Franklin & Bash

2011 • TNT
4.6
307 reviews
TV-14
Rating
Eligible
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Season 1 episodes (10)

1 Pilot
6/1/11
Winning a high profile case leads streetwise lawyers Peter Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Jared Franklin (Breckin Meyer) to join Stanton Infeld (Malcolm McDowell) at his corporate law firm. While representing a prostitute who claims that she and her "client" were actually in a relationship, the brash attorneys defend a heroic airline pilot from being undermined by a scheming company executive. Guest starring Kathy Najimy.
2 She Came Upstairs To Kill Me
7/21/11
Franklin and Bash defend a woman (guest star Natalie Zea) charged with murdering her husband with sex. Sensing that either the judge or the jury is in on the take, the guys use unorthodox tactics to get justice for their client. Fred Willard guest-stars. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
3 Jennifer Of Troy
7/28/11
A plain jane woman who believes she was wrongly let go from her job at a men's magazine for being too good-looking comes to Infeld Daniels looking for legal representation. Meanwhile, the man-cave's overwhelming technology causes the server to crash, leaving everyone disconnected from their respective gadgets. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
4 Bro-Bono
6/21/11
As Jared (Breckin Meyer) and Carmen (Dana Davis) team up in a divorce case to undercut millionaire adventurer Rick Paxton's (guest star Harry Hamlin) playboy image, Peter's (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) drunken driving defense exposes high school classmate Danny Dubois's secret life. But when an elderly witness is discredited by revelations of her shady past, it's an outrageous courtroom stunt by Jared that exonerates Danny.
5 You Can't Take It With You
8/10/11
A family is torn as one side sues the other over a priceless 1988 home-run baseball in a case that pits Jared against his own father (guest star Beau Bridges). Meanwhile, Peter works with Hanna on defending a reality television father (guest star Tom Arnold) who is affectionately known as the "Douchey Dad." And Karp comes to Pindar for help on a top-secret project involving a compromising video. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
6 Big Fish
8/17/11
Season-only
Peter and Jared are approached by Carter Lang, a widely reviled financier whose diagnosis of a terminal illness has inspired him to repay the shareholders he bankrupted while enriching himself. Though they both harbor doubts about the ethics of working for someone as despised as Lang, the guys take the case in order to pay back many of those who lost their money. Their task becomes more difficult, however, when a former associate of Lang's, John Stills, has the financier arrested for stealing his yacht. Meanwhile, when eccentric multi-millionaire businesswoman, Abha Jaya, looks for a new legal team, Karp and Hanna use Pindar to try to land the lucrative account. Although Lang readily puts up one million dollars in bail to gain his release, when he is arrested again for indecent exposure, evidence of his role in another theft from Stills lands him back in jail. And when Lang discovers that the diagnosis of his illness was a mistake, Jared and Peter suddenly see his altruism has vanished as he demands that they do whatever it takes to beat the charges or he will implicate them in the theft if they can't. Meanwhile, though Pindar and Abha Jaya share many of the same phobias, Pindar's failure to get everything cleaned up for a meeting at the Franklin & Bash house sends Abha running before he can even begin his pitch for the account. With Infeld's blessing, Jared and Peter decide to risk their own imprisonment by presenting a shaky case that will send Lang to jail and keep him from defrauding any more investors. Ordered by the judge to present a competent defense, they fulfill their obligations by tricking Lang into accepting a deal that secures justice for the investors he cheated out of their life savings. Finally, even though Pindar has been thrown off Hanna and Karp’s legal team, by using a series of fortune cookies to present his legal strategy, he finally wins Abha's account. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
7 Franklin Vs. Bash
8/24/11
