Eli Stone

This quasi-fantasy offering from ABC starred Jonny Lee Miller as Eli Stone, a successful corporate lawyer who at the outset of the series cared only about the "holy trinity" of America: "Amani, Accessories and Ambition." All this changed when Eli suddenly began experiencing weird MTV-style visions of his late, ne'er-do-well father (Tom Cavanagh)--and, weirder still, of singer George Michael (playing himself). He was also subjected to bizarre hallucinations, notably a huge fighter plane which "buzzed" him in the middle of downtown New York. Interpreting these phenomena as a Sign from Heaven, Eli told off his imperious boss Jordan Wethersby (Victor Garber) and abandoned his lucrative practice in order to got to bat for "underdog" clients, usually those victimized by society in general and corporate fat cats in particular. While Eli's former associates thought that he'd gone crazy, his neurologist Nathan (Matt Letscher) had a grimmer explanation for his radical personality change, insisting that Eli was suffering from the same sort of brain aneuryism that had killed his father. But laid-back acupuncturist Dr. Chen (James Saito) wasn't as willing to write off Eli's new condition in so coldly logical a manner, and offered to help the protagonist interpret his visions in order to best serve humanity. Others in the cast included Loretta Devine as Eli's bemused assistant Patty, Julie Gonzalo as his dewey-eyed protegee Maggie, and Natasha Henstridge as Jordan Wethersby's daughter--and Eli's fiancee--Taylor. Blithely fluctuating between the real and surreal world, Eli Stone evoked memories of such earlier cult favorites as Ally McBeal and Joan of Arcadia, which was undoubtedly the intention of co-creator Marc Guggenheim (who, like Eli, has been a lawyer before turning to scriptwriting). The series first aired on January 31, 2008.