`L.A. Law' Suffers From Sagging Ratings, Personnel Changes

LOS ANGELES - It sounds like a rerun. Susan Dey is leaving. The show may lose other cast members. No one will say how those absences will be explained.

Same problems. Different season.

NBC's "L.A. Law" has had plenty of troubles of late. Closing its sixth year, the legal drama has foundered in the Nielsen rankings and suffered the loss of various cast members, writers and producers.

Dey, who plays Grace Van Owen, really is leaving this time, namely because she already has signed a series deal with CBS for "Love Is Hell," a romantic comedy co-starring Jay Thomas.

She said she was leaving last season, too, but changed her mind. That was the year the series suffered a mass exodus, including male heartthrobs Jimmy Smits and Harry Hamlin, actress Michele Greene and executive producer David Kelley.

Writer and co-producer William Finkelstein had left the season before. Co-creator, executive producer and writer Steven Bochco had left before Finkelstein. Terry Louise Fisher, after helping Bochco dream up the slick series about slick lawyers, left early in the show's history after a fallout with Bochco.

Because of the sheer number of personnel changes, observers long have been used to keeping score for "L.A. Law" with a pencil. Despite the show's revolving door of on- and off-camera talent, the series had managed to earn good ratings and four consecutive Emmys for best drama series.

This year, however, thanks to a culmination of forces, it looked as if the fate of "L.A. Law" finally had been written in ink.

Critics hated the 1991-'92 season. The spark was gone. The fun was gone. Half the cast was gone.

Poor Patricia Green was suckered into taking a job she didn't want - executive producer - and abruptly quit earlier this year. Bochco has said she was just fed up. Others said she was in over her head and knew it.

Green was a supervising producer before Kelley left last season to do his own series for CBS. Kelley's shoes were big ones to fill. A lawyer with a twisted sense of humor, he was the driving force of "L.A. Law's" bizarre plot twists.

Under Green, this season started out a dry, court-bound vehicle void of the events that made "L.A. Law" famous - shootings, sex, passing gas, gorilla suits, philandering attorneys and lesbian kisses.

Ratings plummeted. Last year, the series ranked 22nd at season end. This year, it ranks 29th, with viewership down by three percentage points.

Green's departure has put Bochco back in control, after 2 1/2 years of being gone from the series' day-to-day operation.

The man who also created "Hill Street Blues" had plenty of other work.

As part of his 10-series, $50 million production deal with ABC, Bochco also oversees "Doogie Howser, M.D.," "Capitol Critters," "Civil Wars" and the upcoming "NYPD Blues."

Contractually, he had to finish up those projects, however, before he could come back to "L.A. Law."

Last night, the NBC program began a six-episode run of original scripts overseen by Bochco. He even has restored his old credit line of executive producer.

Two previous installments in March left little doubt that Bochco's influence was back. In them, Arnie Becker's testicle was twisted and Van Owen defended a neanderthal baseball player accused of rape.

Bochco also will trim the show's ensemble cast, which now numbers 16, before next fall's season, but which characters will get axed has yet to be decided.

A spokeswoman said, however, that Dey's character will be written out by bringing back Smits for another guest appearance. But she would not elaborate on exactly how the Van Owen exit would occur. Smits, you remember, left with barely a word last season after marrying and impregnating Van Owen.

As for the future of "L.A. Law," it most assuredly will return for the 1992-'93 season, an NBC spokeswoman said. An official pickup is expected within the next few weeks.