodbye,' written by Tony Schwartz, although the title suggests the most important one: Kuzak (Harry Hamlin) and his client, a man dying of cancer, take on the tobacco companies in court.
'It may be a long shot but cigarettes are as addictive as heroin and as deadly as poison,' Kuzak says. 'If the government's too chicken to put 'em out of business, someone's got to do it.'
It's good to know that Kuzak still gets off on compassion.
But the high-class law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak is bustling with other business as well.
Victor Sifuentes (Jimmy Smits)is trading in his junk heap for a status symbol yuppie-mobile.
'Like it or not, Victor, you are what you drive,' Arnie Becker(Corbin Bernsen) tells him.
'That's nonsense,' Sifuentes says, but a car salesman hooks him on a BMW. Later the window gets smashed and the radio is lifted.
Meanwhile, Becker is busy handling the divorce of an aerobics instructor married to a famous television series star. The instructor helped the wife shed the fat and she dumped him, leaving him penniless. The prenuptial agreement is reminiscent of the Joan Collins-Peter Holmes divorce case, but it more closely resembles the case of Valerie Harper, an NBC star who was dumped from her show 'Valerie' because of salary demands. Harper is married to an aerobics instructor-turned executive producer, but she has not dumped him.
There is also a brief scene with an anorexic woman.
If 'L.A. Law' sometimes cuts a little close to the heart, we may rejoice in the knowledge that it also still hovers about the funny bone. All the humor is still there from last year.
Arnie Becker, the sleaze, is still wickedly slimy, but it's a hoot when his secretary catches Arnie with another man's hand on his breast. Douglas Brackman (Alan Rachins) is still interested in the bottom line. Markowitz and Kelsey (Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry) have their first real fight, prompting them to see a marriage counselor. Actually, they choose two counselors -- a married couple -- but by the end of the session, it's clear they won't get much help.
'The only reason I married him in the first place is my mother hated his lousy guts,' the counselor wife says to her counselor husband.
'Jan, I'm going to lose my temper in a moment,' the husband says.
'Oh, I quake with terror!'
'That's it! I'm afraid we won't be able to help you,' the wife says to Kelsey and Markowitz. 'I think we're getting a divorce.'
Markowitz and Kelsey make up and hook up for some more fun with the Venus Butterfly.
'L.A. Law' is back with a bang, as well as some new characters.
It was no accident that 'L.A. Law' drew 20 nominations at the 39th annual Emmy Awards show -- more than any other program.
It wound up winning five Emmys, including outstanding drama series, because it features the best cast ever assembled for a TV drama series, as well as some of the tightest writing on the tube.
The only surprise was that none of the actors won awards.
'It was better that way,' said Tucker.
The way he figures it, if anyone had won it wouldn't have been right. The ensemble works because it is an ensemble. All or nothing. Right now it's the show that works, and the show was honored. The actors and actresses were happy with that.
The credit must go to Steven Bochco, one-time executive producer of 'Hill Street Blues,' and Terry Louise Fisher of 'Cagney and Lacey,' the co-creators of 'L.A. Law.'
Fisher's experience as a district attorney in Los Angeles and Bochco's experience as a writer and television producer combine to bring added realism to the set. The legal eagles walk and talk like lawyers do, and when they get home, they act like the rest of us folks.
Both Eikenberry and Tucker say the scripts they've seen this season 'are better' than last year's. That seems hard to believe. But it's what we've come to expect from Bochco.
