The Show
Ally McBeal is an American television series which ran on the FOX network from 1997 to 2002, and was one of the best-known "dramedy" television series of the 1990s winning several awards.
Created by David E. Kelley, starring Calista Flockhart in the title role as a young lawyer working in a fictional Boston law firm (named Cage, Fish and Associates) filled with other young lawyers whose lives and loves were highly melodramatic.
Despite its legal environment, the show paid minimal attention to the actual practice of law. Instead it focused on the romantic and personal lives of the main characters, though sometimes 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.
Notably, the show frequently used vivid, dramatic fantasy sequences for a character's wishful thinking. The show also featured regular visits to a local bar where singer and cast member Vonda Shepard regularly performed (though occasionally handing over the microphone to the characters). Each episode generally concluded on an upbeat, hopeful note, with energetic music.
Ally McBeal was hugely successful, but received much criticism from TV critics and feminists who found the title character annoying and demeaning to women because of her excessive flightiness, lack of demonstrated legal knowledge, and extreme emotional instability. Flockhart's visible loss of weight by the second season also caused much media speculation. The show was also noted for the ever rising hemlines of Ally's very short mini-skirts, which she wore in the courtroom.
However, Ally's search for true love struck a chord with young female audiences, and the eccentric characters around her were developed further, giving the show firm footing.
In the fourth season, Robert Downey Jr. joined the regular cast as Ally's boyfriend Larry Paul, resurrecting the ratings of a show that had lost its novelty and thus much of its audience. However, when Downey got into legal troubles over his real-life drug addiction, he was forced to leave the show. Shortly thereafter other central cast members also left, and various characters disappeared from the show without an explanation (such as Renee, Mark, Jackson and Jane Wilco), which caused the ratings to sink again. Guest appearances from Matthew Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Ricci, and Dame Edna Everage in season five were not enough to save the show.