Oh yes, I hear the DEK nightly prayer, but how could I not when it is so loud made so since he screws with his shows. I pray with you too.

Gaaaaaaaaah! I caught a really great episode from Season 1 or 2 this weekend (the first appearance of Jamie Gertz) and was again dumbfounded at how a show that was so smart and funny (if a little out there) in the beginning turned to such an incredible shitpile by the end. I know alot of people hated Ally (the show and the character) out of the gate, but I have to say (again) that I only disliked it at the end because of the horrible mess that was made of such a great premise.

Thank god for syndication, I suppose.

Yeah, I always liked Ally McBeal because of it's out there-ness actually. Some didn't like the character Ally I think because she was so scattered and neurotic most of the time, but that is what made her relatable in many ways. We all have our quirks. I think by season five, Calista was just doing what she had to do, and was really just going through the motions. I know she was sad when it ended (cause she said she was), but I think she was probably happy in the end. Actors do need to do new things, and five years is a long time to play one character.

I'll own up to great love for Ally McBeal, the third show I taped religiously (thirtysomething and Twin Peaks preceded it). Even when it was a mess the last couple of seasons, there were redeeming moments.
Nell was my favourite.

In terms of how self-absorbed every character continued to be... they just moved over to Judging Amy.

Ally was one of the few shows I watched regularly. While I won't argue that the later years were as good as the early ones, I still found the show entertaining up to the end. Favorite characters were Cage and Fish. When the biscuit stopped coming around, I knew it was over. Didn't really like the character Ally, and for some reason hated Renee.


The good thing is that it went away before it became pulverized into the ground.

I do miss the Billy Girls.

God I watched the fifth season of this and it was awful. The whole Maddie plotline was one of the most ridiculous plots I have ever encountered on TV and I watch Charmed.

I loved this show.

Why is it not in syndication? Were the ratings bad when it aired on FX?

Is it one of those shows that has not aged well?

The ratings on FX for the show were not good, although I watched them religiously. FX paid like $100,000 per episode and were not getting their money's worth so they did not renew. Lifetime was rumored to be purchasing the reruns but don't know if they did so.

Even with all the hype back in season 1, I didn't tune into the show until I was channel surfing one night in 1998 and found myself deeply engrossed in the episode where Ally was stuck in a toilet bowl (season 2). After that, I started taping the show religiously, and look forward to watching it every week. The show was just so hilariously entertaining. The characterization in the show was very intricately layered and the character Ally herself was my favorite in the show- so easy to relate to, so neurotic, and so girly. Ling and Elaine were my next favorites because they were just crazy and outrageous.

One of my favorite aspects of the show that hasn't been mentioned here is the music in the show. I really appreciate the fact that DEK really paid attention to all the subtle and minor music and scores, and the music really amplified the beauty of the show. I thought Vonda was a great singer, and the soundtracks (especially the first 2) had some great songs that really brought me memories of the show.

My father, who is in his late 70's, started taping these for me about halfway through the series' run, and he got me hooked on it (although we thought it got less interesting after Billy died). I loved John and his Tourette's girlfriend played by Anne Heche... they were both such sweet, good-hearted characters who really cared about one another, not to mention funny as hell when they played off each other. And Robert Downey Jr. was excellent.

I refer to Jesse L. Martin as Dr. Butters, no matter what role he is playing. I love me some Dr. Butters.

Did anyone else want Ally to end up with John at the end? Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Robert Downey, Jr. (What was his character's name?), but I always felt like John and Ally 'got' each other in a way that no one else ever would. They were soul mates, but I think they chickened out on ever putting them together because Peter McNichol isn't attractive in a leading-man kind of way.

This is so weird, but I found a whole tape of old Ally episodes yesterday when I was home sick and I came here thinking that if there was a thread about the show, it would be buried on like page seven, but it's on page one.

I forgot how much I loved this show (although I would never admit that in public) Sure, it got crap towards the end, but I really like all the characters. It was original.

Say what you will, the series had great guest stars. The Haley Joel Osment episode, where he played a terminal ill cancer patient who wants to sue God, reduced me to a sobbing mass. Particularly when his mother sang "The Rainbow Connection" to him as he passed. Niagara Falls, just Niagara Falls.



Word. I think Dr. Butters was her best love interest. I never warmed to Robert Downey Jr.

And call me crazy (or perhaps I should blame the cold medicine worming its way through my system at the moment) but, I loved John and Nell together. I always thought it was an odd pairing, but it worked on this weird, crazy level. Following the logic of the show, they complemented each other nicely and made each other insane. It was great.

