Before you
decide you don’t have time in your TV viewing schedule for another legal drama,
you might want to take a breath and give Franklin
& Bash a try. The new TNT series stars Saved by the Bell
's Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin
Meyer as two street lawyers who join an uptight firm. And in the tradition of a
few other legal dramedies, they bring humor to an otherwise
dry format.
's Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin
Meyer as two street lawyers who join an uptight firm. And in the tradition of a
few other legal dramedies, they bring humor to an otherwise
dry format.
In a recent conference call
interview Gosselaar commented, “We haven’t seen comedy in the courtroom in a
while. Boston Legal
is probably the
last one. Ally McBeal
is another one.
L.A. Law
was a brilliant legal drama
with elements of comedy. So that’s what sets it apart from what’s currently on
television, as well as the relationship between the two guys.”
is probably the
last one. Ally McBeal is another one.
L.A. Law was a brilliant legal drama
with elements of comedy. So that’s what sets it apart from what’s currently on
television, as well as the relationship between the two guys.”
The two guys are Jared Franklin
(Meyer) and Steven Bash (Gosselaar). Each actor described his co-star’s
character. Meyer noted, “Mark-Paul’s character, Peter Bash, is fantastic with a
jury. They love to swim in his baby blues and he’ll take them down whatever
path he wants them to.” Gosselaar added that Bash “is an attorney who is
confident, who is great in a courtroom. He’s an assassin in the courtroom. He
knows how to be surgeon with the jury.”
While he described Franklin as “a
public defender who wore his heart on his sleeve, was righteous. And he needed
to be that way because of the environment that he was up against… He was always
the underdog and in an environment where he thought the cards were stacked
against him.” Meyer summed up his role saying, “Jared’s more like a dog going
after a tennis ball in a bush, which is he’ll go head first and deal with the
thorns later.”
As a result of their unorthodox
approach, Franklin and Bash are bound to get into trouble time and time again
on the show. So how far do the stars think they’ll be able to push the
boundaries on the show? Meyer responded, “It has to dance the line. Bill Chais,
one of our co-creators of the show was a public defender for many years, and we
lean to Bill often when I say, ‘Look, I understand that this is fun and this is
good for the show and it moves the story along, but can this happen?’ There’s a
lot of, ‘Can this happen?’”
He cited an example that viewers
will get to see in the first episode. “In the pilot, the girl taking off her
shirt and revealing her bra — I said, ‘Bill, can it happen?’ And he says, ‘Yes,
absolutely.’ And I said, ‘Well, what would happen to me?’ And he goes, ‘Exactly
what’s happening. You’d be thrown in jail.’ So as long there are consequences,
repercussions to our actions, I’m happy to have us take the unorthodox approach
to the legal system.”
There’s only one place he hopes they
don’t go. He remarked, “Getting disbarred, I think, would be too far. I think
Jared and Peter’s philosophy is they will do anything possible to get their
client off, and it means getting sent to jail, so be it.” He drew a comparison
to a classic TV series to illustrate his point saying that the philosophy on M*A*S*H was “that everything’s funny but
the war.” He felt his characters would draw a similar line, “With Jared and
Peter, everything’s funny and fair game, except the case, and everything has a
reason to it. It’s not just being silly in court because it’s fun… everything
has a reason behind it, everything leads to getting our client exonerated.”
And that sounds just like the kind
of no-holds-barred lawyer anyone would want to have on their side. As Meyer
admitted, “Would I hire Franklin and Bash to represent me? It really depends on
what I was arrested for, but I guess I absolutely would probably mostly out of
curiosity just to see how they’re going to get me off… But yes, sure why not.
I’d hire them.”
Tune in when Franklin & Bash premiers on Wednesday, June 1 at 9 p.m. EST/8
p.m. Central on TNT.
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