Paul Attanasio, House executive producer, has conjured up a legal drama for Fox. The network greenlighted a one-hour pilot, Court K, which is set in Milwaukee and involves a judge, a prosecutor and a public defender. Just because it's set in Milwaukee, don't expect to see Laverne and Shirley.

Like House is not your typical medical drama, Court K will not be a typical lawyer show, not that Boston Legal is typical, but you know what I mean. Court K is reportedly a lot grittier, with sardonic, dark comic elements. We'll have to see if any of the principals are hooked on Vicodan. I wonder if it'll remind me of the movie ...And Justice For All, which was also a dark comic look at a Baltimore courthouse. But then, wasn't that Night Court, too?

Attanasio is an interesting and prolific writer. He was once the film critic for the Washington Post before breaking into movies by writing the screenplay for Robert Redford's Quiz Show in 1985. He won an Oscar nomination for that script, and another for Donnie Brasco in 1998. On TV, though, he really made his mark writing for Homicide: Life on the Streets and Gideon's Crossing -- so you could say he and Andre Braugher had a good thing going.

In 2006, he split his time producing House by writing the screenplay for The Good German, but even George Clooney couldn't make that picture watchable.