Ally and John did say the soul-mates thing often enough on the show. Nevertheless, no, Ally shouldn't have ended up with John at the end. Or Larry (Robert Downey, Jr.). Or anyone - since Ally's best mate is herself.

Boston Legal started with Denny Crane (William Shatner) singing a Christmas Carol Sunday - which flashed me back to Ally. Shat was all in white, with three back-up singers in red gowns. DEK had been telegraphing this singing bit for a couple of episodes - it was good.

Now that would be a good guest shot - John Cage on Boston Legal.

But a rendition of John Cage is already on Boston Legal. It's Alan Shore.

I always wanted Ally with Richard Fish. I don't know, they just bounced off each other really well.

I liked John and Nell too and was upset that they got broken up and Nell got relegated to little more than a glorified extra.

I loved this show, and I always thought that Ally and John belonged together too. They always understood each other's silly little quirks, and the deeper human feelings that lay behind them. In contrast, none of their respective romantic partners ever quite managed to do that, except for Anne Heche the Tourette's girl. She took "quirky" to a whole new level. It was hilarious to watch.

When Billy went blond, I knew it was the beginning of the end.

And I know I'm in the extreme minority here, but I did not like Robert Downey. I thought his character was too obviously and too badly scripted as the Quirky Guy to Calista's Quirky Gal. And I never felt the chemistry everyone else seemed to feel between them.

I like to think that Seasons Four and Five were just an extended dream sequence. In reality there was no run-down house, no long-lost daughter, no dead Billy, no Dame Edna, no bland new characters. Ally actually had a sizzling hot two-year affair with Car Wash Guy with lots of nude scenes (Jason Gedrick, not Calista) and then married John in the series finale.

IS there any hope that there may be a DVD? I think the first season was brilliant and I would purchase it: maybe the second season as well. After that it seemed to go downhill: I think this was one of the shows that was so over the top that it had a very, very short shelf life.

I know the music rights must be incredibly expensive.

I think the first 2 seasons are available on DVD in Asia and even the UK. So, if you have multi-regionise your DVD player, you can order them online.

In Asia here, my cable channel started screening the old episodes and I think it's going to be non-stop till the end. I don't think of Ally McBeal as a guilty pleasure though. My mother watched it starting from season 1/2 and I always watched a few episodes. I only started watching it on a regular basis from the end of season 3 onwards and I have to say it is one of my favourite shows. Watching season 1 to 5 continuously will show how bad DEK ruined it, but watching seasons 4 and 5 then 1 2 3 doesn't make it THAT bad.

I didn't really like Robert Downey, Jr., and it is very possible that the show would've made it to season 6 had he stayed (damn his drugs/violence or whatever). They were supposed to get married.

Ally is still my favourite character.

I am an unabashed Ally McBeal fan and my only regret is not watching this series when it first premiered. I did get sucked in by episode 5 (nothing like Ally McBeal to keep you company during flu which is what happend to me), but it took me a while to tape the missing episodes in rerun. I think season 1 was the golden age of Ally, season 2 was almost as good but from then on, the show became a parody of itself.

I was thinking about this show recently when I read the story about Portia de Rossi and Ellen Degeneres. I found it interesting since Portia's character Nel essentially did not hook up with anyone and for all intents and purposes she could have been a closeted lesbian. It would have been interesting if it had been revealed that she and Ling were lovers.

I loved Ally!! My favourite season was pobably the 4th, because she and Robert D.Jr. were just perfekt, and anyway I adore that man!!! He's my hero. But Ally was my favourite charakter of course, althugh I didn't like her so much in the last season. She was just...oh well...getting boring and really nuts most of the time. BUT I always cry when watching the last episode, I'm such a freak.hehe

I can identify with Ally so much, and thats mostly not a funny thing. My friends say I'm like Ally, just better. Oh well.... Germany doesnt show Ally anymore. Have some episodes taped though.

I watched about two episodes never really liked it! But I wanted to see it I guess!

