A total bargain for all that quirky entertainment.

---

Product Description

All 23 episodes from Season 1 on 6 discs – on DVD for the first time ever.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2439 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE
• Released on: 2009-10-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 969 minutes

Amazon.com
Ally McBeal, Calista Flockhart, and Vonda Shepard fans are finally being given the entire first season of the groundbreaking, and wildly entertaining, show--all 23 episodes and original music collected and presented as originally broadcast. What a treat! David E. Kelley presents a legal series set in Boston (two of his favorite subjects) with a believable heroine reportedly loosely based on his lovely actress wife, Michelle Pfeiffer. As played by Flockhart, Ally is an intellectual, a brilliant legal mind--and one of the most neurotic young heroines ever to grace TV screens. It's not that Ally isn't confident--given a thorny legal issue or complex case, she's one of the best. But Ally's rocky love life, and vivid imaginations that materialize right in the middle of a scene, make her believable, slightly annoying, and altogether endearing.

Ally McBeal rocketed Flockhart to stardom when it first aired in 1997, and rightly so. Her Ally is nervous, hard on herself, yearning, vulnerable, a girl's girl still secretly (and not so secretly) hoping for Mr. Right. As a young associate at the law firm of Cage & Fish (Peter MacNicol and Greg Germann), Ally has to navigate around working with her first true love, Billy Campbell (Gil Bellows), who's now married to yet another associate, Georgia Thomas (Courtney Thorne-Smith). The entire cast throw themselves into their comic/serious/absurd roles and stemwinders--many of which take place in the now-infamous single-sex restroom.

Ally McBeal also launched the careers of Jane Krakowski (30 Rock), Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels), and Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development). Additionally, it shone the spotlight on a crazy-talented singer-songwriter named Vonda Shepard, whose music provides the theme song ("Searchin' My Soul") and who anchors most of the episodes as a local bar singer reinterpreting '60s soul through a late-'90s prism--brilliantly. The boxed set has not only every episode, but every memorable Shepherd song from the first season for the true fan. Bring on the dancing babies! --A.T. Hurley 

Stills from Ally McBeal: The Complete First Season (Click for larger image)

---

Customer Reviews

Will it ever be available...?
I guess only time will tell if the U.S. will ever see the glory that several other countries currently can. According to Wikipedia on 2/09/08, "Due to music rights issues, the first complete season of Ally McBeal has not been made available on DVD in the United States (only 6 random episodes can be found on the R1 edition, Ally McBeal - Ally on Sex and the Single Life)"

I know this doesn't really help matters, but at least there is a reason we haven't seen it around yet.

STILL WAITING!!!
I have been waiting since the show went off the air for the box set. It is SO RIDICULOUS that other shows that have been on the air a year or less are getting released on DVD, but this FABULOUS show with lots of loyal viewers is not available in the US. I am afraid to buy an import for fear that I'd waste $100-$200 and not be able to play it on my player. PLEASE RELEASE A US VERSION!! WE WILL BUY IT! Come on FOX, PARAMOUNT, whoever! Get on the ball...... the fans have been WAITING for years!!!!

Music Licensing is the devil!
Music licensing issues are holding back the release of the DVD for the Ally McBeal series. The cost of implementing the episodes as is - with all the music intact - would be astronomical just because of the ridiculously expensive song rights they'd have to pay for. So, rather than service the fans, the network is trying to keep its costs down since I'm sure they've done a cost-profit analysis and found it wanting. Which is fine and practical for them, but very, very unpleasant for viewers. Sure, a couple episodes are available... but that only feeds the rage at not being able to watch the WHOLE season. There's this gut feeling that the network doesn't love its viewers much - or at all.