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 initially ran from September 18, 1992, to June 26, 1996, on the CBS television network in the United States. It sometimes struggled to maintain a stable primetime audience and had fluctuating ratings, due in part to its Friday night time slot. In its first season on the air it placed 80th in the prime-time Nielsen ratings and in its second season it moved to 66th. The show's exteriors were shot in the L.A. suburb of Monrovia, California, with many of the townspeople appearing in the background of episodes.

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 family, relationships, and careers. 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 Roman Catholic and Episcopal priests were frequently recurring characters, as well as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh's relationships in his local Jewish temple.

The Brock Family

Struggling to maintain order in the community is Sheriff Jimmy Brock. Sheriff Brock is a 52 year old, married to the town doctor, Jill, his second wife. They attempt to raise their three children, Kimberly , Matthew and Zachary.

Sheriff's office

Maxine 'Max' Stewart and Kenny Lacos are impulsive and slightly immature sheriff's deputies. Kelly Connell played medical examiner Carter Pike and Zelda Rubinstein portrayed police dispatcher Ginny Weedon.

The Courthouse

Bombastic lawyer Douglas Wambaugh usually irritated Judge Henry Bone. 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.

Townspeople

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.

Mayors

The town frequently changed mayors, who often met strange fates:
Picket Fences had a total of 88 episodes and four seasons.

Crossovers

The series had 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 appeared in a different role as a guest star.
ShowEpisode #Episode NameAirdate
Picket Fences3–7"Rebels with Causes"November 11, 1994
Chicago Hope1–13"Small Sacrifices"January 23, 1995

Also, as the story goes, David E. Kelley and Chris Carter 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 viewpoints– one from the X-Files perspective and the other from Picket Fences. 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. While every reference to Picket Fences has been purged from the X-Files episode, there still are some small winks left in the Picket Fences episode referring to the happenings at the X-Files and some minor characters there.

Ratings

Home media

On June 19, 2007, 20th Century Fox released the first season of Picket Fences on DVD in Region 1.
On August 20, 2014, Season 1 was released in Australia.
Season 2 was released in Australia in December 2014.
Season 3 was released in Australia in March 2016.
The complete series was released through ViaVision in 2016. The collection is considered a Region 0 DVD, playable on all DVD players.
All seasons are also available on Region 2 formatted DVDs in Germany.

Awards and nominations

Picket Fences won fourteen Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe in its four-year run. A substantial following for the show persists today, and it is popular as reruns in western Europe. It was rerun in French in Canada on Radio-Canada under the title Bienvenue à Rome, USA.
In 1997, the episode "Heart of Saturday Night" was ranked #96 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
In 2002, the character of Douglas Wambaugh was ranked 47th on TV Guides 50 Greatest Television Characters of All Time list.