DENNY CRANE

'Dennis "Denny" Crane' is a fictional character on the television series ''Boston Legal''. He first appeared during the final season of ''The Practice'', and is portrayed by William Shatner.

Contents

Character biography

Character eccentricities

External links

Character biography

Denny is a founding partner of ''Crane, Poole & Schmidt'', along with Shirley Schmidt and Edwin M. Poole. He often punctuates his statements by announcing his own name, "Denny Crane." The reason why Denny always says his name out loud is, according to him, that people can't believe they are actually in the room with legendary Denny Crane, so he says his name to assure them that it's real (as stated by him in his guest appearance in ''The Practice''). According to Shirley Schmidt, Denny says his name out loud to remember it, which refers to his possible Alzheimer's Disease or Mad Cow Disease.
In his prime, Denny was a legendary litigator; his reputation amongst lawyers is long and fabled, and Denny himself insists he is the greatest lawyer in history. However, old age is getting the best of him by the time of the series, and Denny's memory is no longer what it used to be. He refuses to acknowledge his diminishing capacity as a lawyer to everyone around him with two exceptions: his partner, Shirley Schmidt, and his best friend, Alan Shore.
On a case involving seniors and prescription drug prices, Denny forgot the details of the case and gave an opening statement that resulted in a mistrial, to his client's benefit. He then finally took seriously Alan Shore's suggestion that he might have Alzheimer's and went to get tested for it. Late in the first season, Denny admitted to Alan that he had been taking a type of amphetamine drug to help him focus on trial procedures; he later stopped taking the drug. After trying a case involving the safety of red meat, Denny comes to believe that his condition is due to mad cow disease, which he simply refers to as "the mad cow" when speaking about it.
Near the end of the first season of ''Boston Legal'', Lori Colson filed a complaint about Denny's behavior, which Shirley and Paul Lewiston were ready to use to try to push him out of the firm. At this point, the series went on hiatus so ''Grey's Anatomy'' could premiere. When ''Grey's Anatomy'' became such a hit, ABC decided to push ''Boston Legal'' back until September. While Lori's complaint was briefly addressed early on in the second season, its resolution is still unclear, although Colson is no longer on the show, as Monica Potter left to have a child.
Denny is a staunch conservative Republican who strongly opposes gun control, claiming that "it's for communists." On the recommendation of his friend Tom DeLay, he keeps a wide variety of loaded guns in his office (including the camouflaged AR-7 he saved Alan with [1]). On numerous occasions, he has accidentally discharged them, although no one has ever been hurt by his carelessness. However, he does have a fondness for using his gun(s) on living people and has done so on several occasions. He first shot the aforementioned man who was threatening Alan with a gun right in the offices of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. In another episode, Denny was forced against his will by a judge to provide ''pro bono'' representation to an accused child rapist/killer. The killer privately bragged to Denny about having committed the crime, and Denny responded by shooting both the man's kneecaps in "self-defense" with a gun he had smuggled past courthouse security in his briefcase. He also shot a homeless man in the head with a paintball gun after the man threw a rock at his head because Denny ignored his pleas for spare change. Finally, he shot his psychologist on two separate occasions: first in self-defense when the psychologist brandished a gun and said it was Denny or him (after Denny pulled his gun first), and then again in a courtroom after the psychologist was threatening to shoot Alan. As Paul Lewiston put it best, "[he shoots people]."
In the episode "Nuts", when Denny finds out that he is on the Transportation Security Administration's No Fly List, Alan tells the lawyer representing Homeland Security that there is no one more patriotic than Denny, stating that he is pro-life, pro-death penalty, uses every possible loop-hole to get out of paying taxes, and donated to the Jack Abramoff Ball. Earlier in the episode, Alan and Denny discuss who of Denny's friends could come to his aid; names mentioned were Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Mark Foley, and Dick Cheney. Denny also feels that elevators "are for Democrats" and he only takes the stairs. In one episode, when he is representing the United States in court, Denny refers to the Attorney General by his first name, "Alberto."
Denny learned everything he knows about law from his father. When he began practicing in 1957, Denny and his father were practicing together. He said once that they "made a great team, birds of a feather." However, his father did not approve of Denny's reliance on deceit and manipulation to win his cases, as revealed in the episode "Son of the Defender." Denny's father made him want to become a lawyer, despite being ashamed of Denny's way with the law. When Denny relied on a stunt to acquit a man his father thought was guilty, his father said, "I thought it would be a good life for you, but now I don't know. We don't think alike, you and I. I don't really know you." Years later, when the son of the victim in the same case sought revenge on Denny, the memories of his father's disapproval brought an obvious sadness to him. Upon the result of this case in 1957, Denny said, "My father...he disowned me."
Denny reveals in the episode "Live Big" that he euthanized his demented father ("The man with the brain of a two year-old") by pressuring the supervising doctor to increase his patient's morphine dose ("We put him out of our misery," Denny tells Alan).
Denny and Alan are close friends despite their great political differences, and episodes almost always end with a scene of the two enjoying a cigar and a glass of Scotch on the balcony of the law firm, talking over events that had happened in the episode. Alan said, "I'm proud of you Denny...I always am."
Denny is at times portrayed as extremely unethical. In one episode, he convinced a judge to drop all charges against his nymphomaniac client by playing on the judge's self-esteem problems stemming from his being a virgin (the judge was later revealed to be homosexual; he had simply never had sex with a woman). He also once employed a spin doctor to taint the jury pool by flooding the media with sympathetic portrayals of his client. Denny also has at many times made remarks about sleeping with people's wives, a practice that places him in harm's way in the pilot episode. He once claimed that he had a threesome with Shirley Schmidt and Barbra Streisand; Shirley then told him that she had hired a male Barbara Streisand impersonator.
Denny has claimed that he is the greatest attorney in history, and has never lost a case, stating that his record is 6,043-0 (cf. "Loose Lips"). This record is debatable, however, as he will shift the blame away from himself in lost cases he was involved with, saying that it was in fact his colleague who lost, not him. Paul Lewiston once observed that Denny is like Muhammad Ali late in his career, relying more on his past reputation than his current skills. Sometimes Denny's pronouncements of his own name are less about making a joke and more about invoking that old Denny Crane reputation to intimidate others.
Another lawyer, Donny Crane, was believed to be Denny's illegitimate son, the product of an affair with an anonymous woman. Denny, however, confessed to Alan that when Donny's mother slapped him with a paternity suit he settled, and Donny's mother later admitted that Denny wasn't the father. Many jokes were made about the closeness of Donny and Denny's names. Just like Denny, Donny also used his own name as an exclamation at inappropriate times. However, as the show has evolved, Denny has made it clear to Donny that although he may not have sired Donny, he regards Donny as his son.
Denny's expertise and skill in media manipulation, as well as his reputation, have made him the public face of ''Crane, Poole & Schmidt'', far more often than any of the other senior partners would like. His aggressive personality, massive ego, excessive libido, and eagerness for the limelight have caused him to lose five wives, the most recent after only three hours of marriage when he was caught having sex with a catering server in the coat room at his own wedding reception. But as a name partner and the firm's resident rainmaker, Denny cannot be removed from the firm without great difficulty and economic risk (as he often points out, "My name's on the door"). When surrounded by reporters, he often says his name and something that is not directly related to the case (e. g. in "The Black Widow" (season 2, #18) he repeatedly says: "Denny Crane! She loves me − she loves me not!").

