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FICTIONAL TELEVISION AS LEGAL NARRATIVE ROBERT M. JARVIS & PAUL R. JOSEPH, EDITORS (Durham, N.C., Carolina Academic Press, 1998) reprinted by permission Carolina Academic Press Chapter 13 Situation Comedies ROBERT M. JARVIS minute shows that require their characters to solve a different problem in each new episode. As has been pointed out, sitcoms occupy a special place in television:
comedy... plays episodically, usually against a laugh track. Sitcoms have evolved over the years from simple domestic contrivances like Father Knows Best and The Life of Riley to the sophisticated ensemble playlets of M *A *S *H, Taxi, and Cheers. Hit sitcoms have extraordinary value, both to their networks and their producers. Single 30-minute series like I Love Lucy, Happy Days, All in the Family and The Cosby Show have had the power to carry an entire evening for their networks, and their reruns seemingly go on for- ever on independent stations. As generally the most sought-after pro- grams in the syndication market, sitcoms tend to fetch the highest prices: Cosby, for example, reaped around $1 million an episode.1 dozens of situation comedies. This essay traces their evolution from the 1950s to the present. acters was the racially-offensive "Amos 'n' Andy." 2 Like the enormously popular radio series on which it was based, the series featured a fast-talk- ing lawyer named Algonquin J. Calhoun.
otherwise, was Algonquin J. Calhoun played by veteran actor Johnny Lee in 1951. Lawyer Calhoun was a character in the cast of the infamous Amos 'n' Andy television show. Calhoun, America's first Black fictional- ized lawyer to appear regularly on major, network television (CBS), was an inept, shyster lawyer who practiced law despite having been disbarred
most offensive characters on a program which has been vilified for pre- senting insulting and demeaning portrayals of African Americans .... The show was so offensive that the NAACP passed a resolution condemning it and brought suit (unsuccessfully) to enjoin its broadcast. Among the charges set forth in the complaint was that "Negro lawyers are shown as slippery cowards, ignorant of their profession, and without ethics." Al- though the NAACP's call for boycotting sponsors of the show effectively pressured CBS to take the show off the network's schedule in 1953, the show was syndicated and continued to be seen in reruns until 1966.3 liked radio series with a lawyer to television. Although now largely for- gotten, "I Married Joan," which starred Jim Backus as domestic court judge Bradley J. Stevens and Joan Davis as his wacky wife Joan,4 con- sistently ranked among television's Top 10 programs during its three year run.5 Each episode opened with Judge Stevens on the bench.6 In the course of resolving the case before him, the jurist would explain how he and his wife had handled a similar problem. As he began to relate the story, the courtroom would slowly fade from view and be replaced by the Stevens's home, where the evening's plot would unfold.7 While the show's setting offered a marvelous opportunity to tackle any number of serious legal issues, the show's writers -- a distinguished group that included Neil Simon and Leon Uris8 -- opted instead for pure farce.
of Judge Bradley J. Stevens who, in a moment of blinding insanity, had married a thoroughly disarranged airline stewardess played by Joan Davis. She spent the next four years making a complete horse's ass of Brad, perpetrating such horrendous tricks on her poor, befogged spouse as to make her eligible for a stint on Devil's Island -- or even Gilligan's! Brad, who hadn't the jurisprudence to judge a dog show, loved every moment of it, as he went about ladling out his own brand of treacly justice -- "Whereas, who gets custody of the pony?9 reached television during the 1950s. In 1954, CBS presented "Willy," the first lawyer sitcom in which the lawyer was a woman rather than a man. Willa Dodger, played by June Havoc, was a new law school graduate who had decided to return to her hometown of Renfrew, New Hamp- shire to begin her legal career.10 As Willy (and the show's writers) soon dis- covered, however, there wasn't much for a young lawyer to do in a small town. Thus, shortly before it was canceled, the show's locale was moved to New York City, where Willy landed a job as counsel to a vaudeville organization run by Perry Bannister (Hal Peary).11 As before, however, Willy rarely got involved in serious legal cases. Although it is probable that "Willy" failed because of poor scripts rather than any overt unwillingness on the part of the public to accept a woman as a lawyer, CBS decided to return to a male lead for its next outing. In 1957, it began airing a show called "Bachelor Father." In it, John Forsythe played Bentley Gregg, a playboy bachelor whose carefree existence was turned upside down when his young niece Kelly moved in with him.