Following their arrest for a jewelry theft at the home of Kelly McDowell, a wealthy socialite, pole-dancing teachers Amber North and Simone Winters hire Franklin and Bash. Facing off against Peter's ex, Janie Ross, Franklin and Bash try to discredit the claim that their clients drugged Kelly and her friends so they could steal the jewelry. After Peter and Jared fail to have the evidence, obtained in a search of Amber's apartment, thrown out, Amber and Simone turn against each other. So when they decide to separate their clients, Jared takes Simone, Peter takes Amber, and Franklin vs. Bash is on. Meanwhile, Hanna and Karp represent Alex Carlisle, a thirteen-year-old boy who is suing his father so he can take a kayak down the Amazon River alone. After they agree not to discuss the case, Peter and Jared are cornered when opposing lawyer Janie Ross offers a deal to the first pole-dancing teacher, who agrees to testify against the other. Once she sees how badly it has divided them, Janie opts to seek convictions against both. When Jared produces evidence that Amber had a prescription for the painkiller that was used on the victims, Peter sees his own case with Simone crumbling. Meanwhile, despite 13-year-old Alex's formidable display of maturity in the courtroom, his dad's lawyer reveals that the boy walked out on summer camp because he was homesick. As Alex's legal team continues preparing their defense, it is clear that the boy is smitten with Hanna. With help from Pindar and Carmen, Peter and Jared see that the case is dividing their partnership and agree to work as a team. Evidence that socialite Kelly is in deep financial trouble and facing foreclosure leads them to suspect that she engineered the theft in order to collect on her insurance policy. Though the judge refuses to let Kelly's safe deposit box be opened in court to see if it contains a "stolen" necklace, Jared’s fancy legal maneuvering gets a copy of Kelly's own pain medication prescription entered into evidence, allowing him and Peter to discredit her testimony and win an acquittal for their clients. Then, after proving that Mr. Carlisle's concern stems from fear of being left home alone rather than concern for his son’s safety, Hanna and Karp successfully convince him to let Alex take the trip down the Amazon. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8 The Bangover
9/1/11
The guys are placed under house arrest for a crazy courtroom stunt, but are pleasantly surprised when Lily Garrett, stunning niece of Stanton Infeld, misses her flight home to London and shows up at their “man cave.” Unfortunately, Jared accidentally sets off his court- ordered monitoring bracelet, and a subsequent police search of the house uncovers marijuana in Lily’s purse. With the guys’ detention making it impossible for them to attend her arraignment, it falls to Karp to represent Lily. Meanwhile, Dante Cole, Carmen’s ex-con boyfriend and sexual soulmate, has snuck into the house to see her but flees when police arrive to keep them both from being arrested for parole violations. As everyone works to keep Lily’s arrest a secret from her uncle, her passport is confiscated and she is released to stay with Peter and Jared until her trial. So when Infeld drops in for a video game tutorial at the “man cave,” Peter keeps Lily out of sight. Meanwhile, Carmen finds a backpack Dante left behind containing $100,000 in stolen cash and the police arrive to arrest her for violating her parole. Infeld learns that Lily missed her flight and blames Karp as Dante arrives at the house looking for his money, which the guys’ fill-in assistant Marla inadvertently took out with the recycling. Realizing that Carmen’s only hope is to have Dante turn himself in, Peter and Jared take him to retrieve the missing money, hoping their monitoring bracelets will alert the police to their whereabouts. But Dante bolts just as the cops arrive, and Peter and Jared are nailed again for violating their house arrest. To make matters worse, Lily faces a serious felony charge when a thorough search of her bag uncovers additional drugs in the form of marijuana-laced lozenges. With no one to represent Carmen in court, Pindar sets aside his phobias to act as her lawyer, laying out a defense that rests on her addiction to sex with Dante. Lily agrees when prosecutor Janie Ross offers her probation if she immediately leaves the country, and her uncle, Stanton Infeld, shows up to make sure she gets to the airport and on the plane this time. Luckily, as Pindar is struggling to make a convincing argument for Carmen, Dante shows up to surrender himself and the stolen money in exchange for her release. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
9 Bachelor Party
9/8/11
Following his arrest for allegedly soliciting a prostitute during his bachelor party, Nathan Connor asks his fiancé Janie Ross' ex-boyfriend, Peter, for help. Making it clear that the party wasn't his idea, Nathan insists on keeping Janie from finding out about his arrest. However, because there was also a fire in his hotel room that same night, he is facing serious jail time and it's impossible to keep Janie in the dark. But with her encouragement, Nathan turns down a plea bargain in order to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, when teacher Emily Claire asks for help after she's terminated for allegedly having sex with a student, Jared prepares to face his old high school headmaster, Walter Gallen. When the prostitute refuses to dispute the police report, Franklin & Bash's