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Ally
My Children
Written
By James Koonce, September 29th, 1999
Meet Ally McBeal
(Calista Flockhart). She's a young lawyer living in Boston, and
she's just unknowingly joined the firm where her ex-boyfriend and
childhood love is also an attorney. Will her life ever be the same
as she tries to maintain her professional career at the oddball
law firm while trying to forget about her dormant-but-undeniable
feelings for her former beau?
Oh, right,
you know all that already. FOX's new half-hour comedy Ally isn't
a new show at all, but rather a stripped-down version of its two-time
Emmy-winning hourlong comedy Ally McBeal. (See, just calling her
by her first name instead of both names makes it half as long. Get
it?) It's an odd venture, to be sure, but in the hands of executive
producer David E. Kelley, who also created the full version, not
unsuccessful. Ally McBeal spends much of its time dealing with court
cases, you see. (It is set in a law firm, after all, and Kelley
himself has a background as a lawyer, not to mention a talent for
crafting innovative stories based on the twists and turns of the
legal profession.) Ally, on the other hand, cuts to the chase and
focuses almost exclusively on the characters and their personal
lives. Using already-seen footage as well as outtakes, the show
allows us to forget that spending doggedly long hours at work plays
such a huge role in these people's lives. So we just get the juicy
parts.
And it works
pretty well. The show is breezy, even hyper (but then, so is Ally
herself). Visual devices such as fast-motion film and strobelike
back-and forth transitions give it a style of its own, but it's
unmistakably a product of the same rib. As a result, it's different
from the rank-and-file half-hour comedies on the air, but different
in an un-self-conscious way, not by dint of gimmickry. (like ABC's
beleaguered SportsNight). Unfortunately, because both versions of
Ally will be running concurrently, the newborn will always be a
step behind its older sibling, and that was the most jarring thing
about the pilot episode. Anyone who watches Ally McBeal knows that
Ally short-short-skirted around a possible relationship with titled
firm partner and major-league quirkazoid John Cage (Peter MacNichol),
but it was a long time ago. Yet there they were in the truncated
premiere, both a bundle of nerves as they prepared to go out on
a date. Since we've already seen it, we know how it'll turn out,
so ultimately all we've got left is the presentation to keep us
guessing. And that'll be enough for awhile, but for how long?
TV pundits
and analysts naturally questioned Kelley's motives when the re-engineered
show was first added to the fall schedule. Ally McBeal has already
grown a solid, loyal audience (especially after its back-to-back
Emmy wins for best comedy), and those who don't care for a series
about a whiny, self-obsessed control freak like Ally aren't going
to be any happier with the abridged version, because nothing's any
different. So what was the point, exactly? Is Kelley presciently
tapping into a stealth marketplace composed of adult professionals
who can't commit to a full hour of TV, but find a half-hour much
more reasonable? Or is it just a question of collecting more syndication
dollars? Either way, new FOX topper Doug Herzog arrived at the network
right around the time the series was announced, and embraced the
move wholeheartedly. Understandably so - in terms of making maximal
use out of pre-existing resources, it's a maverick play in an industry
which glides along on its thick shell of predictability, not to
mention a genius piece of business. But the patent reality is, all
they're doing is repackaging a TV show that people already love.
Who knows -
the whole thing might blow up in everyone's faces, but at least
people are talking in the meantime. And it's not like a muffed shot
like this will cost anyone in question their career; remember Cop
Rock? Steven Bochco's still going strong after that debacle,
and it was a hell of a lot worse than Ally.
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