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Originally posted by David Newell:
Would you rather viewers tune in to watch inJustice or Conviction? Sounds like a good voir dire question actually.

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Now you're talkin'!

It appears that both InJustice and Conviction have been axed by their respective networks -- neither has been picked up for next season.

Of course, every time a door closes, a window opens -- here's the newest crime-time lawyer show, set to air next fall on Thursday nights on CBS:

"Shark"

Premise: A celebrity lawyer gives up private practice to become a prosecutor.

First Impressions: Call it "House, J.D." James Woods absolutely commands attention as a high-octane defense lawyer who switches sides and becomes a prosecutor, taking a team of young ADAs under his wing.

Stars: James Woods ("Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story," "Ghosts of Mississippi"), Jeri Ryan ("Boston Public," "The O.C."), Sam Page ("Point Pleasant"), Sarah Carter ("Smallville," "Numb3rs"), Alexis Cruz ("American Family," "Stargate SG-1"), Danielle Panabaker ("Empire Falls"), Romy Rosemont ("CSI," "Friends with Money"), Sophina Brown

Producers: Ian Biederman ("Crossing Jordan"), Ed Redlich ("Without a Trace"), Brian Grazer ("The Da Vinci Code"), David Nevins.

Pilot directed by Spike Lee

Woods was the lead killer in Vampires by John Carpenter and the Steroid doctor in Any Given Sunday directed by Oliver Stone.

Somehow, saying I'm skeptical doesn't quite cover it.

I just saw a promotional ad - I think for that show, at least it looked like Woods mouthing the following - coaching his assistants by telling winning is the game, justice is for God to decide. Not sure I like that angle.

He was also the voice of Hades in Hercules. He also played a gay, albino-looking cop killer in The Onion Field. But I was most disturbed by his portrayal of a guy who pulls a gun out of his own abdomen in Videodrome.

I still like Law and Order. It always seemed to make some legal sense and had a as much of a ring of truth in it than any fictional Holywood TV show. I am biased in that I was driven to law school and am still driven to get conviction after conviction to please Jill Hennessy's fictional character ADA Claire Kinkcade.

Saw this in the paper:

In �Shark,� he plays a wildly successful defense lawyer named Sebastian Stark who decides to switch teams and work for the Los Angeles District Attorney�s Office. At some point, he will evolve into a person who cares more about justice than winning, but that�s pretty far down the road. Judging from the pilot, �Shark� is 100 percent about Woods� character, and if you don�t enjoy his hyperkenetic style of acting, well, this show won�t float your boat.

�He�s a guy with overwhelming narcisism and ego,� Woods sputtered gleefully, crossing and uncrossing his legs, running his hands through his hair and going on and on about �moral relativism.�

We sure need more of that these days.

Didn't Woods also play some kind of dope smoking San Francisco hippie lawyer some time back?

The show SHARK would only be cool if Dennis Hopper or Harry Dean Stanton was his DA investigator.

"you don't have to answer this and they can strike this from the record, but I just gotta' know. how could you do it?"

this was the climactic/matlocktic question woods asked when he put the DA on the stand in front of the jury.

and the DA answered the question!

David you are a fountain of pop culture knowledge! Wasn't Robert Downey his loyal assistant?

he was indeed! he played a rich ivy league law student who turned down big bucks to work with Woods. quite ironically, Robert "Call Me Bob" Downey, Jr. seemed to look down on Eddie Dodd (James Woods) for defending drug dealers. i know, what a crazy world!

Maybe Dennis Hopper is available to play an investigator. Harry Dean Stanton is busy playing the evil polygamist on HBO's Big Love.

Hey, what ever happened to that show that was supposed to be about Kelly Siegler?

"...it was not picked up by the network."

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Originally posted by jane starnes:
Maybe Dennis Hopper is available to play an investigator. Harry Dean Stanton is busy playing the evil polygamist on HBO's Big Love.

Hey, what ever happened to that show that was supposed to be about Kelly Siegler?

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They had an obit story last month in the Statesman about a lady who was Austin's Real Estate Agent to the Stars, and it mentioned she had in the recent past sold an Austin home to Hopper.

Harry Dean, in addition to being a talented actor, is also a stellar singer/songwriter. I saw him and his band in LA 19 years ago. I'm sure a talent of his magnitude could handle several big roles at once!

sort of the acting version of polygamy.

I heard that "Shark" is supposedly one of the shows chosen to air exclusively on in-flight entertainment. One of the networks -- CBS, I think -- is experimenting with showing new shows on airlines instead of the endless "Seinfeld" reruns they show now. I don't know how they expect to get much of a following that way!

Captive audience. Yikes, and airlines wonder in amazement why they can't break even and why more folks won't fly.

they'd be better off just releasing snakes on the plane.

[This message was edited by David Newell on 07-19-06 at .]