clients included many glamorous and available women. He lived with his niece Kelly, his houseboy Peter, and a large shaggy dog named Jasper in posh Beverly Hills. Uncle Bentley had become Kelly's legal guardian after her parents had been killed in an automobile accident when she was 13 years old. Between his large and active law practice, his social life with beautiful women, and the responsibilities of raising a teenage girl, Bentley's time was more than adequately filled. Peter, the helpful but often inscrutable Oriental houseboy, was a jack-of-all-trades who ran the Gregg home and was indispensable to his boss.12 for five seasons.13 As the show developed, however, less and less atten- tion was paid to Gregg's law practice so that more time could be spent watching Kelly grow up. In the final season, however, a young lawyer named Warren Dorson (Aron Kincaid) was brought in to serve as Gregg's junior partner. Predictably, Dorson and Kelly quickly fell in love with one another.14 elor Father," subsequent network comedies adopted their clownish for- mula. In 1961, for example, NBC introduced the series "Hazel."15 As in the Ted Key comic strip on which it was based,16 the show's main char- acter, Hazel Burke (played by Shirley Booth), was a maid who worked for the Baxter family.17 George Baxter (Don DeFore), Hazel's employer, was a lawyer with the firm of Butterworth, Hatch & Noell.18 Like the writers on "Bachelor Father" and "I Married Joan," the writ- ers on "Hazel" played George Baxter strictly for laughs.
always in control of everything at the office, but of almost nothing at home. When he returned from the office at day's end, to his wife, Dorothy, and his young son, Harold, he entered the world of Hazel. Hazel was the maid/housekeeper who ran the Baxter household more efficiently
needed doing, and preempted his authority with alarming, though justi- fied, regularity.19 cluded Harvey Griffin (Howard Smith), a cantankerous businessman who was his most important client.20 Invariably, Griffin would become upset with Baxter and threaten to fire him. It would then be up to Hazel to save the day by smoothing matters over with one of her homemade brownies. The portrayal of lawyers as bumblers reached its zenith in 1965, when NBC unveiled "My Mother the Car" and CBS countered with "Green Acres." In the short-lived "My Mother the Car," Jerry Van Dyke played small-town lawyer Dave Crabtree, the only person who could hear the voice of his late mother Gladys (actually Ann Sothern) over the radio of his second-hand automobile (a 1928 Porter).21 "Universally blasted as one of the feeblest sitcoms of the decade,"22 the show was canceled after just one year.23 "Green Acres," on the other hand, proved wildly popular. The show starred Eddie Albert as Oliver Wendell Douglas,24 a well-to-do New York City lawyer with the firm of Felton, O'Connell, Clay, Blakely, Harmon, Dillon & Pasteur.25 Much to the despair of Lisa, his fashionable wife, Douglas had given up his successful practice to become a farmer.26 Despite the fact that he was a Harvard graduate, throughout the show's six year run Douglas was depicted as a fool.
romance of Jeffersonian democracy, decides one day to give up his New York law practice and penthouse apartment for the ascetic satisfactions of forty acres and a mule. His aristocratic Hungarian émigré wife Lisa (Eva Gabor) protests, "Dahling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue!" Oliver's definition of democracy, however, does not extend to the marriage con- tract, and the Douglases ride off in their massive pre-energy-crisis Lincoln convertible to start anew in the fresh green breast of Hooterville, U.S.A. Hoping to fill the frame of a Grant Wood painting, Oliver instead finds himself in the midst of something more in the style of Salvador Dali. Seeking a community of like-minded righteous yeomen, he en- counters Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), a ruthless rural conman who hornswoggles him into buying a ramshackle old farmhouse; Hank Kim- ball (Alvy Moore), a double-talking county agent whose discourses on plant and animal husbandry rival the lectures of a semiotics professor; and next-door neighbors Fred and Doris Ziffel (Hank Patterson and Barbara Pepper), a childless couple who are raising a young pig named Arnold as if it were their son. The major problem plaguing the Harvard-educated Oliver in his at- tempt to drop out of the rat race is that he continues to maintain mod- ern urban man's faith in cause-and-effect logic, a template of reality that
ley. Determined to spread the gospel of scientific positivism, Oliver reads books on modern American agriculture and spends his money on the items necessary to practice it. At harvest time, however, the lawyer finds he must continue to live off his New York bank account while his poor "backward" neighbors get on as they always have.27 one took advantage of him like the fast-talking junk dealer and horse trader Mr. Haney.
wanted to own a farm and have a chance to "feel his hands in the soil." So when Mr. Haney, the country con man, came along with a farm for sale, Oliver snapped it up, sight unseen. That's when his problems began. First, his wife, Lisa, didn't want to leave Manhattan .... And when she fi- nally did, their farm in Hooterville turned out to be the worst in the county!28 fairs that paid little attention to the problems of the real world.
com. Carrying the lighthearted, noncontroversial style of earlier come- dies to its logical conclusion, you arrive at the 1962 prime-time schedule. With shows like "Dennis the Menace," "The Real McCoys," "The Bev- erly Hillbillies," "Mr. Ed," and "McHale's Navy" dominating the ratings, TV seemed determined to prove itself a vast wasteland.29 transformation.
