In order to understand the relationship between Danny and Alan more completely, we should first look at a brief character biography to get a full grasp of the depth of the characters.
Denny is a founding partner of the law firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt, along with Shirley Schmidt and Edwin M. Poole. He frequently makes a point of this to his fellow partners, including the fact that his name is first. In addition, Denny often punctuates his statements by announcing his own name, “Denny Crane.” On a case involving seniors and prescription drug prices, Denny forgot the details of the case and gave an opening statement that resulted in a mistrial, to his client’s benefit. He then finally took Alan Shore’s suggestion seriously that he might have Alzheimer’s and went to get tested for it. Late in the first season, Denny admitted to Alan that he had been taking a type of amphetamine drug to help him focus on trial procedures; he later stopped taking the drug. After trying a case involving the safety of red meat, Denny comes to believe that his condition is due to mad cow disease.
Denny is a staunch conservative Republican who strongly opposes gun control, claiming that “it’s for communists.” On the recommendation of his friend Tom DeLay he keeps a wide variety of loaded guns in his office (including the camouflaged AR-7 he saved Alan with). Denny feels that elevators “are for Democrats” and he only takes the stairs. In one episode, when he is representing the United States in court, he refers to the Attorney General by his first name, “Alberto.”
Denny reveals in the episode “Live Big” that he euthanized his demented father (”The man with the brain of a two year-old”) by pressuring the supervising doctor to increase his patient’s morphine dose (”We put him out of our misery,” Denny tells Alan).
Denny is at times portrayed as extremely unethical. He will resort to means that other lawyers would not (other than Alan, of course) in order to win a case. In one episode, he convinced a judge to drop all charges against his nymphomaniac client by playing on the judge’s self-esteem problems stemming from his being a virgin. Denny also has at many times made remarks about sleeping with people’s wives. Indeed, in the Pilot episode, one of his clients comes to him with the concern that his 6th wife was having an affair and wanted the firm to hire a private investigator to find out who the man was. It turned out to be Denny. He once claimed that he had a threesome with Shirley Schmidt and Barbra Streisand; Shirley then told him that she had hired a male Barbara Streisand impersonator.
Denny has also bragged that he has never lost a case, claiming that his record is 6,043-0 (”Loose Lips”). He has also said that he is the greatest attorney in history. Paul Lewiston once observed that Denny is like Mohammed Ali late in his career, relying more on his past reputation than his current skills. Sometimes Denny’s pronouncements of his name are less about making a joke and more about invoking that old Denny Crane reputation to intimidate others.
An avid rifleman, Denny once claimed to be a Marine Corps veteran, but he couldn’t remember whether he was a pilot or a sniper in an episode where he shot a man who was threatening to shoot Alan; he had Tara Wilson open the intervening door by yelling “Pull!” after which he shot the assailant.
In another second season episode, Denny was forced against his will by a judge to provide pro bono representation to an accused child rapist/killer. The killer privately bragged to Denny about having committed the crime, and Crane “accidentally” shot both his kneecaps with a gun he had smuggled past courthouse security in his briefcase; this incident landed Denny one of his numerous appearances on Larry King’s cable-TV talk show. In another episode, Denny threatens to shoot his therapist in the shoulder, which he later does in self-defense. He later fires on his therapist again in court when Alan is threatened with a gun.
Denny’s expertise and skill in media manipulation, as well as his reputation, have made him the public face of Crane, Poole & Schmidt — far more often than any of the other senior partners would like. His aggressive personality, massive ego, excessive libido, and eagerness for the limelight have caused him to lose five wives, the most recent after only three hours of marriage when he was caught having sex with a catering server in the coatroom at his own wedding reception. But as a named partner and the firm’s resident rainmaker, Denny cannot be removed from the firm without great difficulty and economic risk (as he often points out, “My name’s on the door”).
When surrounded by reporters as he escorts his clients either into or out of court, he often says his name and adds something that is not directly related to the case (e.g. in “The Black Widow” (season 2, #18) he repeatedly says: “Denny Crane! She loves me − she loves me not!”). In addition, he has made references to the effect that he knows that many of the other partners thinks he’s nuts, “Denny Crane, Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!” This is yet another comment made directly to the audience by Denny.
The reason Denny always says his name out loud is, according to him, that people can’t believe they are actually in the room with legendary Denny Crane, so he says his name to assure them that it’s real (as stated by him in his guest appearance in “The Practice”). According to Shirley Schmidt (in Season 1 episode “Schmidt Happens”), Denny says his name out loud in order to remember it, which refers to his possible Alzheimer’s disease.
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