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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: March 21, 1991
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: L.A. Law, “Good ‘To The Last Drop” (Season 5, Episode 16). [Stream the episode on YouTube.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: There are some TV moments that transcend their surroundings. L.A. Law was a hugely important and influential show in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Sexy, soapy lawyers in prime time understandably made for a splashy hit for NBC, and it launched some pretty significant careers for performers who are still TV mainstays today, like Jimmy Smits, Blair Underwood, and Harry Hamlin. Most importantly, this was the show that launched David E. Kelley’s career, and his quirky lil’ fingerprints are all over it, and particularly this episode. It’s strange that a show like L.A. Law isn’t available to stream anywhere, and when it ultimately does become available, it will surely be quite the time capsule into the pre-Must See TV era.
But in the meantime, while L.A. Law remains unavailable to stream, there is still one scene that transcends that show almost entirely. Yes, we’re talking about Rosalind Shays and the elevator shaft.
Judging by the fate of her character alone, you know that Roz (Diana Muldaur) was not an incredibly well-liked character among L.A. Law viewers. The show was now in its fifth season; Roz was introduced in its fourth. By this time, viewers had grown loyal to the lawyers at Mackenzie-Bracken and were not on board with this antagonistic woman who managed to piss off nearly every character on the show. Roz was a great antagonist, actually, and her relationship with Leland (Richard Dysart) was one of those great soapy love-hate affairs. But it came time for Roz to leave the show, the only question being how to write her out. David E. Kelley was one of the co-writers on this episode, and Roz’s ultimate fate has his kind of deadpan, bizarre sense of humor that he would bring to subsequent shows like Ally McBeal and Boston Legal.
In a wickedly funny/cruel joke of a development, Roz went out in the soapiest, campiest way possible. She finally met a foe in the lawfirm she couldn’t outmaneuver.
Every since this episode, the idea of sending an unpopular character packing via the nearest open elevator shaft has been a reliable TV inside joke. Was it the most appropriate way for a TV show to treat a strong female character, no matter how loathed she was? Maybe not. But Rosalind Shays now lives on in TV infamy. Meanwhile, I can’t even remember Susan Dey’s character’s name. So you tell me who got the last laugh.
