Ally McBeal Information

Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama television series, originally aired on Fox from September 8, 1997 to May 20, 2002. Created by David E. Kelley, the series stars Calista Flockhart in the title role as a young lawyer working in the fictional Boston law firm Cage and Fish, with other young lawyers whose lives and loves were eccentric, humorous and dramatic. The series placed #48 on Entertainment Weekly "New TV Classics" list.

Overview

The series, set in the fictional Boston law firm Cage and Fish, begins with main character Ally joining the firm (co-owned by her law school classmate Richard Fish) after leaving her previous job due to sexual harassment. On her first day Ally is horrified to find she will be working alongside her ex-boyfriend Billy Thomas"?whom she has never gotten over"?and to make things worse, Billy is now married to fellow lawyer Georgia, who later joins Cage and Fish too. The triangle between the three forms the basis for the main plot for the show's first three seasons.

Although ostensibly a legal drama, the main focus of the series was the romantic and personal lives of the main characters, often using legal proceedings as plot devices to contrast or reinforce a character's drama. For example, bitter divorce litigation of a client might provide a backdrop for Ally's decision to break up with a boyfriend. Legal arguments were also frequently used to explore multiple sides of various social issues.

Cage & Fish (which becomes Cage/Fish & McBeal or Cage, Fish, & Associates towards the end of the series), the fictional law firm where most of the characters work, is depicted as a highly sexualized environment, symbolized by its unisex restroom. Lawyers and secretaries in the firm routinely date, flirt with, or have a romantic history with each other, and frequently run into former or potential romantic interests in the courtroom or on the street outside.

The series had many offbeat and frequently surreal running gags and themes, such as Ally's tendency to immediately fall over whenever she met somebody she found attractive, or Richard Fish's wattle fetish and humorous mottos ("Fishisms" & "Bygones"), or John's gymnastic dismounts out of the office's unisex bathroom stalls, that ran through the series. The show used vivid, dramatic fantasy sequences for Ally's and other characters' wishful thinking; particularly notable is the dancing baby.

The series also featured regular visits to a local bar where singer Vonda Shepard regularly performed (though occasionally handing over the microphone to the characters). The series also took place in the same continuity as David E. Kelley's legal drama The Practice (which aired on ABC), as the two shows crossed over with one another on occasion, a very rare occurrence for two shows that aired on different networks.

Main cast

• Calista Flockhart " Ally McBeal
• Greg Germann " Richard Fish
• Jane Krakowski " Elaine Vassal
• Dyan Cannon " Jennifer "Whipper" Cone (seasons 1-3 recurring)
• Peter MacNicol " John Cage (episodes 2"103; recurring afterwards)
• Lisa Nicole Carson " Renée Raddick (seasons 1"4; one guest appearance in series finale)
• Gil Bellows " Billy Allen Thomas (seasons 1"3; recurring afterwards)
• Courtney Thorne-Smith " Georgia Thomas (seasons 1"3; recurring afterwards)
• Vonda Shepard " Herself (seasons 2"5; recurring previously)
• Portia de Rossi " Nelle Porter (seasons 2"5)
• Lucy Liu " Ling Woo (episodes 32"96; 103)
• James LeGros " Mark Albert (season 4; recurring previously)
• Robert Downey, Jr. " Larry Paul (season 4; uncredited appearances afterwards)
• Regina Hall " Corretta Lipp (season 5; recurring previously)
• Julianne Nicholson " Jenny Shaw (episodes 91"103)
• James Marsden " Glenn Foy (episodes 91"103)
• Josh Hopkins " Raymond Millbury (season 5)
• John Michael Higgins " Steven Milter (season 5)
• Hayden Panettiere " Maddie Harrington (episodes 101"112)

Episode list

Reception

The show's ratings began to decline in the third season, but stabilized in the fourth season after Robert Downey, Jr. joined the regular cast as Ally's boyfriend Larry Paul. However, Downey's character was written out after the end of the season due to the actor's troubles with drug addiction.

Along with Dharma & Greg, Ally McBeal was one of the last two surviving shows to debut during the 1997-98 season, one of the weakest in television history for new shows. (Only seven shows to debut would be picked up for a second season, and only Dharma & Greg and Ally McBeal would last longer than three seasons, each providing enough episodes for syndication.) Both shows ended at the end of the 2001-02 season, five years after their debut.

