Picket Fences

Picket Fences is an American family drama television series about the residents of the town of Rome, Wisconsin, created and produced by David E. Kelley. The show ran from September 18, 1992, to June 26, 1996, on CBS in the United States. It sometimes struggled to maintain a stable primetime audience and had fluctuating ratings, due in part to its Friday night death slot. In its first season on the air, it placed 63rd in prime-time Nielsen ratings and in its second season it moved to 61st. Nonetheless, the show won critical acclaim and was a major awards winner, winning 14 Primetime Emmy Awards during its run and is now regarded as a cult classic. The show's exteriors were shot in the L.A. suburb of Monrovia, California.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Overview

The series follows the lives of the residents of the small town of Rome, Wisconsin, where weird things happen, including cows' udders exploding and people turning up dead in freezers. The show dealt with unusual topics for the primetime television of the period, such as abortion, incest, homophobia and LGBT adoption, transsexuality, racism, belief in God, ethics in medicine, polygamy, polyamory, adolescent sexuality, date rape, cryonics, the Holocaust, shoe fetishism, masturbation, animal sacrifice, spontaneous human combustion, and constitutional rights. Illustrative of the subject matter is that the regular cast included a judge, two lawyers, and a medical examiner. Religious issues were frequently discussed, and the town's Catholic and Episcopal priests were frequently recurring characters, as well as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh's relationships in his local Jewish temple.

Struggling to maintain order in the community is Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt). Sheriff Brock is 52 years old,<ref>Season 2/Episode 12</ref> married to the town doctor, Jill (Kathy Baker), his second wife. They raise their three children, Kimberly (Holly Marie Combs) from Jimmy's first marriage to Lydia Brock (Cristine Rose), Matthew (Justin Shenkarow) and Zachary (Adam Wylie).

Maxine 'Max' Stewart (Lauren Holly) and Kenny Lacos (Costas Mandylor) are impulsive and slightly immature sheriff's deputies. Kelly Connell played medical examiner Carter Pike (who regularly begged to be deputized) and Zelda Rubinstein portrayed police dispatcher Ginny Weedon.

Bombastic lawyer Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel) usually irritated Judge Henry Bone (Ray Walston). Wambaugh refused to hear any confessions of guilt from his clients as he feared that it would only stand in the way of adequately defending them in court; and Bone's rulings seemed to be directed more by his own moral compass than by points of law, though his decisions were almost never reversed. After several prosecutors came and went, Don Cheadle joined the cast as John Littleton.

Other actors who were in the cast included Marlee Matlin as Mayor Laurie Bey / The Dancing Bandit, Richard Masur as Ed Lawson, Roy Brocksmith as elementary school principal Michael Oslo, Jack Murdock as ethically challenged city councilman Harold Lundstrom, Roy Dotrice as Father Gary Barrett, a Catholic priest, and Dabbs Greer as the Reverend Henry Novotny, priest of the local Episcopal church.

