A revival of Ally McBeal is in development with its leading lady Calista Flockhart possibly returning to her title character. The legal dramedy premiered on Fox in 1997 for five seasons and won an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series. The show was created by David E. Kelley, who created Big Little Lies and was known back then for his primetime dramas such as Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, and The Practice. Ally McBeal centered around the personal lives of McBeal and the eccentric lawyers at the law firm, Cage and Fish, in Boston.
The hour-long series also starred many familiar faces who would go on to star in other popular acclaimed shows, such as Greg Germann, Jane Krakowski, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Peter MacNicol, Lucy Liu, and Portia de Rossi. Robert Downey, Jr. would also join the cast as the love interest of McBeal in the fourth season. The show’s humor stems from its fun-loving, energetic characters and its many running gags throughout the series. It was the first series to feature a unisex bathroom, where a lot of the show’s memorable scenes took place, and have the characters experience surreal, exaggerated fantasies that other shows would later adopt.
Now, according to TVLine, a limited series revival of Ally McBeal is in the works with Flockhart being eyed to reprise her role. While Kelley would stay on as an executive producer of the reboot, he has said previously that a woman should serve as the showrunner. No additional cast members have been announced to join the revival and no network or streaming service has picked up the series yet.
It would make sense to have a female showrunner helm the revival of the show. Since Ally McBeal primarily explored the romantic lives of all the main characters, the characters would consistently have romantic interactions with each other, whether it was in the offices or running into each other in the courtroom. The environment would be enhanced by the unisex bathroom with borderline sexual actions made by characters. Now in the era of the #MeToo movement, a lot of the sexual activities in the workplace that were featured on the show would not fare well with today’s audiences.
It would be interesting to see that when Ally McBeal does return, how much different it will be from the original series and how it may possibly handle the romantic portion, since it was an integral part of the show. But Ally McBeal also has numerous funny elements that make the series unique, so it would be fun to see that come back as well. When last seen, Ally McBeal left Boston for New York City with her daughter, so it will be nice for fans to see what she has been up to.
