| Catherine Piper | |
|---|---|
 Betty White appears in a recurring role as Catherine Piper, a neighbor of Alan Shore and a firm employee on the series. | |
| Personal Information | |
| Gender/Sex: | Female |
| Occupation/ Career: |
Former secrectary and cake vendor at Crane, Poole, and Schmidt |
| Character description: |
Former childhood neighbor of Denny Crane who was once tried and accquitted of murder of one of Alan Shore's clients on the cause of self-defense |
| Character information | |
| Appeared on: | Boston Legal |
| First episode appearance: | "From Whence We Came" (Season 1) |
| Final episode appearance: |
"Juiced" (Season 5) |
| Episodes appeared in: | 16 from Seasons 1-5 |
| Character played by: | Betty White |
Catherine Piper, played by Betty White, was Alan's childhood neighbor, who later worked at Crane, Poole, and Schmidt.
About Catherine[]
Apparently, Catherine was Alan's neighbor as a child; when Alan was nine, he put a bag of burning dog feces on her doorstep. She was first introduced in The Practice, where she hadn't forgotten Alan. Catherine returned to see Alan and shook his hand - with dog excrement in it. She served as a witness in a case, extorting from the defendant's mother in exchange for withholding testimony, and Alan made her out to be a bitter, demented old widow. Later, she applied for a job at Crane, Poole, and Schmidt, as Alan's secretary. She offended everyone in the firm except Bernard Ferrion, one of Alan's clients. Bernard had killed his mother and neighbor with a cast-iron skillet, and Catherine, afraid he would kill again, used the same skillet to kill him. She was tried for murder and was acquitted, but fired by Shirley Schmidt.
Catherine then committed two armed robberies at local supermarkets, and helped elderly woman out of a nursing home. Alan, realizing Catherine did this for attention, got Shirley to hire her as the firm's sandwich and cake lady. She was then briefly seen at the wrestling match between Alan and Denny. Catherine returned in "Happy Trails", unintentionally blowing up her doctor after setting his office on fire for prescribing medication that almost killed her. She later returned to pester Carl Sack by firing his assistant and suing the television networks for only appealing to the younger demographics.