investigator, Carmen, gets the hotel security chief to testify that Nathan probably wasn't in the room when things got out of hand. But then the bellhop testifies that he overheard Nathan having what sounded like sex near the hotel pool. Confronted by Janie, Nathan claims that the woman at the pool was his assistant, Lauren Gonzalez, who he called for a ride home. After high school senior Chris Briggs says that Emily came on to him, a bartender tells Jared and Peter that this wasn't the first time Chris seduced an older woman. But the bartender refuses to testify before the school board. Jared tries bluffing, only to have headmaster Gallen claim that Emily has been accused of having sex with a student once before. With Pindar's help, Jared learns the identity of the other student. After Jared implies that he can undermine the kid's chances at being accepted to college, the student confesses to having made up the story. At the school board meeting, Jared engages the bartender in a successful effort to get headmaster Gallen to reinstate Emily in order to avoid adverse publicity. And, after Nathan's assistant Lauren testifies that Nathan only sought her advice because he was getting cold feet, Janie's testimony about the abstinence pact they made six months before the wedding convinces the jury of Nathan's innocence. But a new case is on the horizon when the body of one of Stanton Infeld's old friends is found, fifteen years after he disappeared during an ill-fated mountain climbing expedition. Infeld asks his nephew, Damien Karp, to find him a criminal defense attorney. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
10 Go Tell It On The Mountain
9/15/11
Following the discovery of the body of his best friend and mountain climbing partner Gibson Hawke, Infeld pleads not guilty to murder and agrees to remain in custody while Franklin and Bash prepare his defense. Brought in to oversee the case, and the office, during the trial, New York-based partner Brett Caiman orders the two lawyers to keep Infeld’s nephew, Damien Karp, away from the case. Faced with damning evidence produced by D.A. Ellen Swatello, Infeld admits that, contrary to his story fifteen years earlier, he killed Hawke to keep him from endangering the lives of their climbing team. Meanwhile, Peter and Jared are enlisted to help professional wrestler Ultimo fend off a younger opponent’s attempt to strip him of his mask and his title. As Peter and Jared look for character witnesses to help with Infeld’s case, an Alaskan police officer testifies that after arresting Infeld for a fight on the eve of their expedition, he heard Infeld threaten to kill Hawke. The case then suffers another setback when Pindar learns that Infeld closed Hawke's offshore bank account just days after his death. When Swatello reveals that she knows about the account too, Brett admits to being her source. Meanwhile, ruling that Ultimo is bound by his contract with the wrestling league, the judge orders him to turn over his mask. However, when Hanna accuses the league of violating Ultimo’s intellectual property by using his wrestling moves, the judge says he can keep the mask until the issue is resolved. Seeing that Brett wants to push Infeld and his nephew aside at the firm, Jared and Peter ask Karp to rejoin their team. As Karp confronts Brett about her sneaky tactics, Peter and Jared get the judge to send the jury to the morgue to witness Infeld's reaction when he views Hawke’s corpse. After the coroner testifies that the autopsy showed that Hawke was suffering from hypoxia, possibly making him violent and irrational, Infeld's emotional goodbye to his old friend impresses the jury and prompts Swatello to offer him a deal. Finally, after a legal victory bankrupts the wrestling league, Ultimo and his lawyers end up as its new owners. © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About this show

Two rogue street lawyers (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer) join a stuffy, conservative Los Angeles law firm and now the California judicial system will never be the same.

Ratings and reviews

4.6
307 reviews
Dave Moore
July 11, 2013
I enjoy most of this show. Good filler for the TV season this time of year. Would love to see some cameos, like Seth Green in the first season. Make Mr. Bellding a judge.
3 people found this review helpful
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Kerri Peek
December 5, 2014
I love this show. From the word Go, it's been one of my favorites. TNT just doesn't miss! Pinder is my fave though!
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Jeff R
December 30, 2017
Ever since "Boston Legal" (and it's predecessor "The Practice") was canceled, I have been waiting for a show that mixes comedy and courtroom drama into one. This show delivers.. Looking forward to season 3.
7 people found this review helpful
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