This show is embarassingly dated. With shows about the evils of free trade, the necessity of pay and employment "equity" and the venality of all those who dared oppose the march of Progress, personified by Leon Rabinovitch (Eric Petersen), this show was Exhibit A for those of us who felt that the CBC was (and remains to a diminished extent) little more than a mouth piece for political correctness.
shareTwo things: First, of course it's dated. What do you expect them to do, make shows that deal with issues that will be of importance in the future instead, just so people looking back won't think it's dated? It's good when shows tackle controversial issues, and Street Legal dealt with them frequently.
Second, the thing that I like about the show was that there was a good balance. Chuck was a straight up capitalist, and he is certainly one of the good guys. The righty, lefty fights they got into every once and a while made for the best episodes. Leon, isn't always shown to be right in the show (although he is plenty of the time). Certainly, in some episodes, his ego gets ahead of him. The show did a good job, in my opinion, of showing that solutions to the problems of the world are not easy.
I never watched "Street Legal" when it originally aired because I think I assumed it was just a second rate, Canadian rip-off of "LA Law." Having watched the reruns of the entire series in the past couple of years, I can say that I was wrong. It was a good show, uniquely Canadian, that put an interesting spin on the legal drama given its Canadian slant.
You say dated and you're right. It's hard to believe that the 1980s are so far gone now. You watch the first season of "Street Legal" and you can see that it started out as a weird little Canadian TV show, just about the three lawyer friends, and then it became kind of "Americanized" in terms of the look of the show.
What's really interesting about watching this show, especially the first couple of years, is that its a time capsule of the mid-1980s in Canada - and the mood, and the look of that time.
I never watched "Street Legal" when it had originally aired simply because I was only born in 1987 when the show was first aired! Even though I was never there to experience the series in it's own time, I find it very addictive today. Yes, you can say that the show is dated, but you can technically argue that any television show from a few decades back is dated. Times change; Issues change. And despite the fact that the show was all about "political correctness," I believe that some of that "political correctness" demonstrated are still applicable to present day; issues such as the right to die, the controversy over same-sex marriage, and stem cell research - to name a few.
Additionally, the fact that the show is dated does not restrict the audience from becoming attatched to the characters. It is easy to relate to them in one form or another, and love them. The characters all had amazing chemistry, strong character development, and the actors always performed perfectly. I think this show is simply a show of great quality, and is enjoyable all around. When the series began, it was funny listening to the phoney opening theme song, and watching people with their eighties hair, and a gigantic compact disc containing valuable evidence. But as the show progressed, a lot of that corney stuff disappeared, and the show improved.
This is one young viewer who leaves the datedness aside, and enjoys the show for what it really is: Great Canadian quality
(And "Street Legal" may have been a rip of "LA Law", but recently Australia made a rip off of "Street Legal." The Australians did not even change the title)
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www.bttfdanita.tripod.com
Actually, Street Legal isn't a rip-off of L.A. Law -- according to The Museum of Broadcast and Communications, both shows "were coincidentally developed and aired at the same time." That's more or less true. According to IMDB, the first episode of L.A. Law was aired September 1986, while Street Legal's first episode was aired January 1987.
You can read all about Street Legal on The Museum of Broadcast and Communications webpage for Street Legal at http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/streetlegal/streetlegal.htm
And yes, of course it is dated -- it was the 80s and it has been almost 20 years ago since the show first premiered and now 12 years after the show left the air. Lots of things have changed since then! However, the show was and still in its re-runs on Bravo! good (where I first discovered Street Legal, quite by accident!)
Street Legal is a great show with great acting! After all, Eric Peterson won 3 Gemini Awards for his portrayal of Leon Robinovitch and Sonja Smits won a Gemini Award for her portrayl of Carrie Barr. As well, most of the cast earned nominations for their works, including C. David Johnson (Chuck Tchobanian), Cynthia Dale (Olivia Novak), Anthony Sherwood (Dillon Beck), Julie Khaner (Alana Newman) and Ron Lea (Brian Maloney).
In case you didn't know, and even if you did, Street Legal is a spin-off from the TV Movie Shell Game:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090010/
Yeah the guy who developed the pilot (the writer and lawyer William Deverell) originally conceived of the idea in 1980 in a novel form, which was released a few years after the show went of the air. It isn't a rip-off of LA Law.
sharethe Godfather is dated to and its a good movie
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