Ally McBeal, a comedy-drama television series created by David E. Kelley, premiered on September 8, 1997 on FOX network in the United States and ended on May 20, 2002. The show spans five seasons of 112 episodes. FOX decided to cancel the series due to a significant ratings drop in the final season, caused by the introduction of various new characters and the departure of cast members in the previous season.
Ally McBeal and Billy Thomas were going steady throughout their childhoods. Ally even followed Billy to Harvard law school despite having no interest in law. But when Billy chose to pursue a career in law away from Ally, their relationship came to an end. In the present, an old classmate of Ally's named Richard Fish gives Ally a job at his law firm, where Billy and his new wife are also working. This puts Ally in a predicament since she still has feelings for Billy which she's laboring to get over. At the office, Ally puts up with a nosy, gossiping secretary named Elaine, and an oddball lawyer named John Cage never seems to lose a case. At home, Ally's friend and house-mate Renée regularly advises her on her love life. The series follows Ally's trials and tribulations in life through her eyes, and caricaturizes her personal thoughts and fantasies.Vonda Shepard - Searchin' My Soul
Related/Spin Offs
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, Peter MacNicol, Robert Downey Jr., Gil Bellows, Jon Bon Jovi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ally_mcbeal
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RG's Views:
Going back now and watching Ally McBeal, you might not thing it was anything all that special. But it opened a lot of doors to the way professional women are seen in television today. She caught a lot of flack for her short skirts but Ally was probably the closest tv had come to that point of showing a professional, single woman who struggled with being seen as someone who wanted more than just a man. Though she certainly wanted to find love. Not to mention that the show was also equally funny and poignant. It did a wonderful job of embracing it's ensemble cast as the series went on. This is well worth a watch.
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