Denny Crane

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Denny Crane, played by William Shatner

Dennis "Denny" Crane is a fictional lawyer on the television series Boston Legal. The character first appeared during the final season of The Practice and is portrayed by William Shatner. Crane is another main character of the series.

[edit] Character biography

Denny is a founding partner of the law firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt, along with Shirley Schmidt and Edwin M. Poole. He often punctuates his statements by announcing his own name, "Denny Crane." On a case involving seniors and prescription drug prices, Denny forgot the details of the case and gave an opening statement that resulted in a mistrial, to his client's benefit. He then finally took seriously Alan Shore's suggestion that he might have Alzheimer's and went to get tested for it. Late in the first season, Denny admitted to Alan that he had been taking a type of amphetamine drug to help him focus on trial procedures; he later stopped taking the drug. After trying a case involving the safety of red meat, Denny comes to believe that his condition is due to mad cow disease.

Near the end of the first season of Boston Legal, Lori Colson filed a complaint about Denny's behavior, which Shirley Schmidt and Paul Lewiston were ready to use to try to push him out of the firm. At this point, the show went on hiatus so Grey's Anatomy could premiere. When Grey's Anatomy became such a hit, ABC decided to push Boston Legal back until September. While Lori's complaint was briefly addressed early on in the second season, its resolution is still unclear, although Colson is no longer on the show, as Monica Potter left to have a child.

Denny is a staunch conservative Republican who strongly opposes gun control, claiming that "it's for communists." On the recommendation of his friend Tom DeLay he keeps a wide variety of loaded guns in his office (including the camouflaged AR-7 he saved Alan with [1]). Denny feels that elevators "are for Democrats" and he only takes the stairs. In one episode, when he is representing the United States in court, he refers to the Attorney General by his first name, "Alberto."

Denny reveals in the episode "Live Big" that he euthanized his demented father ("The man with the brain of a two year-old") by pressuring the supervising doctor to increase his patient's morphine dose ("We put him out of our misery," Denny tells Alan).

Denny and Alan are close friends despite their great political differences, and episodes almost always closes with a scene of the two enjoying a cigar and a Scotch on the balcony of the law firm, talking over events that had happened in the episode.

Denny is at times portrayed as extremely unethical. In one episode, he convinced a judge to drop all charges against his nymphomaniac client by playing on the judge's self-esteem problems stemming from his being a virgin. Denny also has at many times made remarks about sleeping with people's wives. He once claimed that he had a threesome with Shirley Schmidt and Barbra Streisand; Shirley then told him that she had hired a male Barbara Streisand impersonator.

Denny has also bragged that he has never lost a case, claiming that his record is 6,043-0 (cf. "Loose Lips"). He has also said that he is the greatest attorney in history. Paul Lewiston once observed that Denny is like Muhammed Ali late in his career, relying more on his past reputation than his current skills. Sometimes Denny's pronouncements of his name are less about making a joke and more about invoking that old Denny Crane reputation to intimidate others.

Another lawyer, Donny Crane, was believed to be Denny's illegitimate son, the product of an affair with an anonymous woman. Denny, however, confessed to Alan that when Donny's mother slapped him with a paternity suit he settled; and Donny's mother later admitted that Denny wasn't the father. Many jokes were made about the closeness of Donny and Denny's names. Just like Denny, Donny also uses his own name as an exclamation at inappropriate times. However, as the show has evolved Denny has made it clear to Donny that although he may not have sired Donny, he regards Donny as his son.

An avid rifleman, Denny once claimed to be a Marine Corps veteran, but he couldn't remember whether he was a pilot or a sniper in an episode where he shot a man who was threatening to shoot Alan; he had Tara Wilson open the intervening door by yelling "Pull!" (as in skeet shooting), after which he shot the assailant.

In another second season episode, Denny was forced against his will by a judge to provide pro bono representation to an accused child rapist/killer. The killer privately bragged to Denny about having committed the crime, and Crane shot both his kneecaps in "self defense" with a gun he had smuggled past courthouse security in his briefcase; this incident landed Denny one of his numerous appearances on Larry King's cable-TV talk show. In another episode, Denny threatens to shoot his therapist in the shoulder, which he later does in self-defense. He later fires on his therapist again in court when Alan is threatened.

