8.2/1094 votesLoading...#1 - The Venus Butterfly
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/21/1986
Becker, Markowitz and Kelsey bicker over who will inherit Chaney's office; Van Owen prosecutes a man charged with the mercy killing of his terminally ill lover; to Kelsey's undying gratitude, Markowitz learns the secret of a serial bigamist's success with women as Becker and Markowitz represent the man's eleven wives in their divorce actions; Abby is devastated when a dead boy matching Eric's description is mistakenly cremated before he can be identified.
Director: Donald Petrie
Writer: Steven Bochco, Terry Louise Fisher
8.2/1061 votesLoading...#2 - Justice Swerved
Season 4 Episode 17 - Aired 3/29/1990
A couple is accused of murdering their baby; a sobriety test halts Markowitz and Kelsey's lunch-time tryst; thoughts of Sheila wreak havoc with Brackman's sex life.
Director: N/A
Writer: David E. Kelley, Bryce Zabel
8.2/1035 votesLoading...#3 - Outward Bound
Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired 5/10/1990
A gay cop sues when the secret of his sexuality is revealed in the press by a journalist; McKenzie seeks a star litigator to fill an opening at the firm; Benny fumes after seeing Alice kiss someone else; and Corrinne pops the question to an unsure Becker.
Director: Edwin Sherin
Writer: David E. Kelley, William M. Finkelstein
8.1/1040 votesLoading...#4 - One Rat, One Ranger
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 11/30/1989
Van Owen is at a loss for words when confronted by a terrified mother after failing to win a conviction against the woman's ex-husband for molesting their young daughter; Becker, Kelsey, and the associates are all wary when the partners decide that the way to stem their declining revenues is to bring in Rosalind Shays, a ""rainmaker"", as a new partner; Markowitz represents a dating service sued by a hard-to-satisfy customer, who's more than happy to make the acquaintance of Dave Meyer after the trial is over; Brackman's latest scheme to save money on his health food kick has the staff smelling a rat.
Director: Tom Moore
Writer: N/A
8.1/1041 votesLoading...#5 - True Brit
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 1/25/1990
Kuzak suspects a barrister is exaggerating his ignorance of American courtroom procedure to influence the jury; Becker yearns for more fanfare from his co-workers; a friend's confession to Diana tests the limits of lawyer-client privilege; Rosalind invades Kelsey's space.
Director: Arthur Allan Seidelman
Writer: David E. Kelley, William M. Finkelstein
8.1/1044 votesLoading...#6 - Whatever Happened to Hannah?
Season 4 Episode 13 - Aired 2/15/1990
A comic charges his comedy-writer ex-wife with heckling him on-stage; a divorce sues her ex for years of abuse; and Kelsey wages war on Rosalind.
Director: Tom Moore
Writer: David E. Kelley, William M. Finkelstein, Amy Lippman
8.1/1047 votesLoading...#7 - The Bitch Is Back
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 10/18/1990
The shadow of Rosalind Shays again darkens the door of the firm when she sues them for discrimination, while another lawsuit escalates racial tensions.
Director: Elodie Keene
Writer: David E. Kelley
8.0/1041 votesLoading...#8 - Ex-Wives and Videotapes
Season 4 Episode 14 - Aired 2/22/1990
Kuzak pleads Williams's case before the State Court of Appeals; Rosalind is outraged when the partners decline to take on a potentially lucrative client because the company promotes apartheid; Becker represents a man so embittered by his wife's divorcing him that he intends to ruin her career as a prominent newswoman by distributing a private, x-rated video he made of their intimate moments.
Director: Miles Watkins
Writer: David E. Kelley, William M. Finkelstein
8.0/1045 votesLoading...#9 - Blood, Sweat and Fears
Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 3/15/1990
Kuzak fights to have the murder charges against Earl Williams dismissed; Sifuentes defends a doctor who refused to perform emergency surgery on an AIDS victim; the firm is rocked by McKenzie's resignation as senior partner, as Rosalind, Stuart and Douglas are eager to assume the role.
Director: Edwin Sherin
Writer: David E. Kelley
8.0/1041 votesLoading...#10 - Lie Harder
Season 5 Episode 3 - Aired 11/1/1990
An unexpected witness emerges in the Chisholm case; the parents of an emotionally disturbed adopted son seek relief through the courts; Melman refuses to do personal errands for Hammond.
