Boston Public was one of my favourite shows penned by David E Kelly, but sadly it started to take a noticeable decline in quality. And by the Third Season, I felt Boston Public almost lost all credibilty as the excellent drama it started off as in Season One. But what went wrong exactly? Some people blamed the cast changes, while I personally blame the terrible writing. What happened to Boston Public?

S2 and S3 were weak. I thought it was rebounding quite well in S4.

I really liked the first season a lot. But I felt by the second season...it was pretty bad. Such a blantant contrast to the first which did have some "out there" storylines, but was still believable and enjoyable.

I think once "Hook Lady" emerged in the second season, it lost too much credibility with me. I unfortunately don't remember much else from season 2 (you'd have to re-fresh my memory). I do know that I opted out somewhere during season 2, and didn't come back until the last season (which I thought was fairly solid considering how awful the show got).

it started sucking when Michael Rappaport joined the cast

sucked when the guy from New kids on the block joined....

When more than 1 female teacher became hot and dressed sexy. There is only so much make-believe I can take out of Hollywood.

I never thought it went downhill, I just enjoyed the show as a whole. Every bizarre storyline I thought was funny, and interesting. Now if only Kelley would have the brains to let 20th Century Fox (who makes all of his shows) release this on DVD....

When the one teacher threatened a classroom full of students with gun, fired it 3 times into a wall and then didn't get fired (or arrested) because he was the "best" teacher the school had.

I loved Boston Public, and watched every one of them.

But when the two 'leads' left the show for no real reason, thats when it pissed me off. Just because 7 came on didn't mean Lauren had to leave. And Nicky Katt left television to go work at Sizzler, I guess.

But yeah, all the singing wore a little thin.

CFG

After the hand-cutting, it went from a semi-serious high school drama to total camp.

When 7of9 came on the show was finished, with no hope of being good again. It wasn't great even before her, though.

Do you blame Jeri Ryan?

I don't, but I do agree that when Jeri Ryan joined the cast, Boston Public already seemed to be on a downward slide. I did not find Jeri Ryan herself to be awful, but the writing for her stories and character were, plus she had the daunting task of trying to replace Nicky Katt.

The casting of her and Michael Rapaport aggravated the situation when they rudely shoved aside one of the more popular cast members, Jessalyn Gilsig. Then of course Nicky Katt had to leave in Season Three as well, knowing the show's luck.

But despite all the major cast shifts, I felt that Boston Public's main reason for crashing and burning all fall down to David E. Kelly, who started to make the sudden cast changes in the second season and all the crazy shit with the Hook Lady. Then he abandoned the show in it's third season and Boston Public sank accordingly.

Like Ally McBeal, I'm sure there are a ton of tangled rights issues with the music used in the episodes (especially when EVERY episode seemed to feature a musical number) that are preventing a Region 1 release of this series.

Then David E. Kelly and FOX studio are bunch of dumb pricks if they shoot themselves in the foot like that, over rather petty music rights and preventing extra profit in DVD sales.

The lack of DVD release of Ally McBeal and Boston Public is down to licensing issues, but I guess their eventual release is slowed down rather prevented completely.

Here's a link to "Jump the Shark", concerning Boston Public: http://www.jumptheshark.com/b/bostonpublic.htm

Do any of you here agree with the comments made on that site?

The correct answer is:

When it premiered.

It's obvious that Kelley has a history of doing this. He did it with "The Practice", and just wait- "Boston Legal" (what an original title!) will soon fall victim.

I stopped watching on a regular basis when senate fired a gun in school and didn't even get a reprimand. He violates a bunch of laws and doesn't get any punishment at all
although even when I watched somewhat regularly it wasn't high on my list of shows

so how'd the assistant principal become a judge anyway?
(boston legal watchers will get this)

Judge Guber.

Senate firing his gun was in the PILOT EPISODE.

So from some of the replies here, a few of you stopped watching or didn't like the show based on the first episode...

Bingo. Now you know what I voted in this pole.

The real decline was when the show failed to deliver on it's promise to show the lives of the teachers, and not so much on the students. That barely lasted a season.

I can definitely say when the show hit rock bottom - when Brooke Harper was there. One of the most annoying characters in the history of television.

And played by a really annoying actress as well.

Why are alot people voting "Boston Public was a Pile of Shit to Begin With"? I thought Boston Public was great in first season, I even thought Season Two was not too bad if you ignored the Hook Lady and drowned out the singing.

And I think David E. Kelly is a dumb f**k if he cannot release his shows due to convoluted and contrived licensing issues with the soundtrack he drowns his shows in. Other shows seem to have lots of music and they have no trouble ih licensing issues.

Is there a chance that Boston Public will see a DVD release eventually?

When they decided they could sing! And then they did it every damn episode.