Has anyone else ever watched this with a Japanese friend? I was about to watch a movie with a friend when she noticed that Ally was on TV and insisted we watch that instead. She loves it! And so do most other Japanese women I know. But the only reason she would give is that Ally is 'cute'. Others think Ally is this feminist icon they want to emulate. I hate the show and just want to yell at her to get her damned fingers out of her mouth! Anyone have any insights as to why they adore it so?

can't tell you, but I know loads of ppl in Germany who adore her too. *shrugs*

I've recently bought all the DVD's so I've been re-watching them all. I loved Ally from the beginning although I do admit it got a bit blah by the end & I've been noticing that there are a few episodes I missed from the later seasons. I was really into it in the first 3 seasons & I think I've seen all of those episodes quite a few times but on rewatching it it was season 4 that I think's the best.
I LOVE Robert Downey Jr, re-watching it I realise that he is the ONLY person that I could ever really care about Ally having a relationship with. Once he was gone I think that's when I stopped caring.
I think also season 5 when characters just disappeared with no explanation that really made me stop caring. Where's Renee? Where are Mark & Jackson, where are Ling & John most of the time. I realise that thing's happen so characters have to leave, drug addiction etc!, but that doesn't mean there doesn't have to be an explanation. Ally's best friend and roommate has disappeared and they don't even MENTION it! I also know there was a reason that Robert had to leave but they could have done it better, it really broke my heart when he left so I knew it must have been Ally's and I couldn't see how she could carry on once he'd gone. Especially as they didn't even seem to adress her complete heartbreak at losing the love of her life. Which he was, don't give me this Billy rubbish. Billy was a dolt. I liked him to start with but he was really a brat.

I guess I was the only one who couldn't stand Robert Downey Jr. But then, I also hate James Spader. Something about "movie stars" invading my favourite DEK tv shows, entirely ignoring the characters I actually care about.

The first two season are brilliant. I never liked RDJ either, and never saw the chemistry between him and Calista. But I really got sucked into Ally and Billy's love story that couldn't be; I was devastated at the time that it didn't pay off and after he divorced Georgia they didn't hook up.

I love Ally McBeal, I bought all 5 seasons after they were re-released and watched them all through. My only problem with Ally McBeal was that it ended.

I never really watched Ally McBeal when it originally aired and if I did it was usually only background noise when I was doing something else.

I did catch the reruns though and I have to admit that some of the early episodes were a lot of fun to watch. In a weird this-is-a-little-gay-isn't-it way but still fun. Interesting stories, interesting to really good acting (with a few exceptions). And there's the soundtrack which isn't all that bad.

The first two seasons I am mostly cool with - entertaining television. About half-way through the season in which Billy dies there's a noticeable decline in quality (I think that's season three). And the whole young secretary thing was actually kind of nice (mostly because she's hot) but that was a definite "Excuse me? Do you think you could take a picture of this - I am about to jump the shark" sign.

I watched a few of the Robert Downey Jr. episodes (I think it was the fourth season's premiere and a few episodes after that but I could be wrong). And that never really felt right. In fact, it was just too boring so I stopped watching.

[Edited because a premiere is not a pilot.]

I have a question about Ally DVD's. Are they all availible on region 2 in the UK? Are there extras?

I don't know if it's possible yet, but I was thinking of buying a multi-region dvd player in the US.

Boy, I just watched a S2 ep (and apparently I must be the only single person in the universe watching this) and Billy was REALLY a tool, wasn't he? It's the situation where he kisses Ally just because he's jealous while he's still married to Georgia and then actually has the nerve to accuse her/imply that she would cheat on him. Ugh. Why did people want them together again?

I just started watching this show again last week am already halfway through S2. It has reminded me of what a great show it was. For people who love snark, did it get any better with Ally, Nelle and Ling all on the same show? I don't think so! :)

Please add me to the RDJ love train. I thought he was an awesome addition to the show and the scene where he sings "River" is one of my all time favorite TV moments. I thought he and Calista were great together. Go figure.

I'm watching Season 1 at the moment. I'm really enjoying it, although it took me a while to get into it.

Really like Ally and Georgia in particular. And I will watch anything with Dyan Cannon.

Two things bum me out though: I liked Billy and was disappointed that apparently his character gets killed off (I know this sounds silly but it detracts a little from my enjoying the character knowing something like that is going to happen) and I also read that Lisa Nicole Carson is a Schizophrenic? That's really sad. It was just my fun zone-out show but now not without feeling a bit uneasy.

Super bump.

Anyone know whether there are any plans to release DVD box sets in the US? My wife is a huge fan and wants to rewatch the show. Unfortunately it does not look like there are any episodes in syndication on cable at the moment either, according to my DVR. What's the hold up (besides those pesky music rights)?

(snip)

So funny, I just started rewatching this show! Glad I'm not the only one that misses it sometimes.



The reason it hasn't been released is due to the music rights. I don't think there are an plans to release it on DVD.