Denny's expertise and skill in media manipulation, as well as his reputation, have made him the public face of Crane, Poole & Schmidt — far more often than any of the other senior partners would like. His aggressive personality, massive ego, excessive libido, and eagerness for the limelight have caused him to lose five wives, the most recent after only three hours of marriage when he was caught having sex with a catering server in the coat room at his own wedding reception. But as a name partner and the firm's resident rainmaker, Denny cannot be removed from the firm without great difficulty and economic risk (as he often points out, "My name's on the door"). When surrounded by reporters he often says his name and something that is not directly related to the case (e. g. in "The Black Widow" (season 2, #18) he repeatedly says: "Denny Crane! She loves me − she does not love me!").

The reason why Denny always says his name out loud is, according to him, that people can't believe they are actually in the room with legendary Denny Crane, so he says his name to assure them that it's real (as stated by him in his guest appearance in "The Practice"). According to Shirley Schmidt (in Season 1 episode "Schmidt happens"), Denny says his name out loud to remember it, which refers to his possible Alzheimer's disease.

[edit] Character eccentricities

In a breaking of the "fourth wall", Denny is often shown to be aware of his status as a character in a television show, particularly in the second and third seasons. Some examples include:

In the third season episode "Fat Burner", Denny turns to Alan after the prosecution's summation and asks, "Why is the other side's closing argument always so short?", referring to how the show's writers only focus on the main characters' summations.
Alan greets Denny at the end of one episode with the remark, "Ah, there you are. I've hardly seen you this episode."
At the end of another "Squid Pro Quo", when Denny and Alan anticipate what to expect from a sexy new attorney, Marlene Stanger, Denny sums up the situation by saying, "I can't wait to see her next week."
In "BL Los Angeles", Denny asks Shirley to kiss him, saying, "It's the Sweeps episode."
In the third season episode "New Kids on the Block", when he was told there were new lawyers in the firm, Denny responded: "Oh, please! If there were new guys they'd have shown up in the season premiere." Then he welcomed them by saying "Welcome to Boston Legal", acknowledging the name of the show rather than the name of the fictional firm. He then further breaks the fourth wall by asking to "cue the music." None of the other characters seem to perceive this as unusual, except for Jeffrey Coho, who seems surprised to hear the show's theme music and looks around, seemingly for its source.
Discussing euthanasia with Alan in the episode "Live Big", Denny says, "I'm tired of my Alzheimer's being a story point," to which Alan replies "This isn't your story, Denny."
In the second season finale, Alan remarks to Denny, "I'll see you next season", to which Denny replies, "hopefully on the same night."
In the episode "The Cancer Man Can", Denny's new clamshell phone makes the "tick-tick-tick" sound of a TOS communicator when opened.
In the episode "There's Fire", he asks his new wife Bev, "What am I supposed to do, beam myself to Boston every morning?" (William Shatner's more famous role as Captain Kirk in Star Trek (not to mention Rene Auberjonois' role as Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) is a frequent source of such references.)
In the episode "Lincoln" Alan says that the trial is on Tuesday at 10:00, which is the show's normal time slot, though the trial presumably started in the morning, rather than 10:00 PM.
In the episode "Angel of Death", Denny plays the first few notes of the show's theme song on his "trombone-kazoo", in coincidence with the real song playing over the opening credits.
In the episode "Finding Nimmo", Alan's reading a book about the extinction of the North Pacific Salmon noting that "it's caused by sea-lice called cling-ons. Denny replies "Did you just say Klingons?", which was an alien race in Star Trek.
In the episode "Gone", Denny and Alan are talking about Alan defending the man Denny shot with a paintball gun. Denny says, "I wish you had let me in on the game. I can act you know. I won an Emmy." This is referring to the Emmy Shatner won for the show.
At the end of "Dumping Bella," Denny (dressed as Dick Cheney) is dancing with Alan (dressed as Shirley Schmidt). Denny comments that the neighbors would be puzzled if they saw Dick Cheney dancing with Shirley Schmidt on their balcony. Alan replies, "Well, if they're regular viewers, they know by now [that] anything goes."