The TV Zone

Bochco lives! Or at least another Steven Bochco show does: TNT has picked up the Mark-Paul Gosselaar/ Gloria Reuben/ Jane Kaczmarek legal drama, "Raising the Bar, based on David Feige's "Indefensible," about the criminal justice system.

In the midst of the gloom of the writers strike, this is a huge lift for Bochco, who I interviewed over the summer and who gave every indication that after a long and extraordinary career, he was dialing down. The only exception was this project, which he had worked long and hard over with Feige, a newcomer to the TV trade and a former public defender in the South Bronx. Bochco had had it with the business in general - especially network interference and the sense that the sun had officially set on HIS type off drama, the police/reality/reality-based drama a la "NYPD Blue."

But he was optimistic about this project, and that has paid off. Here's the description from TNT - which says the show will bow later this year (assuming the strike is history by then):

"Gosselaar [above] stars as Jerry Kellerman, an idealistic public defender who will stop at nothing to help those who cannot help themselves. Reuben plays Rosalind Whitman, his passionate and protective boss. Teddy Sears (Ugly Betty) is Richard Patrick Woolsley, who foregoes a cushy job in his father’s firm to work for the public defender’s office. On the opposite side, Melissa Sagemiller (Sleeper Cell) plays Michelle Ernhardt, an attorney in the DA’s office...he courtroom arena in which they face off belongs to Judge Trudy Kessler, played by Kaczmarek. She is imperious and known throughout legal circles to be a little crazy, treating the courtroom as her own private fiefdom."