Denny and Alan on The Practice
They were much better on The Practice. On BL they became flamingos.
shareBL is strictly a comedy, not the intense drama that The Practice was. A spinoff of one show is not meant to be a copy of the original but a premise to go in another direction. Alan and Denny becoming flamingos was meant to show two male friends can have a lasting, healthy friendship (some call it a 'bromance'). I think this bromance was one of the reasons why I enjoyed the show. You clearly failed to see the connection and the purpose of BL, hence the reason Denny and Alan are the lead characters.
The Practice ran it's course, and had it's fair share of rumored ugliness behind the scenes (thanks in part to high demands and bitterness from McDermott and some others). That same ugliness began to affect many of the actor's on-screen abilities, and that's why David Kelly went from a legal drama to comedy drama. David Kelly clearly wanted the opposite of everything The Practice become before its final season, and this is why he had new characters written in the show that were completely the opposite of The Practice's original lead characters.
I liked both shows a lot, and I personally can't compare the two after watching BL. BL is NOT meant to be The Practice part two.
I can only think of 1 other spinoff show that was so differant then the original, that would be the Lou Grant show. Lou came from a sit com to his show that was a drama.
share"BL is strictly a comedy?"
No, it was actually always nominated in the Best Drama section of the Emmy's. Believe me, networks have every opportunity to get it into the Comedy section if possible, as the competition is a lot easier in that comedy.
It might be hard to remember, but the first few seasons may have had their quirks, but were actually pretty serious. It was still mostly a law show that dealt with serious issues. The last couple of seasons got a little crazy though.