YMMV / L.A. Law

• Awesome Music: One of the more iconic TV themes of the 80s, once again composed by the venerable Mike Post.
• He Really Can Act: Dan Castellaneta as the client in the episode LA Lawless. His speech about how great it is to be Homer Simpson (Dan's character is a theme park employee being accused of assault) is poignant enough, but the added Reality Subtext of the character being played by Homer's own voice actor drives it into Tear Jerker levels.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Poor Douglas had everything happen to him; getting falsely arrested for prostitution, finding out his father cheated on his mother and he had a bastard brother, and he ended up sleeping with his father's mistress.
  • In season 5, Arnie. Yes, the breakup of his marriage to Corinne was his own fault for cheating on her. But his subsequent breakdown and tearful confession to Roxanne that he's terrified of dying alone is nonetheless affecting.
• Never Live It Down: Odds are the first thing you ever heard about this show is how a character was randomly killed off by falling down an elevator shaft.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • A pre-Whose Line Is It Anyway? Brad Sherwood appeared as a lovesick nanny who tries to seduce Ann in a season six story arc.
  • Don Cheadle and a pre-TNG Denise Crosby show up in the first-season episode "Gibbon Take."
• Seasonal Rot: Things were fine as long as Steven Bochco or David E. Kelley were around. Kelley left after season five. Season six was a notable step down, but still okay-ish...especially after Bochco came back to get things back in line. The seventh season featured Stuart's amnesia, Gwen's stalker, and a whole lot of suckage. William Finkelstein came in and oversaw production during the final season, which was a marked improvement over season seven, albeit not enough to spare the show from cancellation.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Most of the law shows created by David E. Kelley (who was a writer and story editor on LA Law) could be interpreted as a subversion to some extent of this show, e.g. the de-glamorized law firm in The Practice.
  • JAG, following its second season, was by some in the late 90's considered to be spiritual successor of LA Law, albeit in a military setting.
• The Woobie: Poor Benny Stulwicz. It seems the creators of the show only ever put a rug under him so they could yank it from beneath his feet. His mother died, he got engaged to Alice only to have to break up with her, he found a friend in Roxanne's father Murray only to have Murray die of a stroke at Christmas time, he suffered a mental breakdown when the firm was splitting up, he was awarded guardianship of Sam only to have the courts take it away, etc. (He did finally get a happy ending of sorts when he married Rosalie and won big at the horse races in the final season.)