It was introduced mid-season on March 8, 2005, to fill the time slot left by Bochco's highly successful NYPD Blue, which had just aired its final episode after a 12-year run.
"[1] Bochco said he got the idea for the series from seeing The Blind Boys of Alabama at a concert in Hollywood and noticing how they came on stage in a line, each holding on to the shoulder of the man in front of him.
[2] On May 18, 2004, ABC announced that they had ordered Blind Justice as a mid-season replacement to fill the spot in their scheduled left by NYPD Blue which was to end part way through the 2004-05 television season.
[5] The pilot episode had its first public screening in mid-January, 2005 at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota as part of ABC's attempt to promote their mid-season schedule.
[2] In her review of the pilot Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times found that Blind Justice "is at its best when portraying how people react to the character Jim Dunbar".
"[10] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe said Detective Dunbar "might as well be wearing a note pinned to his back reading 'I have courage, integrity, and kids really like me.'"
Gilbert goes on to say that Blind Justice "settles for the sort of nobler than-thou portrayal that marred the final seasons of Bochco's NYPD Blue."
He concludes his review by saying, "In the episodes sent to critics, the murder suspects are straight out of central casting, from the wigged-out serial killer to the abusive dad.