Character eccentricities

In a breaking of the "fourth wall", Denny is often shown to be aware of his status as a character in a television show, particularly in the second and third seasons. There are also numerous references to Shatner's role on ''Star Trek''. Some examples include:

★ Alan greets Denny at the end of "Too Much Information" with the remark, "Ah, there you are. I've hardly seen you this episode."

★ In the episode "Finding Nimmo", Alan's reading a book about the extinction of the North Pacific Salmon noting that "it's caused by sea-lice called cling-ons", to which Denny replies, "Did you just say Klingons?", which was an alien race in Star Trek.

★ Discussing euthanasia with Alan in the episode "Live Big", Denny says, "I'm tired of my Alzheimer's being a story point," to which Alan replies "This isn't your story, Denny."

★ In the episode "The Cancer Man Can", Denny's new clamshell phone makes the "tick-tick-tick" sound of a '' communicator when opened.

★ In the episode "There's Fire", he asks his new wife Bev, "What am I supposed to do, beam myself to Boston every morning?" (William Shatner's more famous role as Captain Kirk in ''Star Trek'' (not to mention Rene Auberjonois' role as Odo from '') is a frequent source of such references.)

★ At the end of "Squid Pro Quo", when Denny and Alan anticipate what to expect from Marlene Stanger, a sexy new attorney, Denny sums up the situation by saying, "I can't wait to see her next week."

★ In "BL Los Angeles", Denny asks Shirley to kiss him, saying, "It's the sweeps episode."

★ In the second season finale, Alan remarks to Denny, "I'll see you next season", to which Denny replies, "Hopefully on the same night."

★ In the episode "New Kids on the Block", when he is told there were new lawyers in the firm, Denny responds, "Oh, please! If there were new guys, they'd have shown up in the season premiere." Then he welcomed them by saying "Welcome to ''Boston Legal''", acknowledging the name of the show rather than the name of the fictional firm. He then further breaks the fourth wall by asking to "cue the music." None of the other characters seem to perceive this as unusual, except for Jeffrey Coho, who seems surprised to hear the show's theme music and looks around, seemingly for its source.

★ In the episode "Angel of Death", Denny plays the first few notes of the show's theme song on his "trombone-kazoo", in coincidence with the real song playing over the opening credits.

★ In the episode "Fat Burner", Denny turns to Alan after the prosecution's summation and asks, "Why is the other side's closing argument always so short?", referring to how the show's writers only focus on the main characters' summations.

★ In the episode "Gone", Denny and Alan are talking about Alan defending the man Denny shot with a paintball gun. Denny says, "I wish you had let me in on the game. I can act you know. I won an Emmy." This is referring to the Emmy Shatner won for the show.

★ At the end of "Dumping Bella," Denny (dressed as Dick Cheney) is dancing with Alan (dressed as Shirley Schmidt). Denny comments that the neighbors would be puzzled if they saw Dick Cheney dancing with Shirley Schmidt on their balcony. Alan replies, "Well, if they're regular viewers, they know by now [that] anything goes."

★ During the Season Finale of Season 3 Denny Crane mentions he once captained his own spaceship, referring to the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 of Star Trek fame.
Denny Crane frequently uses various catch-phrases including: most frequently, "Lock and load", and also, "tricks are for kids", "cuckoo for cocoa puffs", "still cuckoo for cocoa puffs", and "pop goes the weasel" as he passes through the media after leaving court.

External links

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