Storefront Lawyers

Last updated
Storefront Lawyers
Also known asMen at Law
Genre Legal drama
Created by David Karp
Directed by
Starring
Theme music composer Morton Stevens
Composers
  • Harper MacKay
  • George Romanis
  • Morton Stevens
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes23 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer Leonard Freeman
Producers
CinematographyJack Courtland
EditorIra Heymann
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time48 mins.
Production companies
  • Leonard Freeman Enterprises Productions
  • National General Corporation
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseSeptember 16, 1970 (1970-09-16) 
April 14, 1971 (1971-04-14)

Storefront Lawyers (also known as Men at Law) [1] [2] is an American legal drama that ran from September 1970 to January 1971 and February 1971 to March 1971 on CBS. The series starred Robert Foxworth, Sheila Larken, David Arkin, and A Martinez. [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

David Hansen (Foxworth) is a big-shot lawyer who grew tired of his important and expensive Los Angeles law firm Horton, Troy, McNeil, & Caroll. Hansen left his job to start a non-profit firm called Neighborhood Legal Services based in Century City, California. His associates were Deborah Sullivan (Larken) and Gabriel Kay (Arkin). Roberto (Martinez) is a law student who worked for them as a clerk.

After 13 weeks, CBS decided to take the series in a different direction so that the lawyers could take on rich clients as well. The network retitled the series as Men at Law as the three protagonists went back to work for their former law firm. [3]

Cast

Main

Recurring

Episodes

No. in
season
TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateProduction
code
1"A Man's Castle" Lee H. Katzin UnknownSeptember 16, 1970 (1970-09-16)101

A man invades an exclusive party then singles out one guest. The man shoots him dead.

Guest stars: Edward Andrews, Dean Jagger, Carmen Mathews, Barry Morse, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, and Bill Zuckert.
2"The Law Can't Touch Him" Marvin J. Chomsky Meyer Dolinsky September 23, 1970 (1970-09-23)102

An abused wife asks the Lawyers' help in divorcing her violent husband.

Guest stars: Melinda Dillon, Robert Dowdell, Frederic Downs, James McMullan, and Bill Quinn.
3"Murph Collins vs. Tomorrow"Marvin J. Chomsky Alvin Sapinsley September 30, 1970 (1970-09-30)103

Murph Collins loses his job to affirmative action. An explosion happens, and he is the prime suspect.

Guest stars: Ramon Bieri, Lonny Chapman, Mariclare Costello, Harrison Page, Joan Shawlee, and James Stacy.
4"The Electric Kid"Marvin J. Chomsky Ronald Austin & James D. Buchanan October 7, 1970 (1970-10-07)104

A con artist pulls a big con against his landlord. The landlord's position is shaky at best.

Guest stars: Leon Ames, Diana Eden, Dana Elcar, J. Pat O'Malley, William Sargent, and Joyce Van Patten.
5"The Emancipation of Bessie Gray"Marvin J. Chomsky Robert Van Scoyk October 14, 1970 (1970-10-14)105

A woman, who cannot hold a job as a nurse's aide, sues the head of the school where she got her training.

Guest stars: Rupert Crosse, Claudia McNeil and Paul Stewart.
6"Survivors Will Be Prosecuted"Marvin J. Chomsky Arthur Heinemann October 21, 1970 (1970-10-21)106

Unknown

Guest stars: William Conrad, Roberto Contreras, Robert Cornthwaite, Emilio Delgado, Edith Diaz, Lloyd Gough, Murray Hamilton, and Frank Ramirez.
7"Easy to Be Hard"UnknownUnknownJanuary 10, 2000 (2000-01-10)107

A welfare case agent is accused of raping a woman.

Guest stars: Lou Antonio, Isabelle Cooley, Sharon Farrell, Ned Glass, and Maidie Norman.
8"Where Are You At?"Unknown George Bellak November 4, 1970 (1970-11-04)108

Deborah, in defending a man accused of a string of arson fires, falls in love with the ADA prosecuting the case.

Guest stars: Richard Anders, Robert Brubaker, Dennis King Jr, Joaquín Martínez, Bob Padilla, David Renard, Tony Roberts, Kenneth Tobey, and Bill Zuckert.
9"Shadows of Doubt"Unknown Alvin Sapinsley November 11, 1970 (1970-11-11)109

Unknown

Guest stars: Anne Archer, Jonathan Lippe, Lloyd Gough, Charles H. Gray, and Bill Quinn.
10"This Is Jerry, See Jerry Run"Unknown Bill Stratton November 18, 1970 (1970-11-18)110

A young man's dyslexia lands him in financial trouble and makes him unemployable.

Guest stars: Lloyd Bochner, David Doyle, John Kidd, Kurt Russell, and Patricia Smith.
11"The Pastures of Hell"Unknown Harold Gast November 25, 1970 (1970-11-25)111

The pastor of a downtown mission clashes with an activist who frequently bombs the mission.

