What happened to the previous receptionist?
Marla Sarkalov (bad spelling) I think her name was

who cares, the new chick is ssssssssssssssssssssmokin hot.

Marla Sokoloff is her name.
I've never seen the show, but I like the actress- she's probably in my top ten. She played the twin sister to Jennifer Barner in Dude, Where's My Car?
There's even kind of a resemblance.

Agreed. Marla Sokoloff is a hottie, but she ain't Rhona Mitra.

I enjoyed James Spader's Alan Shore character, he's a bit offbeat, and has a little bit of Al McBeal in him, though he's a roguish womanizer at heart. Oh, and the paralegal is a worthy addition as well (Rhona Mitra, who got me to watch Party of Five when back when).

I wrote this show off until they brought in Ron Livingston. He is an actor worth checking out. Then he disappeared. What happened to him?

don't know about ron livingston, but i will totally agree that rhona mitra is HOT!!! here is a pic to prove it

Ron Livingston went to go do Band of Brothers and then Sex and the City.

the Boston DA's office had too many tps reports for his liking

I heard that one day, he just stopped coming to work. Didn't feel like coming in, so he just didn't.

"I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bobby."

das

I really liked James Sparder's character. I hope they don't feel the need to humanize him (like they hinted at during the final shot). I also appreciate the way they didn't make a big deal about the cast changes. It was very mater-of-fact and it worked well.

And since they overhauled the cast anyways, this is obviously who they should have hired as the new office secretary:





Well, maybe after Rhona Mitra's character passes the bar...

Livingston turned in his law degree to work as Goofy at Disneyland.

Back to the original question

She was part of the group was fired over the summer.

Alan Shore looks like he's going to be an interesting character. Spader is always fascinating to watch. His blurred ethical line and manipulative nature could prove a nice change from Bobby's angst-ridden moping.

I just want more Jamie.

Is lindsay gone too?
at least they wrote Bobby's leaving into the show. These other people are just awol

No, the new secretary briefly mentioned that Donnaly, Dole and Washington are all gone now. Like I posted, not what I expected, very matter-of-fact, but it worked. In real life, if you stopped by a busy law office a few months after major upheaval, they probably wouldn't all be talking about it, but rather just trying to do their work and get by; so in that sense it felt realistic. Still, I might have had James Spader say something like "I know you guys could use some help now".

Besides, we know Dylan McDermett is coming back for a few episodes, so we'll get more details then, I assume.

Band of Brothers was long before the Practice. That originally aired on HBO over 2 years ago, and it took almost 2 years prior to film it. So he worked on that around 99- 2000. Where as he popped up on the practice last year I believe.

But you are right about Sex and the City. Don't watch it but read he has a recurring role. But I was wondering what happened to the character. Just went awol like everyone else?

[hijack]Coincidentally, I think this is what they should do with ER. Complete overhaul. Keep a few characters and just bring in a whole new staff. Watching the first season on dvd is night and day difference. 1 season= about the patients, current season=soap opera, who f's who, and how much life of the show can be sucked out by Abby. [/hijack]

I can't remember how Livingston's character was written out, but I think he hadn't been on since 2 seasons ago. (He left long before the cast overhaul. )

What's up with the lack of reason (in the show) for the huge cast shift. THe only mention of it was by the new paralegal and it wasn't telling of anything at all.

Well Bobby had quit and his ex-wife had her own firm. No one else was explained.

Yup, and it was clear during the season finale last season that Rebecca wasn't happy with Eugene's way of running the firm so that explains it for me. Ron Livingston's character just faded away. I actually miss Richard Bay.

I think that was probably the best way to handle it, personally. They lost 5-6 cast members... best just to basically assume that lots of time has past and ignore it. Otherwise, you're spending your entire first episode focusing on where everyone is; rather than focusing on the new people/cases.