US ratings

Season		U.S. ratings	Network	Rank
1	1997"98	11.4 million	Fox	#59
2	1998"99	13.8 million	Fox	#20
3	1999"2000	12.4 million	Fox	#35
4	2000"01	12.0 million	Fox	#40
5	2001"02	9.4 million	Fox	#65

Criticism

Despite its success, Ally McBeal did receive some negative criticism from TV critics and feminists who found the title character annoying and demeaning to women (specifically professional women) because of her perceived flightiness, lack of demonstrated legal knowledge, short skirts, and extreme emotional instability. Perhaps the most notorious example of the debate sparked by the show was the June 29, 1998 cover story of Time magazine, which juxtaposed McBeal with three pioneering feminists (Susan B. Anthony, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem) and asked "Is Feminism Dead?" In episode 12 of the second season of the show, Ally talks to her co-worker John Cage about a dream she had, saying "You know, I had a dream that they put my face on the cover of Time magazine as 'the face of feminism'."

Music

Ally McBeal was a heavily music-oriented show. Vonda Shepard, a virtually unknown musician at the time, was featured continually on the show. Her song "Searchin' My Soul" became the show's theme song. Many of the songs Shepard performed were established hits with lyrics that paralleled the events of the episode, including "Both Sides Now", "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Tell Him". Besides recording background music for the show, Shepard frequently appeared at the ends of episodes as a musician performing at a local piano bar frequented by the main characters. On rare occasions, her character would have conventional dialogue. A portion of "Searchin' My Soul" was played at the beginning of each episode but, oddly enough, the song was never heard in its entirety.

Due to the popularity of the show and Shepard's music, a soundtrack titled Songs from Ally McBeal was released in 1998, as well as a successor soundtrack titled "Heart and Soul: New Songs From Ally McBeal" in 1999. Two compilation albums from the show featuring Shepard were also released in 2000 and 2001. A Christmas album was also released under the title Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas. The album received positive reviews, and Shephard's version of Kay Starr's Christmas song (Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man with the Bag, received considerable airplay during the holiday season.

Other artists featured on the show include Barry White, Al Green, Tina Turner, Anastacia, Elton John and Mariah Carey. Josh Groban played the role of Malcolm Wyatt in the May 2001 season finale, performing "You're Still You". The series creator, David E. Kelley, was impressed with Groban's performance at The Family Celebration event and based on the audience reaction to Groban's singing, Kelley created a character for him in that finale. The background score for the show was composed by Danny Lux.

Soundtrack name	Tk#	Release date
Songs from Ally McBeal	14	May 5, 1998
Heart and Soul: New Songs from Ally McBeal	14	November 9, 1999
Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas	14	November 7, 2000
Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life	14	April 24, 2001
The Best of Ally McBeal	12	October 6, 2009

DVD releases

Due to music licensing issues, none of the seasons of Ally McBeal were available on DVD in the United States (only 6 random episodes can be found on the R1 edition) until 2009, though it has been available in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Taiwan, Australia, Brazil and the Czech Republic with all the show's music intact since 2005. In the UK, Ireland and Spain all seasons are available in a complete box set.

20th Century Fox released the complete first season on DVD in Region 1 on October 6, 2009. They also released a special complete series edition on the same day. Season 1 does not contain any special features, the complete series set however does contain several bonus features including featurettes, an all-new retrospective, the episode of The Practice in which Calista Flockhart guest starred and a bonus disc entitled "The Best of Ally McBeal Soundtrack". In addition, both releases contain all of the original music. Season 2 was released on April 6, 2010. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 were all released on October 5, 2010. Season 1 and 2 are also available on the US iTunes Store.

