In 1999, the year I retired from full-time teaching in Australia, the Ally McBeal show was at the height of its popularity. It won an Emmy Award for the Outstanding Comedy Series. The show ran for six seasons, starred Calista Flockhart in the title role as a young lawyer working in a Boston legal firm and focussed on the romantic and personal lives of the people in a law office. The environment was highly sexualized with dating and flirting, drinking and humour dominating. The show, the series, was heavily music-oriented. Ratings dropped off in the fifth season and the program was cancelled after six seasons. Feminists complained about McBeal’s emotional instability and lack of legal knowledge among many of their other complaints.1 -Ron Price with thanks to 1Ally McBeal, Wikipedia, 2009 and a review of Tim Appelo’s Ally McBeal: The Official Guide, Harper Collins, 1999 by Ian Lace in Film Music on the Web, December 1999.

Some called it the freshest, most deliciously
politically incorrect show to have crossed
the Atlantic: eccentric characters, outrageous
madcap humour, cartoon-like fantasies and
sentimental melodramas. A unisex restroom
where the characters dance, sit on each
other’s laps, discuss their innermost
romantic yearnings, lose frogs down
toilets and where toilet lids operate by
remote control. Some lines like: "Men
are like gum: after you chew awhile,
they loose their flavour;” and "Tell me
what kind of lie works here?" convey
some of the tone of the series and.....

Ally’s in the middle of a popular culture
insistent on offering images of grown
single women: frazzled, self-absorbed
girls with male power and with female
powerlessness seemingly harmless and
cuddly, sexy, safe and sellable. Female
bodies, traditionally sexualized & linked
to emotionality operate as the barrier to
women's full and effective participation
in the professional and societal spheres.1

And I was settling down into retirement
away from the fast lane, from being job-
bed, from endless meetings and endless
conversations--into solitude, into a world
of writing, Bahá'í studies and none of the
Calista Flockhart and that Ally McBeal!!

1 Michele L. Hammers, “Cautionary Tales of Liberation and Female Professionalism: The Case against Ally McBeal,” Western Journal of Communication, Vol. 69, 2005.

Ron Price
19 August 2009

Uh-huh.
... Thanks?

very.. random.

i used to really hate that show... not because of content or the actors or anything like that... but because my last name is beale.

so you can imagine, for a few years every time my name came up it was ' huh, like ally mcbeal!' -_-

In 1999 Limp Bizkit had one of the top ten selling albums of the year. Rather than being a joke's punchline.

A lot has changed.

This topic confuses and infuriates me.

No, they were always a joke's punchline, even when they were selling records.

Just think, we're only a few years away from Limp Bizkit becoming ironically hip!



Makes more sense if you imagine that greengoblin started it.

Only thing I remember about Ally Mcbeal is it guest starred the Internet Sensation Dancing Baby.

The only thing I remember about Ally McBeal was that the actress playing her REALLY needed a sandwich.

or a truck full of sammich.

So...is this spam or what?

And thus, I've never watched a single episode of Ally McBeal. I'd probably have never remembered the show's existence if not for this thread.

Thanks!

Probably? I think it ties in with the 10 year anniversary.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&sour...aq=null&oq=
100% pure unadultered spam.

Right, but you guys can hug with the dude from Tasmania if you want. Leave me out of it. I don't need any instantaneous tornadoes today, thank you very much.

Huh?

Crap! I got four albums on my ipod...

it gave us Lucy Liu... :drool

Why the hell was this put in Mayhem? This is crap.

At least it's not about catgirls AGAIN.

IT IS THE YEAR 1999

THE TREACHEROUS EUROPEANS HAVE ESTABLISHED THE EURO. BUT FROM SECRET STAGING GROUNDS IN NEW YORK THE VALIANT AMERICANS PLAN TO RUIN THE ECONOMY FOR EVERYONE.

I'll never ask to borrow your iPod. Ever.

Seconded.

It sounds like you've been done a disservice. The only time I ever think about this terrible show is when I watch the episode of Futurama about "Single Female Lawyer", that Universe's version of Ally McBeal. Unfortunately our version wasn't cancelled in 2000.

This crap has made me lol.

I'm pretty sure Greengoblin is a search engine spider, or a patient/lazy Chacha or KGB agent. Peter MacNicol for the win, btw.

The Year 1999: I was here yet it was my mom who made most of my posts,

I was also watching this jive, Family Guy, and the Drew Carey Show.

You're trying to claim you were posting here as a five year old? Doubtful even if you still sound like it.

You weren't even here, so you can't prove it or not.

The original boards were deleted and I had to go to school.

Have you looked at some of the posts here recently?

And it's not like TVsGrady actually adds anything to Mayhem other than to post a random pic he's already posted a dozen times before, or a quick comment stating whether he agrees or disagrees with some one. It's like he has no personality whatsoever.

Yeah, it's just... weird. It's like TVsGrady is some kinda robot that the government placed here to watch over us.

Besides, he/it rarely leaves the "avatar/sig/usertitle" threads.

The... what show?

I remember in 1999 Spongebob came out.

Back when Spongebob was actually funny and worth watching and his voice sounded better. After the movie came out, his voice sounded different and it was like "eeehhh".