Director: David Carson
Writer: Judith Feldman
8.0/1057 votesLoading...#11 - Pump it Up
Season 5 Episode 10 - Aired 1/10/1991
McKenzie's social life is scrutinized; Sifuentes has misgivings about defending a client; Becker gives a golddigger a creative divorce; Kuzak clashes with Van Owen.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/10223 votesLoading...#12 - Good to the Last Drop
Season 5 Episode 16 - Aired 3/21/1991
Zoey scoffs at the legal system when a child-killer goes free; a delinquent taxpayer protests Government spending; Rosalind steps in to help McKenzie with yet another case.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.9/1060 votesLoading...#13 - Raiders of the Lost Bark
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/7/1986
Kuzak slyly sticks Sifuentes with a dog of a case, but it's Sifuentes who's sitting pretty after he discovers the teeth in the matter, and pulls out an unexpected win; Abby rebuffs an admirer; Becker's gamble on the Mishkin fee agreement pays off financially but dooms the relationship; after Kuzak wins the discrimination case, he discovers that his client had an ulterior motive for not accepting a generous settlement offer; Brackman takes a new approach to life and dealing with people in the wake of his double barreled defeats in the court room and the partners' meeting; Becker is oblivious to Melman's feelings for him.
Director: Jan Eliasberg
Writer: David E. Kelley
7.9/1069 votesLoading...#14 - Gibbon Take
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/14/1986
Van Owen's ex-fiance gets his revenge by humiliating her during a campaign appearance, thus sabotaging her race for the bench; when Kelsey shakes a trust's money tree to benefit the homeless, she also creates a windfall for the firm and herself; an ugly divorce case hits too close to home when Abby tries her hand at marital law; Sifuentes adds to his chair collection as he settles a slander case against a prosecutor who took losing the Sullivan drug case on a technicality too personally and too publicly; Van Owen experiences an extremely embarrassing case of mistaken simian identity.
Director: Sharron Miller
Writer: John Schulian
7.9/1061 votesLoading...#15 - Sidney, the Dead-Nosed Reindeer
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/18/1986
La Rosa digs up the ammunition Kelsey needs to succeed in representing an inventor in a contract dispute over patent royalties; Kuzak is horrified as he witnesses a severely depressed Hershberg commit suicide in court; Becker gets caught in a compromising position when he's propositioned by a client's soon-to-be ex-wife; Perkins spends Christmas with her son; when his pre-trial depositions reveal that the Emmons case is a winner, Kuzak is able to negotiate a favorable settlement for his client.
Director: Jonathan Sanger
Writer: William M. Finkelstein
7.9/1043 votesLoading...#16 - The Unsterile Cuckoo
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 11/2/1989
Sifuentes reluctantly represents a wholesale furrier suing an animal rights group whose disruptions at his fashion shows caused him a million dollar loss; Hackett becomes concerned about the possibility of becoming a grandfather when he learns that his daughter and Stulwicz are having sex, and it takes McKenzie's powers of persuasion and a promise to talk to Stulwicz about contraception to convince Hackett not to have his daughter sterilized; Markowitz is torn between his dreams of glory as the star third baseman at the McKenzie Brackman annual softball game and his promise to attend Lamaze class with Kelsey; Kuzak buys a motorcycle.
Director: Rob Thompson
Writer: David E. Kelley
7.9/1039 votesLoading...#17 - The Pay's Lousy, But the Tips Are Great
Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 1/18/1990
Sifuentes's representation of a woman in a sexual harassment case against the federal judge for whom she clerked stirs up some emotional issues about Allison's rape which, despite their best efforts, the couple can't seem to resolve; Markowitz represents an elderly mohel being sued for malpractice; Becker is greeted coldly upon his return to the firm, and must face a hurt and angry Stulwicz; Rosalind subtly pits McKenzie and Brackman against each other as she secretly undermines them to poach their major clients.
Director: David Carson
Writer: David E. Kelley, William M. Finkelstein
7.9/1041 votesLoading...#18 - Happy Trails
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 10/25/1990
Rollins feels exploited when he's asked to assist on the Chisholm case; a surprise witness testifies in Rosalind's suit; Brackman considers breaking off with sex surrogate Marilyn after one of her clients dies; Murray gets everyone's attention.
Director: Win Phelps
Writer: N/A
7.9/1045 votesLoading...#19 - God Rest Ye Little Gentleman
Season 5 Episode 8 - Aired 12/13/1990
A disfigured doctor charges a clinic with discrimination; Benny anticipates the holidays with his new roommate; Van Owen defends a former colleague.
