ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610150056
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES ENDRST THE HARTFORD COURANT
At the end of last season, ABC's ``Murder One'' lay dying.
Applauded by critics but widely unwatched, the boldly innovative courtroom drama from producer Steven Bochco (``L.A. Law,'' ``NYPD Blue'') finished a deeply disappointing 66th in the ratings.
Somehow, however, the show survived, and Thursday night, it returned for its second season.
But not without some fundamental changes.
``If you're lucky enough, as we were, to come back,'' Bochco said recently, ``you come back with a mandate to ... make some changes.''
And there will be many.
As originally conceived and executed, ``Murder One'' was unprecedented - the first serialized law show to follow one case over an entire season.
It didn't work.
``I think we discovered that people don't watch television that way,'' said Bochco. ``When people would miss an episode here and there, there was a general feeling that they couldn't get back onto a moving train. So we're going to be doing three story lines this year.''
It didn't help that ABC put the show up against NBC's top-rated ``ER'' (``Murder One'' also was broadcast at various stages on Mondays and Tuesdays), or that the star of ``Murder One,'' Daniel Benzali, was as distant and often disagreeable off screen as he was on the air.
Now Benzali's out, although Bochco won't talk about perceived personality conflicts.
As for the time slot, it's going to be another tough year - this time opposite NBC's ``Seinfeld'' and ``Suddenly Susan,'' currently No. 2 and No. 3 in the Nielsen ratings.
But maybe the show's new lead, Anthony LaPaglia (``Betsy's Wedding''), will win on appeal.
Benzali's character, Theodore Hoffman, is out of the country working on his ``first priority,'' his marriage.
Which gives LaPaglia the opportunity to enter as defense attorney James Wyler, the firm's new rainmaker.
His first case: another high-profile, media-ready murder. This one involves the assassination of the governor of California, shot to death along with a mistress in the bedroom of a Hollywood star.
Wyler, a former prosecutor with 43 wins and no losses, comes with some ready-made adversaries - most of them former colleagues who now consider him a turncoat.
``It used to be us against them,'' snarls one old chum. ``Now you're them.''
Several of last year's cast members are back, including Bochco's wife, Barbara Bosson, as prosecuting attorney Miriam Grasso, and Gregory Itzin as politico Roger Garfield. Michael Hayden, J.C. MacKenzie and Mary McCormack are also on board again as legal eagles Chris Docknovich, Arnold Spivak and Justine Appleton.
So fans of the original ``Murder One'' shouldn't find ``Murder One: II'' too jarring.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Michael Hayden (from left), David Bryan Woodside,by CNBAnthony LaPaglia, J.C. MacKenzie and Mary McCormack star in ``Murder
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