In the second-season finale, Harry was stabbed by a former student and almost died. It took the near-death of Harry Senate for the rest of the faculty to realize how much they had come to love Harry as more than a colleague, but also as a close friend. Initially, Harry was supposed to die from his wounds; this was David E. Kelley's way of writing Nicky Katt out of the show so that he could pursue a movie career. When Katt became available again, but for only a part of the next season, Kelley and his writers allowed Harry to survive the attack, only to suffer from a slow mental breakdown that would ultimately provide Katt with a very different exit from the show.