That is too bad. One would think that the property owners will be willing to pay for the music rights since almost every other TV show on DVD has done so. I'd even be willing to take the hackjob that they did for the Felicity DVDs, where only about half the original music was retained for the DVDs.

One would also think about renewed interest in seeing various castmembers before they moved to bigger success (Robert Downey Jr, Hayden Panitierre, etc.). Maybe that's just me.

You know that really bugs the crap out of me. First WKRP DVDs and syndicated episodes get ruined because of song rights and now Ally McBeal? I hope the producers of today's shows now all get it in the contract that they will be able to keep the songs in the series for the future release of DVDs.

They started showing these on a new channel here recently and I've caught it. The first two seasons are really good. They hold up well. I'm David E. Kelley's bitch, at least for two seasons per show, then I usually start asking questions, but besides Vonda and the slightly overdone incidental music, the first two seasons of this were great. I've seen some scattered episodes from season three, but when Ally started seeing Al Green I thought she'd snapped and I started getting a bit put off, and the recaps aren't as encouraging.

Looking at it ten years later though, I find the whole feminist debacle about it interesting. The clear premise of the show is that she's been betrayed by feminism, she's been told she can have a career and kids and a perfect life but it clearly aint gonna work out and the resurfacing of Billy and all the fan hitting shit that follows from the pilot demonstrate that. I'm curious whether the feminism debate was spurred by the fact that she and Renee (and Georgia... and Ling, not so much Nelle) talked a fair bit about sex and sexual attraction and so forth, which is considerably tame after Sex and the City, the fact she was constantly searching for 'the one', or that she's a clutz and possible paranoid schizophrenic. I certainly liked the betrayed by feminism aspect, and not because I hate feminazi's (the extremists, that Germaine Greer is considered a leading anything is a joke), but for a reason brought up in a pretty good episode which I caught recently.

Basic premise: John, Richard and Nelle are defending a law firm that denied several mother/attorneys partnership on the basis that they'd bill less than their male equivalents. It opened up an interesting debate about equality if women are given a handi-cap, fairness/asking for an advantage, and how plenty of men make that sacrifice of a family and so forth but if a woman clearly can't make that sacrifice and so forth. As in all David E. Kelley shows, the case got personal because Nelle didn't want a husband, didn't want children, didn't want a handicap, she wanted to reach the top of her field on the same terms as the men. I really enjoyed Portia de Rossi and Lucy Liu in the second season, even if it was the Ling and Nelle show, cause I was getting bored of Ally and Georgia and Billy. He was a cad. And that was before the brain tumour.

And then of course there's Richard's satirical often illogical speeches. And knee-pit, that was funny. Also, damn, that dancing baby's got me hooked on hooked on a feeling.

I also loved The Practice crossover, if only for the scene with Cage and Fish in the shitty Practice office and providing ThePracticeSnark, "look at this place, are they themselves murderers?", "geez with this bunch you'd think they take homicides to lighten up" hehehehe, it's like they had a crystal ball into the melodramatic mess of seasons four through eight (James Spader's scenes usually excluded)

Still can't come to a conclusion as to whether Portia de Rossi had a nose job at some point between this and the end of Arrested Development though.

Seems like Ally McBeal DVDs are finally coming to the US of A. Season 1 and Complete Series to be released later this year, with other seasons to follow.

http://www.amazon.com/Ally-McBeal-Complete...6724&sr=1-1

I don't have any deep thoughts about what this show meant for feminism. I just thought Calista Flockhart was adorable.

I've recently started watching The Practice (another show that only has one box set out!) and there was an interview at the end with the main characters....one point they made was that Lara Flynn Boyle (Helen) had originally auditioned to be Ally McBeal, which I found really interesting. IMO Calista Flockhart just IS Ally McBeal -- alternately self-deprecating and confident, incredibly quirky and yet oddly endearing. As good an actress as LFB is, she's just a different type. (Though, of course, if she HAD been Ally, we'd never have known the character as any different, so I guess it's a moot point :-0 )

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to the DVDs! This show originally ran when I was just finishing high school, and through college, so it's been a while...

The mini-skirts were definitely an incentive to watch before she got so darn skinny.

Yeah, but think, if it hadn't been for her, we wouldn't get characters like Julie Cooper on the O.C. or Gabrielle Solis longing to be a size 0. The "size 0" movement really got started by her.

To be honest, it was only the 5th season I didn't care about.

Season 2 and 3 were my favourites, followed by 1 and 4 which were pretty good too.