Director: Tom Moore
Writer: David E. Kelley
7.8/10361 votesLoading...#20 - Pilot
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1986
Becker begins the day dealing with some irate clients and finds himself at the wrong end of a gun; Melman discovers a dead partner; Kuzak finds a creative way to see that justice is done when he defends an unsavory client accused of rape and assault on a terminally ill woman; Brackman challenges Kelsey about taking on an insurance case; the firm takes on a new associate; a Chaney eulogy takes a shocking turn; Becker opens the eyes of a woman who mistakenly thinks she has a good divorce settlement; Perkins's marital problems become public knowledge; Kuzak encounters a judge who takes traffic violations seriously; Kelsey propositions Markowitz.
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Writer: Steven Bochco, Terry Louise Fisher
7.8/1046 votesLoading...#21 - Fifty Ways to Floss Your Lover
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 2/19/1987
Becker is enthralled by the beautiful, but somewhat incompetent, secretary who's temping while Melman is on jury duty until he discovers that their relationship will never be anything but professional; Van Owen contemplates buying a gun after a gangbanger shoots her in the court house hallway in retaliation for her winning a death penalty case against a member of the shooter's gang; Melman stands up to a bully in the deliberation room and turns the tide of the verdict towards justice; Sifuentes hits it off with his new dentist and agrees to represent her in a malpractice suit, but their romance is doomed when she can't leave her work at the office; realizing that he can't survive professionally if Melman quits, Becker finally capitulates to her salary demands.
Director: Mimi Leder
Writer: David E. Kelley
7.8/1036 votesLoading...#22 - Captain Hurt
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 11/9/1989
Kuzak's defense of a black college professor accused of murdering his young white research assistant blows up when the prosecutor sandbags his case by delaying DNA discovery, thus exposing his client's lies and destroying Kuzak's defense strategy; Van Owen counters an insanity defense based on uncontrollable sexual obsession when she prosecutes a claims adjuster for insurance fraud he asserts was the result of his inability to counter the demands of his dominatrix; Becker's desire to win at all costs and gain a large fee in the process garners his client a large settlement, but wrecks havoc on his relationship with his client; fulfilling his promise to Hackett, McKenzie assigns Sifuentes the responsibility of teaching Stulwicz about contraception.
Director: Win Phelps
Writer: William M. Finkelstein
7.8/1040 votesLoading...#23 - Since I Fell For You
Season 5 Episode 22 - Aired 5/16/1991
An AIDS-stricken attorney fights an insurance company's refusal to pay for an experimental treatment; Kelsey's admission concerning a murder case could jeopardize her standing with the bar; and a new partner is named.
Director: Win Phelps
Writer: David E. Kelley, Patricia Green, Alan Brennert
7.7/1074 votesLoading...#24 - The Princess and the Wiener King
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/17/1986
McKenzie's disappointment in the greedy law school students whose class he addresses leads him to offer a clerkship to a student who appears to be more socially responsible; in defending a young teenager who murdered her abusive brother, Sifuentes suspects that the abuse may have begun with the girl's father; Kelsey forces Perkins to realize that she may never see Eric again; Van Owen is furious when she discovers that Kuzak has arranged a lunch date with her fiance to scope out his competition; Kelsey finds out about Markowitz's secret life; McKenzie suggests a course of action after Hubbard expresses her frustration with their business and personal relationship; a lovesick Lewis fights to keep his princess, despite Becker's advice; Van Owen pays Kuzak a late night visit and reveals her true feelings.
Director: Sharron Miller
Writer: N/A
7.7/1036 votesLoading...#25 - The Plane Mutiny
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 2/9/1989
On his way to Chicago for an important new client pitch, Brackman takes on the airline that refuses to allow him to disembark in the middle of a four hour delay, and phones the firm to get a court order freeing him, which in turn gets him promptly arrested as soon as he sets foot in the terminal for using a cell phone on the plane; Sifuentes hires a beautiful private investigator who doesn't pull any punches in helping him track down an elusive witness; when the partners realize how much money Becker is making on the video, they demand a cut of his multi-million dollar profits; Van Owen is impressed by Sifuentes when they go up against each other in a murder-for-hire conspiracy case, and shocks him when she gives into a whim and shows the depth of her admiration; Brackman emerges victorious twice over when the charges against him are dismissed and he gets the new Chicago business; Melman gets something to think about when she learns how the million dollar profits of Becker's video will
Director: Sandy Smolan
Writer: David E. Kelley, Steven Bochco, William M. Finkelstein
The Best Episodes of L.A. Law
Every episode of L.A. Law ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of L.A. Law!
L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994.
Created by...
Genres:DramaWar & Politics
Network:NBC
Best Episodes Summary
"The Venus Butterfly" is the best rated episode of "L.A. Law". It scored 8.2/10 based on 94 votes. Directed by Donald Petrie and written by Steven Bochco, Terry Louise Fisher, it aired on 11/21/1986. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Justice Swerved".