Suits season 1
First season of the legal drama Suits.
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The first season of *Suits*, an American legal comedy-drama, ran on USA Network from June 23, 2011, to September 8, 2011. Hypnotic Films & Television and Universal Cable Productions handled production, with Doug Liman, David Bartis, and series creator Aaron Korsh serving as executive producers. The show follows corporate lawyer Harvey Specter and his associate Mike Ross, who practices law without holding a law degree.
Six main cast members portrayed employees at the fictional Manhattan firm Pearson Hardman: Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, and Gina Torres.
The series originated from a pilot titled *A Legal Mind*, one of seven new pilots USA announced developing on April 5, 2010. Aaron Korsh wrote the premiere, with David Bartis and Gene Klein as executive producers. On May 17, 2010, USA ordered a 90-minute cast-contingent pilot. The network picked up *A Legal Mind* on January 19, 2011, ordering eleven one-hour episodes plus the pilot.
Korsh, whose sitcom *Notes from the Underbelly* was canceled during the 2007–2008 Writers' Strike, initially wrote a spec script for a half-hour show inspired by his Wall Street experiences, similar to *Entourage*. He later decided hour-long episodes suited the project. Korsh and his agent pitched the script to several production companies, aiming to give it to Universal Media Studios. He found it odd the studio didn’t want to sell it to NBC, its usual network. Korsh’s agent convinced USA Network executive Alex Sepiol that, while the series wasn’t a procedural or typical USA fare, he would like the characters. Sepiol approved the script, and Hypnotic Films & Television joined the project. The team pitched to USA, which bought the script immediately; Korsh didn’t pitch elsewhere. When rewriting, he made only small changes to the first half-hour, up to Mike’s hiring. Originally, Mike didn’t take LSATs for others and only pretended to have attended Harvard, not that he attended Harvard and had a law degree. Korsh noted that Wall Street work requires no degree or test for mathematical geniuses, unlike law’s bar exam, so he “embraced” this difference and changed the premise.
The pilot was filmed in New York City, the show’s setting. The rest of the season was filmed in Toronto, with sets built to match the pilot’s New York law offices.
Quick Facts
- Season Number
- 1
- Starring
- Gabriel Macht / Patrick J. Adams / Rick Hoffman / Meghan Markle / Sarah Rafferty / Gina Torres
- Num Episodes
- 12
- Network
- USA Network
- First Aired
- 2011-06-23
- Last Aired
- 2011-09-08
- Episode List
- List of Suits episodes
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The season had six series regulars playing employees at the fictional Pearson Hardman law firm in Manhattan: Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, and Gina Torres. Creator Aaron Korsh, whose Notes from the Underbelly sitcom was canceled during the 2007–2008 Writers' Strike, wrote a spec script intended to be a 'half-hour Entourage-type based on my experiences working on Wall Street.' He later realized that the project should have hour-long episodes. Korsh and his agent took the script to several production companies and wanted to give the script to Universal Media Studios. However, Korsh found it odd that the studio did not want to sell the script to NBC, the network the studio typically worked with. Korsh's agent convinced USA Network executive Alex Sepiol that although the series was neither a procedural nor what the network typically did, he would like the characters. Sepiol approved of the script, and by then, Hypnotic Films & Television signed on to the project. The team pitched the script to USA, which bought the script after the pitch. Korsh did not pitch it to anyone else.
Reader's Guide
The first season of Suits established the core premise and characters that would define the series. The pilot episode gained a 1.6 ratings share among adults aged 18–49 and garnered an estimated 4.6 million viewers, making the episode the ninth most watched basic cable show for the week. The series made USA Network the most watched network in the Thursday 10pm timeslot and gained more total viewers and households than any other scripted series in the timeslot. The series had the network's third best performing premiere season in viewers aged 18–49, in viewers aged 18–34, and in total viewers. Together, Burn Notice and Suits were the top scripted shows in primetime television, and no other network aired a scripted series that garnered over four million total viewers, one million viewers aged 25–54, or one million viewers aged 18–49. The season's success laid the groundwork for the series' long run.
Did You Know?
- The pilot episode was filmed in New York City, while the rest of the series is filmed in Toronto.
- Sarah Rafferty was recommended for the role of Donna Paulsen by Gabriel Macht, who had been friends with her for twenty years at the time of production.
- Originally, Mike did not take LSATs for others and only pretends to have attended Harvard, as opposed to pretending he attended Harvard and has a law degree.
- To promote the series debut, USA had an advance screening of the pilot on June 2, 2011 at the Hudson River Park and distributed free Häagen-Dazs Sundaes cones.
More in Characters & Personalities
Elsewhere in Suits
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