Guest stars: Beverly Atkinson, Harry Hickox, Steve Ihnat, Tony Martinez, James McEachin, and Gerald S. O'Loughlin.
12"Where Were We, Waldo?"Unknown E. Arthur Keane December 9, 1970 (1970-12-09)112

An illiterate man's arrest record makes him unemployable.

Guest stars: Fran Ryan, Jacqueline Scott, Paula Victor, and Anthony Zerbe.
13"First... We Get Rid of the Principal"Unknown George Kirgo January 13, 1971 (1971-01-13)113

A student protest results in a dead administrator while a student is on trial for murder.

Guest stars: Nancy Burnett, Sheldon Collins, Val de Vargas. Carmen Zapata, and Stanley Bennett Clay ( Uncredited ).
14"The Climate of Doubt"Unknown Bill Stratton February 3, 1971 (1971-02-03)114

A college student suspected of bludgeoning a police officer to death during a campus riot.

Guest stars: David Jolliffe, Rick Kelman, John Lasell, Logan Ramsey, Dennis Redfield, and Dan Travanty.
15"Marathon"UnknownUnknownFebruary 10, 1971 (1971-02-10)115

A student dives his car off a pier and drowns. The widow hires the lawyers to sue the psychiatrist involved.

Guest stars: Jack Cassidy, Nina Foch, Sue Lyon, Greg Mullavey, and Glynn Turman.
16"The Dark World of Harry Anders"UnknownUnknownFebruary 17, 1971 (1971-02-17)116

A heavy-handed financier takes over a movie studio and uses various means, lawful and unlawful, to compel the studio to turn a motion-picture project into a porn project.

Guest stars: Lane Bradbury, Jeanne Cooper, Harry Guardino, and John McLiam.
17"Hostage"UnknownUnknownFebruary 27, 1971 (1971-02-27)117

While a woman on trial for planting a fatal bomb, the boyfriend takes Deborah hostage in the firm's law offices.

Guest stars: Meg Foster, Arthur Franz, Felice Orlandi, John S. Ragin, Ford Rainey, and John Rubinstein.
18"The Truth, the Whole Truth - And Anything Else That Works"UnknownUnknownMarch 3, 1971 (1971-03-03)118

A man comes home from work one day to find detectives in his house accusing him of being a serial sex murderer.

Guest stars: Jean Hale, Cloris Leachman, and David Wayne.
19"Let the Dier Beware"UnknownUnknownMarch 17, 1971 (1971-03-17)119

When the clinic chief physician winds up dead, a woman that took her father out of a controversial clinic is the lead suspect.

Guest stars: Jean Hale, Cloris Leachman, and David Wayne.
20"The View from the Top"UnknownUnknownMarch 24, 1971 (1971-03-24)120

A rich man hires the Lawyers after a security guard at a hotel finds him walking away from a dead woman.

Guest stars: Ramon Bieri, Lane Bradford, Lew Brown, Jeane Byron, Steve Forrest, Noah Keen, Maggie Malooly, Marilyn Maxwell, Kay Medford, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, and Wayne Rogers.
21"Yesterday Is But a Dream"UnknownUnknownMarch 31, 1971 (1971-03-31)121

After a husband drugs his wife, the Lawyers defend the wife who shot her husband while in a drug-induced daze.

Guest stars: Adele Bellroth, Melendy Britt, Ivor Francis, Lee Grant, John S. Ragin, Ford Rainey, John Vernon, and Garry Walberg.
22"This Money Kills Dreams"UnknownUnknownApril 7, 1971 (1971-04-07)122

Unknown

Guest stars: Martin E. Brooks, Jack De Mave, Laurence Haddon, Katherine Justice, Connie Mason, Woodrow Parfrey, Herman Poppe, Tom Skerritt, and Fritz Weaver.
23"One American"UnknownUnknownApril 14, 1971 (1971-04-14)123

A small group of passionate young men protest war and find themselves behind bars.

Guest stars: Brenda Dickson-Weinberg, Ron Hayes, William Shatner, and Jan-Michael Vincent.

Reception

Critical response

In the book, The Cultural Lives of Cause Lawyers edited by Austin Sarat and Stuart Scheingold, "The Storefront Lawyers featured two men and one woman, all WASPS, but the presence of a woman was a departure at the time when women still constituted less than five percent of the profession." [4] "The Storefront Lawyers emphasizes that passivity, suggesting lawyers do nothing unless called upon. Given anxiety over lawyers trolling for clients, this portrayal suggests there is nothing to worry about. From the viewer's perspective such things simply do not happen." [5]

In his Time magazine interview, critic Richard Burgheim lumped the new CBS legal series together with another of the network's bids at "revelvance," noting "The Storefront Lawyers (CBS) and The Interns (CBS) both exploit Mod Squad 's multihero angle, but neither one is genuinely mod or engrossing." [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Paley</span> 18th/19th-century English Christian philosopher (1743–1805)

William Paley was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, which made use of the watchmaker analogy.

Strangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1970. They deal with – among other things – questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power.

<i>JAG</i> (TV series) American legal drama television series (1995–2005)

JAG is an American legal drama television series with a U.S. Navy theme, created by Donald P. Bellisario, and produced by Belisarius Productions in association with Paramount Network Television. The series originally aired on NBC for one season from September 23, 1995, to May 22, 1996, and then on CBS for an additional nine seasons from January 3, 1997, to April 29, 2005. The first season was co-produced with NBC Productions and was originally perceived as a Top Gun meets A Few Good Men hybrid series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David E. Kelley</span> American television producer, writer and attorney

David Edward Kelley is an American television writer, producer, and former attorney. He has created and/or produced a number of television series including Doogie Howser, M.D., Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice and its spin-off Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Goliath, Big Little Lies, and Big Sky. Kelley is one of very few screenwriters to have created shows that have aired on all four top commercial U.S. television networks as well as cable giant HBO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William S. Paley</span> American television executive (1901–1990)

William Samuel Paley was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States. He was awarded the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes National Order of Merit by the Cuban government in recognition of his efforts to foster greater understanding between the peoples of Cuba and the United States of America.

<i>L.A. Law</i> American legal drama television series (1986–1994)

L.A. Law is an American legal drama television series that ran for eight seasons and 172 episodes on NBC, from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Foxworth</span> American actor

Robert Heath Foxworth is an American film, stage, and television actor.

<i>Hawkins</i> (TV series) American TV series or program

Hawkins is an American legal drama and murder mystery television series which aired for one season on CBS from 1973 and 1974. The series starred James Stewart as rural-bred lawyer Billy Jim Hawkins, who investigated the cases in which he was involved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Arkin</span> American actor

David George Arkin was an American actor, known for his numerous supporting appearances in the films of Robert Altman. These roles were part of Altman's frequent ensemble and included Staff Sergeant Vollmer in M*A*S*H, Harry in The Long Goodbye (1973), Norman in Nashville (1975), and The Mailman/The Police Officer in Popeye (1980).

<i>Studio One</i> (American TV series) Television program (1948–1958)

Studio One is an American anthology drama television series that was adapted from a radio series. It was created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. It premiered on November 7, 1948, and ended on September 29, 1958, with a total of 467 episodes over the course of 10 seasons.

Adam's Rib is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from September 14 to December 28, 1973. Thirteen episodes were produced by MGM Television. The series was a TV adaptation of the 1949 MGM motion picture of the same name.

Austin Sarat is an American political scientist who is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is also a Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor. He has written, co-written, or edited more than fifty books in the fields of law and political science. Professor Sarat received a B.A. from Providence College in 1969, and both an M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970 and 1973, respectively. He also received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1988.

Matthew Arkin is an American actor, acting instructor, and author.

Devlin is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast for 16 episodes on ABC from September 7 to December 21, 1974, with reruns airing until September 1976. The series, inspired by the popularity of motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, featured a stunt motorcyclist with a traveling circus named Ernie Devlin and his siblings Tod and Sandy. It was one of Hanna-Barbera's few dramatic series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Felstiner</span>

William L. F. Felstiner, usually known as Bill Felstiner, is a socio-legal scholar.

A cause lawyer, also known as a public interest lawyer or social lawyer, is a lawyer dedicated to the usage of law for the promotion of social change to address a cause. Cause lawyering is commonly described as a practice of "lawyering for the good" or using law to empower members of the weaker layers of society. It may or may not be performed pro bono. Cause lawyering is frequently practiced by individual lawyers or lawyers employed by associations that aim to supply a public service to complement state-provided legal aid.

Ben Jerrod is an American serial which ran from April 1, 1963 to June 28, 1963. The series is most notable for being the first daytime drama to be regularly televised in color. Michael M. Ryan played the show's title character. The cast also included Addison Richards, Lyle Talbot, Gerald Gordon, and Isabel Randolph.

The Antagonists is an American legal drama television series that aired on CBS from March 26 until May 30, 1991.

<i>The Eddie Capra Mysteries</i> American TV series or program

The Eddie Capra Mysteries is an American mystery television series starring Vincent Baggetta as a lawyer who investigates murders and has a knack for solving them. Original episodes aired on NBC from September 8, 1978, to January 12, 1979.

<i>Christine Cromwell</i> American crime drama television series

Christine Cromwell is an American crime drama television series that aired as a rotating element of the ABC Mystery Movie. It debuted on November 11, 1989, and ended on February 17, 1990, with four episodes presented semi-monthly.

References

Citations

  1. "Men at Law". Paley Center for Media Archives . Los Angeles and New York City: Paley Center for Media . Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Hyatt 2003, p. 196.
  3. 1 2 3 Erickson 2009, p. 253.
  4. Sarat & Scheingold 2008, p. 216.
  5. Sarat & Scheingold 2008, p. 218.

Sources