Harry Senate was the most inspirational figure on the show, and best teacher.
I think that in the shuffling an reshuffling of characters that David E Kelly does without any more thought than that it is a routine activity, the show lost a major asset in Senate.
I think that John Rappapport consciously was made to be a Harry Senate like- figure (btw, agree or disagree?), but he wasn't nearly as good.
I do agree that the rotating cast was perhaps partially responsible for the demise of Boston Public, but I heard that Nicky Katt left since he wanted to make a career elsewhere. And Danny Hanson was supposed to be like Harry Senate, but Michael Rapaport was not a patch on Nicky Katt, although he was still an OK(ish) addition.
AND ANOTHER THING: I do not directly blame either Jeri Ryan or Michael Rapaport for making Boston Public "Jump the Shark"; that was David E Kelly's privilage. Although their casting did ruin the balance of the show's cast, I personally felt that the sh-t was already hitting fan for this series.
Senate came back after being stabbed in his classroom by a student. He came back to work but couldn't deal with the stress of teaching again, so he was sent on a long vacation. In reality he wasn't coming back because of a contract dispute.
shareDanny Hanson was an interesting character, but not like Harry. Harry was brooding. Danny's "brooding" was more comical than believable.
shareI know what happened on the show, i meant why did the actor get fired, or leave, or whatever
share
I don't think it's anything to do with Jeri Ryan joining the cast, although the addition of Jeri and Mike did muscle aside Jessalyn Gilsig and prompting her to leave the show. I think Nicky Katt possibly left for different reasons.
Although the cast changes were somewhat annoying, I'm suprised why people reacted badly anyway, despite the fact that Boston Public had no real main characters as such and had an esmebled cast.
Well, it stopped being an ensemble cast and became teh jerri Ryan show which probably turned most viewers away, like me.
shareI don't think it was ever the "Jeri Ryan Show", even though she was a major cast member, but it did start off as the "Nicky Katt and Jessalyn Gilsig Show" and then it violently shifted to the "Hook Lady and Everyone Singing Show". And most of the people I knew turned away from Boston Public mostly because of the terrible writing and stupid story with the Hook Lady, rather than the addition of Jeri Ryan, who I felt was (mis)casted in the wrong place at the wrong time. You are using her as a scapegoat, and I felt it remained an esembled cast, even when Jeri Ryan and Michael Rapaport rocked the boat after their casting.
And Boston Public lost most of it's viewers when it was shifted to Friday evenings on FOX Network. And even with such a bad timeslot, it was still able to hold on to five million viewers.