Picket Fences

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CBS (ended 1996)
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Show Summary

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From award winning producer David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal", "The Practice" and "Boston Legal") comes Picket Fences, a story of a small town sherrif trying to maintain the town & his family.

Sherrif James Brock (Tom Skerrit) is trying to maintain the small town of Rome, Wisconin. His wife Jill (Kathy Baker) is the doctor of the town, daughter Kimberley (Holly Marie Combs), from a previous marriage of Jimmy, is the level headed student growing up in Rome. Jimmy and Jill have two other children, Matthew (Justin Shenkarow) and Zach (Adam Wylie).

Trying his best to keep the town in order, Judge Henry Bone (Ray Walston) rules the court room and while he doesn't always stick to the law, he does what is best for the town. Making Judge Bone's job harder is lawer Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel), a friend of Judge Bone but an enemy in the court room. Wambaugh goes to extreme lengths to win the case, but he is after all a character!

Also around in the town of Rome are D.A John Littelon (Don Cheadle), a straight man for the antics of Wambaugh, the strange Medical Examinor Carter Pike (Kelly Connel) and deputy's Max and Kenny an on & off couple.

The town of Rome never ran smoothly though, with a revolving door of mayors along with cows giving birth to humans and an array of people found dead in freezers.

While the show was adored by critics, it never quite found great ratings on CBS and was cancelled after 4 seasons. Creator David E. Kelley left his post as Executive Producer after season 3, which brought a different style of show during season 4 - returning only to write 2 stand out episodes that year. Some have suggested this is why the show met its demise when Kelley left. Also the show does reach a fitting conclusion but it comes rather rushed as it was believed the show would be coming back for season 5. Picket Fences remains a classic show and now with the first season recently released on DVD you can enjoy it all over again!moreless
8.6
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Episode Guide

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S 4 :  Ep 22 Aired 4/24/96
S 4 :  Ep 21 Aired 4/24/96
S 4 :  Ep 20 Aired 6/26/96
S 4 :  Ep 19 Aired 6/19/96
S 4 :  Ep 18 Aired 6/12/96

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Fan Reviews (10)

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  • Great dramedy

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By 90sTVlover, Mar 10, 2012
    I just finished all 4 seasons of this. I think I watched them all in under 2 weeks. It's reminiscent of Northern Exposure for me, in the sense that you get to know the characters very well, and that they deal with some crazy surreal problems. It's a feel good show, for the most part, but still filled with drama. But the comedy outweighs all that to me. All in all, it's a fun and very insightful show to watch.moreless

  • Strange But Awesome

    8.2
    "Great"
    By xxxp3xxx, Sep 02, 2007
    Only David E Kelly Could Come Up With Comething As Wacky As Picket Fences. The Storylines Are A Little Crazy But Brilliant! Favourite Person I'd Definitely Say Kimberly... Holly Marie Combs Is Freakin Awesome! Most Of The People In Picket Fences Are Made Out To Be Crazy At Some Point... Like When The Mom Had That Crisis At Zachary's 13th Party And Threw His Cake Or When Kenny Was Dating Those Twins... Douglas Wombaugh Needs No Explanation... Or When The Character Played By Lauren Holly Hit On The Pope... Or When Kimberly Kissed Kenny... What Was She Thinking?!!

    Well You Know What They Say... When In Rome...

    xoxomoreless

  • what a place picket fences.

    10
    "Perfect"
    By seaqueastdsv, Aug 08, 2007
    i dont care want anybody says about this show {negative views}. i think this was a great show. i loved all the things about it. it was a town with crazy mayors, with a depty who was in love with kenny. a town sherrif whos married to the town doctor. a crazy lawyer, a kind hearted but sometime hard judge, and a priest who like to wear woman shoes. it showed us funny things and sometime very sad and moving things. i would of loved to live in a town like that. im just glad i got to see it where i live in austraila.moreless

  • awesome

    7.6
    "Good"
    By CAPNDEL, Jul 06, 2006
    this was a great show. it brought us our first look at holly marie combs. it was a quirky family show. a little bit comedy, a little bit suspensful mystery show. i have always liked tom skeritt. i wish he would make a retun to television. maybe in a return to picket fences tv movie. worse things have been made.

  • Although this series is indeed enjoyable and well written there is far too much reference to christianity, this is offensive and wrong.

    6.5
    "Fair"
    By FathersSon, Mar 02, 2006
    picket fences is a great show and I do enjoy watching it, but it seems that the jews and christians are running the show, far too much, spiritual satanists have as much a place as any others and there are far more of us than you wuld think, please refer to www.joyofsatan.com.
    I don't mind the occasional show like where the priest regains the respect and trust of the town after the incident of his fettish, these shows show you the strength of a community, that people can pull together to do good, the way it should be, but aswel in the messages of the show of what is wrong is exactly what is being done to us, we have no real freedom, people who claim to turn the other cheek make daily attacks and offences on our kind, their religion perscribes hatred as a resort to the existence of others who do not follow them, the amount of christian shows need to be reduced, or they need to show the true side of other religions, peaceful religions and stop pushing their values on others through any window, TV, Radio and so on.

    Hail Satan!moreless
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crazy neighborhood, dramedy, ensemble cast, family gossip, mysterious forces

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