Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Of Recent Vintage: Ally McBeal (1997)

Hollywood has mined courtrooms for drama and comedy in equal doses over the years, just never at the same time.

And, then, there was Ally McBeal.

For five seasons, Ally anchored Fox's Monday lineup. To categorize it as quirky would be a gross understatement. Celebrity guests. Dancing babies. Periodic crossovers with ABC's The Practice (from the same studio). Oh, it's also been described as surreal, but unique makes more sense.

Ally (Calista Flockhart) joins a Boston law firm (hence the Practice crossovers), only to discover her ex-beau is working there, too. I'd like to think they could've used the comic strip Cathy as partial inspiration for Ally, but what do I know?

In this clip, Ally and pals get down with their funkier sides at a Barry White concert.....



The supporting cast, for lack of a better term, was eclectic. Robert Downey, Jr. joined the show toward the end of the run. There's also Peter MacNichol ("Ghostbusters"), Lucy Liu, Jane Krakowski, and Courtney Thorne-Smith (ex-Melrose Place), among others. And this wasn't an Aaron Spelling production, mind you.

This wasn't for me. No rating, just a public service.

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