Cast

Actor	Character	Seasons
		1	2	3	4
Main characters
Tom Skerritt	Jimmy Brock	colspan="4" Template:CMain
Kathy Baker	Jill Brock	colspan="4" Template:CMain
Lauren Holly	Maxine Stewart	colspan="4" Template:CMain
Costas Mandylor	Kenny Lacos	colspan="4" Template:CMain
Holly Marie Combs	Kimberly Brock	colspan="4" Template:CMain
Justin Shenkarow	Matthew Brock	colspan="4" Template:CMain
Adam Wylie	Zachary Brock	colspan="4" Template:CMain
Fyvush Finkel	Douglas Wambaugh	colspan="1" Template:CRecurring	colspan="3" Template:CMain
Kelly Connell	Carter Pike	colspan="1" Template:CRecurring	colspan="3" Template:CMain
Zelda Rubinstein	Ginny Weedon	colspan="2" Template:CMain	colspan="2" Template:N/a
Don Cheadle	John Littleton	colspan="1" Template:N/a	colspan="1" Template:CRecurring	colspan="3" Template:CMain
Marlee Matlin	Laurie Bey	colspan="1" Template:N/a	colspan="1" Template:CGuest	colspan="2" Template:CMain
Ray Walston	Henry Bone	colspan="1" Template:CRecurring	colspan="3" Template:CMain
Recurring characters
Dabbs Greer	Reverend Henry Novotony	colspan="4" Template:CRecurring
Roy Dotrice	Father Gary Barrett	colspan="4" Template:CRecurring
Roy Brocksmith	Michael Oslo	colspan="4" Template:CRecurring
Denis Arndt	Franklin Dell	colspan="4" Template:CRecurring
Sam Anderson	Donald Morrell	colspan="3" Template:CRecurring	colspan="1" Template:N/a
Michael Keenan	Bill Pugen	colspan="2" Template:CRecurring	colspan="2" Template:N/a
Robert Cornthwaite	Howard Buss	colspan="2" Template:CRecurring	colspan="2" Template:N/a
Elisabeth Moss	Cynthia Parks	colspan="3" Template:CRecurring	colspan="1" Template:N/a
Leigh Taylor-Young	Rachel Harris	colspan="1" Template:N/a	colspan="2" Template:CRecurring	colspan="1" Template:N/a
Richard Masur	Ed Lawson	colspan="1" Template:N/a	colspan="1" Template:CGuest	colspan="1" Template:CRecurring	colspan="1" Template:N/a
Amy Aquino	Joanna Diamond	colspan="3" Template:N/a	colspan="1" Template:CRecurring
Matthew Glave	Bud Skeeter	colspan="3" Template:N/a	colspan="1" Template:CRecurring

Episodes

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Picket Fences has a total of 89 episodes and four seasons.

Crossovers

The series has two crossover episodes with another David E. Kelley series, Chicago Hope, one occurring in each series. In the first, on Picket Fences, Dr. Jill Brock accompanies Douglas Wambaugh to Chicago Hope Hospital over concerns of his heart. In the second, Wambaugh is back at Chicago Hope Hospital causing trouble for the doctors. Lauren Holly later joined the cast of Chicago Hope as Dr. Jeremy Hanlon and Tom Skerritt appear in a different role as a guest star.

Show	Episode #	Episode Name	Airdate
Picket Fences	3–7	"Rebels with Causes"	November 11, 1994
Chicago Hope	1–13	"Small Sacrifices"	January 23, 1995

David E. Kelley and Chris Carter (creator of The X-Files) were talking in a parking lot on the Fox lot one day and thought it might be interesting to have Mulder and Scully visit Rome, Wisconsin for an X-Files episode. Originally, the two shows would be shot with different viewpointsTemplate:Sndone from the X-Files perspective and the other from Picket FencesTemplate:'. The official approval was never given by Fox and CBS, so the only remnants remaining of this effort are the X-Files episode "Red Museum" and the Picket Fences episode "Away in the Manger" having similar plotlines involving cows. Every reference to Picket Fences has been purged from the X-Files episode, but there still are some small details left in the Picket Fences episode referring to the happenings at The X-Files and some minor characters there.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Ratings

Season		U.S. ratings	Network	Rank
1	1992-93	9.49 million	CBS	#63
2	1993-94	9.49 million	CBS	#61
3	1994-95	9.50 million	CBS	#64
4	1995-96	7.00 million	CBS	#98

Adaptation

The series was adapted in India in Hindi language and aired on StarPlus as Kehta Hai Dil from 2002 to 2005 produced by UTV Software Communications.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, the Indian version in between deviated entirely from the story of Picket Fences.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Home media

On June 19, 2007, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the first season of Picket Fences on DVD in Region 1. In the United States, the entire series was available to stream on Hulu from Thanksgiving 2021 to Thanksgiving 2023. On August 20, 2014, Season 1 was released in Australia. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Season 2 was released in Australia in December 2014.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Season 3 was released in Australia in March 2016.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards and nominations

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Picket Fences won fourteen Emmy Awards (including "Outstanding Drama Series" twice) and one Golden Globe Award in its four-year run. In 1997, the episode "Heart of Saturday Night" was ranked #96 on [[TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time|TV GuideTemplate:'s 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time]].<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2002, the character of Douglas Wambaugh was ranked 47th on TV GuideTemplate:'s 50 Greatest Television Characters of All Time list.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

External links

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