My favourite characters were always Ling and Nelle, they were bitchy in different ways, but kept us entertained throughout the seasons, and made us sympathise with them, even if sometimes they were totally wrong. I liked Richard, Elaine and Renee too (who disappeared far too often). John was cool and sometimes funny, but he started getting a bit too silly later on. Ally was a skizz, but she connected with the audience and made us feel for her. Billy and Georgia I didnt care much about, like Ling said, they were boring. Larry was a good addition to season 4, and he definitely clicked with the audience, but every new cast member added after him was a disaster imo. Except probably Richard's wife in Season 5 (forgot her name), but even though she was funny and unusual, she was no Ling.

I liked Renee before she went batshit crazy and got reduced to singing at the bar (still better than Vonda, but still annoying) and showing up and staring at people.

The show died for me in a big way in season three, it just got way too self-indulgent and "hey, aren't we quirky", John's tics got annoying, Billy became even more of a jerk ass, Georgia got marginalised and too skinny, and every. freaking. minor. character. had either a crazy tic or was some form of sexual predator. It wasn't even a slow death like The Practice (or even Boston Legal, which I can at least say held my attention to the end) it was fast.

Season four was a massive improvement for me over season three, and probably closer in vein to season one, but it still had its share of crap (the waitress in L.A. comes to mind, as does Anne Heche [HATED that storyline], the sleepovers and the last Lisa Edelstein episode). I definitely didn't care when this show ended. Too many boring characters (AllyClone, AllySpawn, Bon Jovi, Ray, Cyclops, Eyebrows, Chandler) got too much screentime for most of the season, Nelle never worked without Ling or John, Dame Edna was funny once or twice but was completely overused, and Wednesday Adams and her gigantic forehead showed up way too late.

That said, I thought casting Jim Dial and Doris as Fish's parents in that next to last episode was genius.

I think David E. Kelley needs to stick predominantly to observational, dark and timing based humour. Tic-based and physical comedy are funny in doses, but he overused them on this show. It definitely didn't do this show any favours, it made Boston Legal eyeroll worthy (and I say that as someone who liked it for the most part, particularly the first two seasons) and as someone who read Legally Mad, it did not work there, either.

I'll just try to remember this show for the good times, when Ally was cute, non-skeletal, dated Ed Green, and was unsure if she was the crazy one, when Elaine called herself a slut instead of being worried about being perceived as one, when Tracey Ulman was funny, when John and Richard snarked on The Practice, money-grubbed and were generally unaware of their own craziness/incompetence and when Vonda wasn't heinously covering classic songs every episode.

Wow, it's really hard to believe it's been over 12 years since I last saw season 1 of Ally McBeal! I absolutely loved this show in its first year, and just thinking back on all that has happened in the world and in my life in those 12 years it is a pretty amazing/bizarre/sentimental feeling watching this again on the newly released US DVD's. It's like being in a time machine, very weird.

So far I'm four episodes in and have fallen back in love with this show -- or at least the golden years of S1, I think I stopped watching midway through S2 back then. What's really weird is the random parts of this show that I'd forgotten but now am very vividly remembering from back in '97 almost as if I'd watched them last week - Ally and Billy sniffing each other's butts in the pilot, Calista's goofy smile and dancing halfway through the pilot that more or less sold me on her, a garbage truck literally "dumping" her from a dumpster, Fish's "avuncular" speech, "bygones", "lower, less than, de minimus", Elaine's face-bra, and remembering where my hatred of Tate Donovan started, etc.

Anyways, so many good moments just from the first four episodes, and perhaps most surprisingly is how well the show holds up vs 2009 - the pop culture references, fashion, etc. I think it's safe to say these 23 hours are going to be better than almost anything on TV today, and a great trip down memory lane. I'm looking forward to the dancing baby episodes, the nude model in cro-magnon, and the penguin... good times! So thanks Fox for finally pulling your head out of your ass and giving us this show on dvd.

Season one holds up extremely well, IMO. Season two was good, but I didn't think it quite worked after so many of the jokes introduced in that season wound up being re-cycled to the point of tedium in later seasons.

And in the first season, Flockhart has to be the perfect combination between cute and sex. Those legs. Wow.

I completely forgot that Tate Donovan was on this show! And Jon Bon Jovi, for that matter. And what was with Ally falling over every time she met someone attractive?

I also just got started on the DVD's. They came out this week! Its so weird to watch it again from the beginning because its been so long since it aired and I already know whats going to happen to each of the characters. At what point does she go crazy and start seeing the dancing baby?