Wednesday 1 April 1998
By eBroadcast Staff and agencies.

by AW

The Australian TV Guide has received a number of emails from people eager to know when Ally McBeal will hit our TV screens.

What's Ally McBeal you ask? It's a new series on the Fox Network that started in the US last September. The show is produced by Multiple Emmy Award-winner David E. Kelley who also brought us Chicago Hope, Picket Fences and The Practice.

So what's the show all about? According to the official Ally McBeal website, the show is "an innovative hour of drama mixed with humor in a unique format that captures the private and public persona of a young female lawyer".

But let's hear from someone who watches the show...

Peter Adam currently resides in Singapore where the show is already playing. Let's ask Peter about the show:

Cross Thirtysomething with LA Law, throw in a bit of Melrose Place and a dash of Picket Fences and you might just get the concept of Ally McBeal, the new show from David Kelley that recently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy and Best Actress (Comedy) although it could have made it into the Drama Category as well. It's that sort of show, a 90's hybrid of all the good ideas that have changed the face of television this past decade. It is also a show that will win many fans and ostracise those who think they're about to watch the traditional sitcom or drama. It has been referred to by some (even Kelly himself) as a "dramedy".

Ally McBeal is about the trials and tribulations of a single female lawyer, her colleagues and her struggle to juggle her lovelife and her job. Sounds riveting? BUT one is her ex from University student days. So, lots of skeletons, sexual tension, and a bit of "soap" to keep what is a program aimed at those who grew up on Melrose and LA Law interested and males and females talking over coffee the next morning.

Ally is the voice of the 90's, a single career woman looking after No. 1, then she does a flip and becomes this obsessed neurotic whose biological clock is ticking very fast. If you can get past this "neurotic" behaviour (which can be at times painful) and past her short skirts and accept her "snappiness", you will find yourself glued each week to make sure you are "in" at work the day after.