The pilot episode for "Ally McBeal" still holds up, June 22, 2003

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

I tend to collect pilot episodes and so the "Pilot" written by David E. Kelley is of historical importance to me because it is what established the tone for the show. In retrospect, of course, it is interesting to watch this episode again and see how Kelley's vision was quickly refined over the course of that first season. The story of Ally McBeal (Calista Flockhart) begins with an ending as the Harvard Law alumna gets fired by her firm after a lecherous senior partner, Jack Billings, gropes her in the hall and she blows the whistle on him. However, he claims he has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and she ends up losing her job. Ally runs into Richard Fish (Greg Germann), and the joins the firm of Cage and Fish where we discover that Ally's world is not only quite imaginative but small. That is because Billy Thomas (Gil Bellows), Ally's first love not only works there but has a wife. You can tell this show is going to be different becuse Ally takes four arrows in the chest when she learns Billy is married and there are a dozen songs worked into the episode (including "Neighborhood," "Maryland," "Tell Him," and the theme from "Psycho").

In Kelley's "Silver Bells" (Episode 11 for those counting) Ally takes a case of two women and a man who want to have their unique relationship recognized as a legal marriage (one woman gave birth to three children one of which was the fertilized egg of the other). However, as is usually the case on "Ally McBeal," the case resonates with the characters, causing Judge "Whipper" Cone (Dyan Cannon) to yearn for commitment from Richard, while Ally and Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith) are both upset that Billy has been a better love with his wife since his ex-girl friend showed up. Ah, the bitter irony of it all. This episode features the Cage/Fish Christmas party where both Renee (Lisa Nicole Carson) and Elaine (Jane Krakowski) gets to do production numbers and even Fish sings ("More Today Than Yesterday").

Looking back on these episodes what I find most interesting is how Kelley uses legal cases to explore relationship issues. This is obviously truer of "Silver Bells" than the pilot, but in that regards the second episode on this tape is more representative of the series as a whole. You can also see how halfway through the first season the pace of the show had picked up considerably. Everybody has more to say and is saying it faster. Consequently, I am not sure that this is an ideal pairing from Season 1, but I find it insightful. I might have gone with "The Promise" instead of "Silver Bells," although the "Kiss" would be the obvious one to emphasis the Ally-Billy dyad. Since it is not, I kept playing with the idea that this pairing was appropriate until I came up with a rationale that justified the choices. You can decide if the circle gets the square.

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