Make my fences all picket, please

I spent the better part of this weekend watching the first season of “Picket Fences,� which was released on DVD last week. I was so excited I paid full retail so I could have it right away instead of getting it on the cheap off the Internet.

This wonderful -- and vastly underrated -- show came from the mind of David E. Kelley, who, for my money, is one of the most creative minds in modern television.

It ran on CBS at a time when no one was watching that network and on a night -- Friday -- when those who might have watched were probably out of the house getting an early start on their weekend.

Kelley, a former lawyer from Boston, got his start in TV when he was hired by “L.A. Law� creator Steven Bochco as a writer. He made an immediate impression.

Quirky, strong, fleshed-out characters and a comic element that made the drama a huge hit were, in large part, thanks to Kelley. When he left the show after its fifth season, ratings plummeted and he was quickly rehired as a creative consultant.

In 1992, Kelley got the chance to create his own show. The result was “Picket Fences.� It was a show about the sheriff of a small town -- the fictitious Rome, Wisconsin -- and his family, which included his wife and their two sons and his daughter from his first marriage. Tom Skerritt played the sheriff and former Midlander Kathy Baker played his wife, who won a Golden Globe and three Emmys for her portrayal of Dr. Jill Brock.

The show won critical acclaim, which prompted CBS to promote the show and keep it on its schedule for four seasons, but the numbers never materialized the way the network hoped and it was finally canceled in 1996.

I had almost forgotten how great the show was until I started watching the first season. The pilot episode opened with a murder. Not just any murder, though. Someone had killed the Tin Man. Or at least the actor playing the Tin Man in a community theater production of “The Wizard of Oz.� The sheriff was quick to respond to the scene. That was because he was in full costume as a member of the Lollipop Guild.

While the story of the Brocks and their daily travails made for good TV, it was the supporting cast that made the series great.

There was the local medical examiner, Carter Pike, who was perhaps a little too enthusiastic in his love for forensics, body fluids and his desire to exhume the dead.

Zelda Rubinstein of “Poltergeist� fame (�Go into the light. All are welcome�) was memorable as the psychic dispatcher for the sheriff’s department.

Then there was Henry Bone, the no-nonsense judge who was often the only voice of reason in the town, He was played by the late Ray Walston, who won two Emmys for portraying the curmudgeonly jurist. There was a cute “in the know� moment in a Halloween episode in which Judge Bone is wearing a costume consisting of a pair of antenna. Walston was perhaps best known to many as “My Favorite Martian� on the series that ran in the mid-1960s.

The most endearing -- or annoying, depending on which episode you’re watching -- was Douglas Wambaugh, who seemingly was the town’s only civil and criminal defense lawyer. Played by Fyvush Finkel -- who also won an Emmy for his portrayal -- his Wambaugh was an early version of Denny Crane, the Alzheimer’s suffering lawyer currently portrayed with great gusto and aplomb by William Shatner on another currently running Kelley show, “Boston Legal.�

All told, “Fences� won 14 Emmy over the years, including two for outstanding drama series. I am looking forward to the last three seasons making their way on to DVD. That’s where we’ll get to see a young Don Cheadle as the passionate district attorney and the spontaneous combustion of the mayor among many highlights. Kelley went on to create “Chicago Hope,� “Ally McBeal,� “Boston Public� and “The Practice� -- of which “Boston Legal� is a spinoff and much better show -- and the recent Fox series, “The Wedding Bells.�

Could Kelley be slipping, though? That last show, “The Wedding Bells,’ was canceled after five episodes. The fact Fox aired the pilot after “American Idol� then buried it on Friday night might have something to do with diminishing ratings.