Franklin & Bash Information

Franklin & Bash is an American drama-comedy television series created by Kevin Falls and Bill Chais. The series stars Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as unconventional lawyers and longtime friends. A Turner Broadcasting executive has referred to the series as a "funny legal procedural", whereas in the United Kingdom it was referred to as Ally McBeal With Balls when advertised for its forthcoming debut on E4.

The series is broadcast in the United States on the cable channel TNT. It premiered on June 1, 2011. The second season aired June 5, 2012. On September 28, 2012, Franklin & Bash was renewed for a third season.

Overview

See List of Franklin & Bash episodes for more information

Jared Franklin and Peter Bash are two streetwise plaintiffs' attorneys. After defeating Damien Karp of the prestigious law firm Infeld & Daniels, LLC (colloquially "Infeld Daniels"), they are recruited by senior managing partner Stanton Infeld to breathe new life into the ailing firm. Assisting Franklin and Bash is Carmen Phillips, an ex-convict out on parole who assists with background investigations on cases, and Pindar Singh, a brilliant, agoraphobic attorney.

In agreeing to work for Infeld Daniels, Franklin and Bash were guaranteed that they would still be taking on the same kind of cases as before, only with the backing of a major law firm. Over the course of their cases Franklin and Bash, through their courtroom antics, prove to be effective advocates for their clients, much to the chagrin of Damien Karp and his ex-girlfriend fellow attorney Hanna Linden.

Unbeknownst to the titular duo, Karp and Linden have been clandestinely stockpiling files on the team in the hopes that enough infractions will motivate Infeld to fire them. However after assisting Franklin & Bash in military court, Linden deleted the entire file, however due to digital copies never been deleted off servers, failed to hide the file from the NY firm partners.

The duo later learn their hiring was a move by Infeld to protect the firm from a leveraged buyout by any firm, in this particular case Franklin's father Leonard of Franklin & Franklin in New York City. Although the pair feel understandably manipulated, the team still work to save Infeld Daniels from the attempted takeover. Infeld arrives at their house offering his regrets about the lie.

Cast

Main cast

• Breckin Meyer as Elmo "Jared" Franklin, the snarky, self-confident party-boy son of a famous trial lawyer. In season 2, it is revealed that his real first name is Elmo, a name which his family passes down from father to son.

• Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Peter Bash, Franklin's best friend and legal partner. He is (slightly) more mature and level-headed than Franklin, and still has slight feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Janie.
• Malcolm McDowell as Stanton Infeld, who is eccentric and yet easy-going. Stanton is a senior partner in the prominent law firm Infeld-Daniels. After witnessing their unconventional techniques in court, he hires Franklin and Bash due to their resemblance to him and a partner back in his early days of his law firm.
• Dana Davis as Carmen Phillips, an ex-convict working for Franklin and Bash.
• Kumail Nanjiani as Pindar ("Pindy") Singh, an agoraphobic science fiction nerd working for Franklin and Bash.
• Reed Diamond as Damien Karp, Stanton's nephew, a senior partner working for Infeld Daniels, who become jealous of Franklin and Bash's good standing and quick success with his uncle. He was once in a relationship with Hanna Linden, but is no longer because he refuses to have relations with a co-worker. Surprisingly, Karp has no interest in taking over his uncle's firm as he yearns to be a judge. Karp is amenable to Hanna Linden taking over instead.
• Garcelle Beauvais as Hanna Linden (Seasons 1"2), a senior partner working for Infeld Daniels, and Karp's ex-girlfriend who uses Franklin's affections to get back at Damien. Infeld has stated he sees her as running the future of his law firm when he decides to eventually step down as managing partner. Linden was a member of the ROTC and following her time in law school, she served in the United States Navy as a JAG attorney for a year. Its currently unknown if her leaving the show will be explained.
• Heather Locklear as Rachel King, (Season 3"current) a trial lawyer who joins Franklin and Bash's law firm as a new partner.

Recurring cast

• Claire Coffee as Janie Ross (Season 1"present), the DA Assistant and Peter Bash's ex-girlfriend.
• Beau Bridges as Elmo "Leonard" Franklin (Season 1"present), Jared Franklin's father. Their family passes the name Elmo from father to son, though they adopt other names for everyday use.
• Alexandra Holden as Debbie Wilcox (Season 1), an assistant to Franklin and Bash.
• Rhea Seehorn as Ellen Swatello (Season 1), an assistant DA who is overshadowed by Janie Ross and dislikes Franklin and Bash.
• Kathy Najimy as Judge Sturgess (Season 1). Sturges is no fan of the titular attorneys and has even in her career cited them for contempt of court. Rather than giving the duo an opportunity to cull potential clients from inside jail, Sturges instead placed the pair under house arrest.
• Kat Foster as Wendy Cowell (Season 2), an officer who dates Peter Bash.

Development and production

The series was originally in development for the TBS network. In February 2010, TBS placed a cast-contingent pilot order from a script written by Kevin Falls and Bill Chais. Casting announcements began in early March, with Meyer and Gosselaar taking starring roles as the title characters. Next to be cast was McDowell, as Stanton Infeld. Then, comedian Nanjiani was cast as Pindar Singh, followed by Diamond, as Damien Karp, and Beauvais and Davis as Hanna Linden and Carmen Phillips respectively.

The pilot was filmed in Atlanta in late March and early April. In May 2010, the show was moved from TBS to sister station TNT, where network executives believed it was a better fit. The network green-lit production in mid-May with a ten episode order, with production moving to Los Angeles.

Reception

Critical reception

Franklin & Bash has received mixed to average reviews, earning a score of 56 on Metacritic. The Los Angeles Times described the pilot episode as "not as intrigue-heavy as White Collar, as satiric as The Good Guys or as beautifully located as Hawaii Five-0; 'Franklin & Bash' is smart, it's fun and it's summer." Variety gave a positive review, describing the show as "playful, silly and wholly unpretentious." The Hollywood Reporter also gave the pilot a positive review:

In the end, Franklin & Bash uses the legal genre to prop up what is mostly a buddy story. There may be bigger reveals ahead and certain daring complications, but no doubt Franklin and Bash will get out of them with their good looks and quick wits. That's how they roll " mostly " on TNT.

Ratings

The pilot episode premiered with 2.7 million total viewers, scoring 1.1 million viewers in the 18"49 demographic and 1.2 million in the 25"54 demographic, making it the fourth most watched cable-program of the evening. Live + 3 day ratings for the series premiere updated those numbers to 3.5 million total viewers, scoring 1.5 million viewers in the 18"49 demographic, 1.6 million in the 25"54 demographic and 0.7 million in the 18"34 demographic.

Season	Season Premiere			Season Finale
	Date	Viewers Total (in millions)	Viewers 18"49	Date	Viewers Total (in millions)	Viewers 18"49
1	June 1, 2011	2.74	1.14	August 3, 2011	2.54	1.21

DVD releases

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first season of Franklin & Bash on Region 2 DVD on November 14, 2011.

DVD Name	Ep#	Release dates
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
The Complete First Season	10	June 19, 2012	November 14, 2011

International broadcasting

Country	Network	Premiere date
	Bravo!
	E4
	RTBF
	Star World
Latin America	Sony Entertainment Television
	Sony Entertainment Television Baltic
	SIC
	Sony Entertainment Television Russia
	M-Net
	TV6
Southeast Asia	Fox Asia
	POP TV
	FDF
	FX
	Hot (Israel)
	TV5
	TV2