DVD name	Ep#	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
The Complete First Season	23	October 6, 2009	February 21, 2005	April 26, 2006
The Complete Second Season	23	April 6, 2010	February 21, 2005	April 26, 2006
The Complete Third Season	21	October 5, 2010	February 21, 2005	April 26, 2006
The Complete Fourth Season	23	October 5, 2010	May 9, 2005	April 26, 2006
The Complete Fifth Season	22	October 5, 2010	May 9, 2005	April 26, 2006
The Complete Series	112	October 6, 2009	October 30, 2006	April 18, 2012

Ally (1999)

In 1999, at the height of the show's popularity, a half-hour version entitled Ally began airing in parallel with the main program. This version, designed in a sitcom format, used re-edited scenes from the main program, as well as previously unseen footage. The intention was to further develop the plots in the comedy-drama in a sitcom style. It also focussed only on Ally's personal life, cutting all the courtroom plots. The repackaged show was cancelled partway through its initial run. While 13 episodes of Ally were created, only 10 were actually broadcast.

In popular culture

The season one episode of Futurama, "When Aliens Attack", featured a parody of the show entitled Single Female Lawyer. The principal crux of the parody was that, effectively, Single Female Lawyer had no discernible plot other than the fact that the female lead was very attractive, wore a short skirt, and slept with her clients. The show has been broadcast into space for centuries, but the last episode was missing (due to Philip Fry's incompetence and time travel) and so a warlike alien race, who had become hooked on the show, demanded that Earth either play out the final episode for them or they would ignite the planet's atmosphere. Luckily, due to the nature of the show being little more than fan service, it was easy for Fry, Leela and the others to replicate it by simply putting Leela in a miniskirt and ad libbing the dialogue on the spot; this satiated the aliens, who left Earth peaceably.

In episode 2, season 3 of the British comedy The Adam and Joe Show, the show was parodied as 'Ally McSqeal' using soft toys.

International broadcasters

Country	TV network
Arab World	MBC4
Argentina	Fox
Australia	Seven Network, FX (Now W. Channel) 111 Hits and Network Ten
Austria	ORF1
Belarus	Belsat TV
Belgium	2BE, vtm, Plug tv (French), La Deux (French)
Brazil	Fox Life (cable)
Bulgaria	BTV, Fox Life, BTV Comedy and BTV Lady
Canada	CTV (English), ARTV (French), TVA (French)
Chile	Canal 13, Fox Life (cable)
Colombia	RCN, Citytv Bogotá, Fox Life (cable)
Croatia	Nova TV, HRT
Czech Republic	?eská televize, Prima love
Denmark	TV 2 Zulu
Estonia	TV3
Finland	MTV3 (original), FOX (reruns)
France	Téva, M6, Série Club
Germany	VOX, Comedy Central, EinsFestival
Greece	ANT1
Guatemala	Fox Life
Hong Kong	aTV world
Hungary	Viasat 3
India	STAR World India
Indonesia	RCTI
Ireland	originally screened on RT"? Two, repeats air on TV3
Israel	Channel 2, Channel 3
Italy	Canale 5, Italia 1, Fox Life, Mya, Iris
Japan	NHK
Kenya	Kenya Television Network
Latvia	LNT, Fox Life
Lebanon	LBCI
Lithuania	TV3
Macedonia	Fox Life (cable)
Malaysia	Star World, NTV7
Mexico	Canal 5, Fox & repeats air on Fox Life
Morocco	2M
Netherlands	RTL 8
New Zealand	TV2, Prime
Norway	TV 2
Pakistan	STAR World India
Philippines	RPN-9 (1998"2001), 2nd Avenue (2009)
Poland	Polsat, TV4, Fox Life
Portugal	TVI, Fox Life, SIC
Romania	PRO TV, Pro Cinema, Euforia TV
Russia	Ren-TV
Serbia	RTS, RTV BK Telecom, Fox Life (cable)
Slovakia	Markiza, TV Doma
Slovenia	POP TV, Kanal A, TV Pika
Singapore	Star World, MediaCorp Channel 5
South Africa	SABC 3
South Korea	Home CGV
Spain	Telecinco, Cuatro, Fox
Sweden	TV4
Switzerland	TSR1 (French area), SF zwei (German area), TSI1 (Italian area)
Taiwan	Eracom
Thailand	True Series
Turkey	CNBC-E and Fox Life
United Kingdom	Channel 4, Paramount Comedy 1, Paramount Comedy 2, TMF, Zone Romantica
United States	Fox, ReelzChannel
Venezuela	Televen

Awards and nominations