"Ally McBeal" (1997) TV series 1997-2002

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Creator:

David E. Kelley

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Release Date:

8 September 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Music | Romance

Plot:

Ally McBeal and Billy Thomas were going steady throughout their childhoods. Ally even followed Billy...

Plot Keywords:

Law | Love | Lawyer | Law Firm | Single

Awards:

Won 4 Golden Globes. Another 29 wins & 94 nominations

Cast

Calista Flockhart	...	Ally McBeal (112 episodes, 1997-2002)
Greg Germann	...	Richard Fish (112 episodes, 1997-2002)
Jane Krakowski	...	Elaine Vassal (112 episodes, 1997-2002)
Peter MacNicol	...	John Cage (103 episodes, 1997-2002)
Portia de Rossi	...	Nell Porter (89 episodes, 1998-2002)
Lucy Liu	...	Ling Woo (72 episodes, 1998-2002)
Courtney Thorne-Smith	...	Georgia Thomas (69 episodes, 1997-2002)
Lisa Nicole Carson	...	Renee Raddick / ... (64 episodes, 1997-2002)
Vonda Shepard	...	Vonda Shepard (56 episodes, 1997-2002)
Albert Hall	...	Judge Seymour Walsh (50 episodes, 1998-2002)
Gil Bellows	...	Billy Thomas (46 episodes, 1997-2002)

Runtime:

45 min | USA:60 min (including commercials) (112 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Malaysia:U (all jurisdictions) | Australia:PG (some episodes) | Singapore:M18 (season 5) | Finland:K-11 (DVD) (2006) | Portugal:M/12 | Netherlands:6 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Malaysia:(Banned) (one episode) | Singapore:NC-16 (season 2) (season 3) (season 4) | Singapore:PG (season 1) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Creator David E. Kelley originally envisioned Bridget Fonda in the role of Ally McBeal.

Quotes:

Ally McBeal: Maybe I'm happy and I just don't know it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2009) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Searchin' My Soul

Ah, those were the days (well the first two seasons anyway)...

Where did it all go wrong? By the end of season two (which turned out to be the last genuinely great season of Ally ever), the show was getting 18million viewers per ep. As it limped to its series finale by 2002, it was only getting 10. Perhaps it all started to go horribly wrong in its third season. Or maybe its fourth? Or maybe the (sadly) dreadful fifth and final? Well, in my opinion things started to go wrong in its third season when Georgia left the firm (and appears very briefly in others after she leaves or just doesn't appear at all), Renee is absent for 6 episodes in a row, Billy is killed off and new character Mark Albert is brought in a hurry. Plus the rumours of anorexia that dogged Calista Flockhart and Portia de Rossi which couldn't have helped. The show was 'revived' in its fourth season with the addition of Robert Downey Jr but still doesn't improve (well at least until its second half where it gets a little better). Jokes that weren't even funny the first time are milked for all they're worth and main characters are neglected (which is very apparent in the final season). By the fifth season, the show was dismal. Bringing in about a hundred new characters didn't help (most were later dropped) and the constant references to 9/11 didn't help matters either. Come the last-ever episode, you feel more relieved than gutted. Maybe if we had discovered that the second season finale was its last-ever ep, i would have been gutted, but despite a few good eps throughout its third and fourth season (and very very few in its final), the show fell from grace permanently and should have been put out of its misery there and then.