Ally McBeal | |
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Original title card |
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Genre | Legal Dramedy |
Created by | David E. Kelley |
Starring | Calista Flockhart Courtney Thorne Smith Greg Germann Lisa Nicole Carson Jane Krakowski Vonda Shepard Portia de Rossi Lucy Liu James LeGros Regina Hall Julianne Nicholson James Marsden Josh Hopkins Hayden Panettiere with Peter MacNicol then Robert Downey Jr. and Gil Bellows |
Theme music composer | Vonda Shepard |
Opening theme | "Searchin' My Soul" performed by Vonda Shepard |
Composer(s) | Danny Lux Vonda Shepard |
Country of origin | United States |
Language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 5 |
No. of episodes | 112 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | David E. Kelley Bill D'Elia |
Producer(s) | Kayla Alpert (2000–2001) Kim Hamberg (1998–2002) Mike Listo (1997–2000) Jack Philbrick (2000–2002) Steve Robin (1997–2002) Pamela J. Wisne (1997–2002) |
Cinematography | Thomas F. Denove Billy Dickson David A. Harp Tim Suhrstedt |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 45–48 minutes |
Production company(s) | 20th Century Fox Television David E. Kelley Productions |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | Fox |
Picture format | 4:3 (broadcast) 16:9 (seasons 2–5) |
Original run | September 8, 1997 | – May 20, 2002
Ally McBeal is an American legal dramedy series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia. 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.
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The show focused on 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 show 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 show 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.
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, just five years after their debut.
Refer to article List of awards and nominations received by Ally McBeal.
Season | U.S. ratings | Network | Rank | |
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1 | 1997–98 | 11.4 million | Fox | #59[1] |
2 | 1998–99 | 13.8 million | Fox | #20[2] |
3 | 1999–2000 | 12.4 million | Fox | #35[3] |
4 | 2000–01 | 12.0 million | Fox | #40[4] |
5 | 2001–02 | 9.4 million | Fox | #65[5] |
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[6]) because of her perceived flightiness, lack of demonstrated legal knowledge, short skirts,[7] 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?"[8] 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'."[9]
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. Other artists featured on the show include Barry White, Al Green, Tina Turner, Anastacia and Elton John. 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 Groban in this finale. The background score for the show was composed by Danny Lux.
Soundtrack name | Tk# | Release date |
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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 |
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 UK, 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 boxset.
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.[10] 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 that Calista Flockhart guest starred in and a bonus disc entitled "The Best of Ally McBeal Soundtrack". In addition, both releases contain all of the original music.[11] Season 2 was released on April 6, 2010. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 were all released on October 5, 2010.[12] Season 1 and 2 are also available on the U.S iTunes Store.
DVD name | Ep# | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
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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 | TBA |
In 1999, at the height of the show's popularity, a half-hour version entitled Ally[13] began airing in parallel to 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 focused only on Ally's personal life, cutting all the courtroom plots. The repackaged show did not catch on and was canceled partway through its initial run. While 13 episodes of Ally were created, only 10 of those 13 were actually broadcast.
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 fanservice, 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.
Country | TV network |
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Arab World | MBC4 |
Argentina | Fox |
Australia | Seven Network, FX (Now W. Channel) 111 Hits and Channel Ten |
Austria | ORF1 |
Belarus | Belsat |
Belgium | 2 BE, vtm, Plug tv (French), La Deux (French) |
Brazil | Fox Life (cable) |
Bulgaria | BTV and Fox Life |
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 | Česká televize, Prima love |
Denmark | TV 2 Zulu |
Estonia | TV3 |
Finland | MTV3 |
France | Téva, M6, Série Club |
Germany | VOX, Comedy Central, EinsFestival |
Guatemala | Fox Life |
Hong Kong | aTV world |
Hungary | Viasat 3 |
India | STAR World, Zee Cafe |
Indonesia | RCTI |
Ireland | originally screened on RTÉ 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 |
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 (New Zealand) |
Norway | TV 2 |
Pakistan | STAR World |
Philippines | RPN-9 (1998–2001), 2nd Avenue (2009) |
Poland | Polsat, TV4, Fox Life |
Portugal | TVI, Fox Life, SIC |
Romania | PRO TV, Pro Cinema |
Russia | Ren-TV |
Serbia | RTS, RTV BK Telecom, Fox Life (cable) |
Slovakia | TV Markiza, Doma |
Slovenia | POP TV, Kanal A, TV Pika |
Singapore | STAR World, MediaCorp TV Channel 5 |
South Africa | SABC 3 |
South Korea | Home CGV |
Spain | Telecinco (former broadcaster), 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 | Reelz Channel Fox |
Venezuela | Televen |
Refer to article List of awards and nominations received by Ally McBeal
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