David E. Kelley was essentially the king of network television in the late nineties, but by the time The Practice season 7 rolled around in 2002, the crown was slipping. It’s hard to overstate how much of a mess things were behind the scenes at ABC back then. The show was a titan, a multi-Emmy winner that had redefined the "gritty" legal procedural, yet it suddenly found itself moved to Monday nights, facing a brutal ratings slide that almost ended the firm of Donnell, Young, Dole & Frutt for good.
If you watched it live, you remember the whiplash. One minute Bobby Donnell is the moral compass of Boston’s legal underbelly, and the next, the show feels like it’s gasping for air. This season is often the forgotten bridge between the show’s peak and the weird, wonderful rebirth that became Boston Legal. But honestly? It’s a fascinating, messy, and deeply frustrating year of television that deserves a closer look.
The Budget Bloodbath That Changed Everything
Network TV is a business, and in 2002, the business was getting ugly. ABC was hemorrhaging viewers, and they did something unthinkable: they slashed the budget for The Practice season 7 by roughly $7 million. That isn't just a haircut; it’s a decapitation.
Because of that massive cut, the producers had to make a choice. They couldn't keep the massive ensemble cast. This led to the infamous "Friday Night Massacre" where mainstay actors like Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, and Lara Flynn Boyle were effectively shown the door or reduced to guest spots. Imagine watching a show for six years and then suddenly, the main guy is just... gone for most of the season. It felt hollow.
The season actually starts with a sense of dread. Bobby Donnell is grappling with the fact that he’s lost his way. He’s cynical. He’s tired. And frankly, the audience was getting tired too. The pacing slowed down. The courtroom scenes, once electric, started to feel like they were recycling old David E. Kelley tropes—the "outrageous" case of the week that challenges our notions of the First Amendment or some obscure privacy law.
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Why the Move to Mondays Was a Death Sentence
ABC moved the show from its cozy Sunday night slot to Mondays. Big mistake. It had to compete with Monday Night Football and established hits on other networks. Ratings plummeted. It went from being a top 20 show to something like 50th in the Nielsen rankings.
When a show loses half its budget and its time slot, the writing usually suffers. In The Practice season 7, you can see the writers trying to "shock" the audience back into caring. We got some truly bizarre storylines. Remember the case involving the man who thought he was a serial killer because of a "predisposition" in his DNA? Or the increasingly desperate attempts to make Lindsay Dole’s descent into legal malpractice feel earned? It felt like the show was throwing spaghetti at the wall.
The Dylan McDermott Departure
Let's talk about Bobby Donnell. Dylan McDermott was the face of the show. His departure (though he returned for the finale) left a void that couldn't be filled by the remaining cast, despite how talented Steve Harris and Camryn Manheim are.
Eugene Young (Steve Harris) stepped up as the head of the firm, which was actually a high point. Seeing Eugene grapple with the leadership role provided some of the only genuine character growth in the season. He was always the most principled person in the room, and watching that principle meet the reality of running a failing business was compelling. But even Eugene couldn't carry the weight of a show that had lost its heart.
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A Season of Missed Connections
The chemistry was off. Jimmy Berluti (Michael Badalucco) and Ellenor Frutt (Camryn Manheim) are great characters, but they functioned best when they had Bobby to push against. Without that central gravity, the subplots felt like they belonged to different shows.
We also saw the introduction of Jamie Stringer (Jessica Capshaw). She was meant to be the "new blood," but the fans were so mourning the loss of the original cast that it was hard for her to gain traction. It’s a classic TV mistake: trying to replace beloved veterans with younger, cheaper versions while the ship is already taking on water.
The Legal Ethics of Desperation
One thing The Practice season 7 actually got right was the feeling of a law firm on the brink of bankruptcy. Usually, legal shows act like money doesn't exist. Not here. You felt the stress of the overhead. You saw them taking cases they would have turned down in season 3 just to keep the lights on. It was a meta-commentary on the show’s own struggle to survive.
They tackled some heavy themes:
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- The moral cost of defending the indefensible when you're broke.
- The breakdown of long-term friendships under professional pressure.
- The way the legal system favors those who can wait out a trial, which a dying firm cannot do.
The Final Gasp and the Spin-off Pivot
By the end of the season, it was clear that The Practice as we knew it was dead. But then something weird happened. David E. Kelley, in a last-ditch effort to save the brand, brought in James Spader as Alan Shore for the following season.
Wait. I’m getting ahead of myself. That was season 8. But the seeds were planted in the wreckage of season 7. The failure of this season is the only reason we got the eccentric, scenery-chewing brilliance of Alan Shore later on. If season 7 had been a mediocre success, the show would have probably just limped along for another year and vanished. Because it was such a disaster, Kelley was forced to blow the whole thing up.
Real-World Impact
It’s easy to look back and say, "Oh, it was just a bad season." But this was a landmark moment for how networks handled aging hits. It proved that you can't just slash a budget and expect the soul of a show to remain intact. It also served as a warning to other showrunners about the dangers of becoming too reliant on a single lead actor.
Actionable Steps for the Retro-TV Binge-Watcher
If you're planning to revisit The Practice season 7, or if you're a first-time viewer navigating the series on streaming, here is how to handle this specific stretch of episodes:
- Adjust your expectations for the cast. Don't go in expecting the tight-knit family of the early years. Accept that it’s a show about a firm in transition and decline.
- Focus on Eugene. Steve Harris does some of his best work here. Pay attention to his arc; it’s the most consistent part of the season.
- Watch for the "Budget" signs. It’s actually kind of a fun game to see how they tried to save money—fewer outdoor shoots, more scenes in the office, and a noticeable lack of high-profile guest stars compared to the "Emmy-bait" years.
- Use it as a bridge. If you find it a slog, just remember that the "reboot" in season 8 is widely considered a return to form (or at least a very entertaining new direction). You need the context of the firm's collapse in season 7 to appreciate how Alan Shore eventually walks in and burns the whole place down.
- Check the legal cases against modern standards. A lot of the "controversial" cases in 2002 feel very different in 2026. It’s a great way to see how social norms and legal interpretations of privacy and technology have shifted over the last two decades.
The reality is that The Practice season 7 isn't the best year of the show. Not even close. But it's a vital piece of television history that shows the messy intersection of art and commerce. It’s the sound of a powerhouse show hitting a wall and trying to figure out how to keep moving. Whether it succeeded is up for debate, but it certainly wasn't boring.