Murder One (TV Series) - Premise

Premise

In its first season, the series starred Daniel Benzali as defense attorney Theodore (Ted) Hoffman, a criminal litigator and the principal of his own firm, Hoffman and Associates. Backed by a cadre of young associates, Hoffman was a masterful, though gruff, criminal lawyer who zealously represented his clients in high profile cases. Patricia Clarkson played his wife, Annie. Stanley Tucci played Richard Cross, a charming but morally ambiguous philanthropist. In the second season, Benzali was replaced by Anthony LaPaglia as Jimmy Wyler, a former assistant district attorney who took over Hoffman's firm.

Somewhat unusually for a television drama of its time, the first season of the series revolved around a single high profile criminal case. For the duration of season one, Hoffman defended Neil Avedon (Jason Gedrick), a young Hollywood star accused of the murder of fifteen-year-old Jessica Costello. During the first part of the season, Hoffman's associates also handled smaller cases which were usually wrapped up within one episode. While there were many plot twists and misdirections, fundamentally the entire season consisted of one defense case for Hoffman & Associates. The second season also featured this type of seriality, to a limited extent: three unrelated trials, over 18 episodes.

The serial nature of the drama may have been problematic, leaving viewers who either missed episodes or did not see the series from its premiere at a loss. As a result, from about half way through the first season, an increasingly detailed "Previously on Murder One" began to take up several minutes at the start of each episode. Following somewhat disappointing ratings, ABC and Bochco revamped the show significantly for the 1996-97 season. Gone were Benzali and his character as well as many of the show's former regulars including Clarkson, Gedrick, Tucci and Dylan Baker (who played police detective Arthur Polson). (Some departures were expected as there was no realistic possibility that the case-specific characters would be involved in the new cases.)

The producers brought in LaPaglia as the new owner of the firm after Hoffman retired in an attempt to save his marriage. The second season of the show was far less successful than the first. The original concept of the series surrounding a "James Bond"-like defense attorney could not be salvaged with a replacement lead - not least of which because LaPaglia's character spent most episodes trying to borrow money to keep the firm afloat. Other cast members brought in for the second season included D.B. Woodside and Jack Kehler. ABC did broadcast all the episodes filmed, and the plot was prematurely wrapped up in the final episode. ABC ordered the final six episodes air as a three-night mini-series in the spring of 1997. But, as the hopes for series renewal diminished, the three-night mini-series was rescheduled for the less-viewed Memorial Day weekend. The series was dropped at the end of the '96-'97 season.

Over its two year run, ABC aired 41 original episodes of this series. The first season of Murder One has aired several times on cable networks such as A&E and Court TV in the United States. (Court TV was substituted in the series by the fictional "Law TV".) Both seasons have been released on DVD in the US and UK, with different packaging in each country.