a show that changed the nature of TV comedy forever. It was the first of the hard-nosed reality comedies, and it was a huge success, particularly in metropolitan areas. As a result, it was especially welcomed by spon- sors and advertising agencies, based on the 1970 survey of viewers' spend- ing habits. Lighthearted situation comedies were virtually eliminated from the television tube. They were replaced by the cynicism of the 70s .... . The subject matter of comedy shows also changed. Viewers were of- fered stories concerned with death, vasectomies, abortion, dope, mas- tectomies, rape, etc. --- subjects never before touched in situation com- edy. Reality comedies ... took over from the simpler, good-humored domestic comedies of the 50s and 60s.30 In keeping with the medium's new emphasis on reality, outlandish char- acters like George Baxter and Oliver Douglas were quickly replaced by lawyers who were steady, serious, and dependable. Unfortunately, as the networks repeatedly learned, such characters made for poor comedy and even poorer ratings. The first of this new breed of attorney appeared in 1972, when ABC aired "The Paul Lynde Show." In this series, which lasted just one sea- son, comedian Paul Lynde appeared as Paul Simms, a quiet, respectable lawyer living in Ocean Grove, California with his wife Martha (Eliza- beth Allen) and their two daughters.31 Simms's attempt to be a loving and understanding husband and father were repeatedly tested during the show's run by his new son-in-law, Howie Dickerson (John Calvin), a know-it-all who could not hold a job but who had a special knack for upsetting his father-in-law.32 Undaunted by the failure of Lynde's show, in 1973 ABC cast Ken Howard and Blythe Danner in a new series called "Adam's Rib."33 Like the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn movie on which it was based, the show revolved around a young assistant district attorney, Adam Bonner, and his wife, Amanda, a junior partner in a law firm.34 Although the pro- gram based many of its stories on Amanda's crusade for women's rights in the hopes of attracting female viewers, the series was unable to find an audience and was canceled after just three months.35 In 1975, CBS launched "We'll Get By," a show which starred Paul Sorvino as George Platt, a hardworking attorney who lived with his fam- ily in a modest house in the New Jersey suburbs.36 Despite the fact that it had been created by Alan Alda, the low-key program failed after just two months.37 Later in 1975, CBS debuted "Phyllis," one of the many series to be spun off from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."38 The program starred Cloris Leachman as Phyllis Lindstrom, Mary's self-centered and high- strung friend and landlady who, following the death of her husband Lars, had moved to San Francisco and taken up residence in the home of her scatterbrained mother-in-law Audrey Dexter (Jane Rose) and Audrey's second husband, Judge Jonathan Dexter (Henry Jones).39 Despite judge Dexter's calm and reassuring manner, the show lasted only two seasons .40 The last of the reality-based lawyer sitcoms was also the most suc- cessful. In 1976 ABC brought out "The Tony Randall Show." Starring Tony Randall as Judge Walter Franklin and Diana Muldaur as Judge Eleanor Hooper (Franklin's love interest), it told the story of a Philadel- phia jurist who had begun dating again after two years of widowerhood.41 Although funnier than its predecessors, the show was canceled in the spring of 1978 after switching both networks (from ABC to CBS) and nights (from Thursdays to Saturdays).42 While "All in the Family" was noisily inventing the reality-based sit- com, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was quietly pioneering the office sit- com. Earlier television comedies had conspicuously avoided the work- place, preferring instead to focus on the personal lives of their characters. Like "All in the Family," the appearance of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" caused a major shift in thinking.
worked at a bank. They never seemed to do any banking, though, aside from occasionally handling the Clampetts' finances. In "Petticoat Junc- tion" Kate Bradley ran the Shady Rest Hotel, but little of her activity ac- tually involved the hotel business .... In "Bewitched" the world of ad- vertising provided many script ideas, but the actual production of ads got short shrift. Most of the comedy emerged from family involvement in Darren's work or from the buffoonery of his glory-seeking boss.... The majority of series continued to present only action-packed or high- status jobs. Most shows also continued to separate the world of work from the personal world, usually by limiting settings to one area or the other in each episode. In those cases where TV did present workplace set- tings, the emphasis was on what the characters did for a living, not on how they did it. For most businessmen and professionals ... there was no workplace routine, and the office was just a place to collect messages. The 1970 premiere of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" marked a wa- tershed in television's image of the working world. Expanding on the formula developed for "Dick Van Dyke," characters in this show were seen not just at work but doing work. These characters' jobs, including their relationships with co-workers, spilled over into their personal lives. "Mary Tyler Moore" laid the groundwork for a profusion of shows that would follow as TV moved into the workplace with increasing gusto.43 mat. The first sitcom to present attorneys at work was "Sirota's Court." This NBC offering starred Michael Constantine as Matthew J. Sirota, a night court judge in a large metropolitan city.44 Because he had a sense of humor and took an offbeat approach to judging, most of his colleagues considered Sirota to be something of an oddball.45 The show's regular cast included Kathleen Miller as Gail Goodman, the idealistic but inept public defender, Fred Willard as Bud Nugent, the egotistical district at- torney, Owen Bush as John Bellson, the court bailiff who believed Sirota possessed the wisdom of Solomon, and Cynthia Harris as Maureen 0'- Connor, the court clerk with whom Sirota had an on again-off again sex- ual relationship.46 Irregularly scheduled during the middle of the 1976-77 season, the show went largely unnoticed and was not renewed.47 In 1979, ABC brought out "The Associates," a show that took place in the prestigious Manhattan law firm of Bass & Marshall.48 Although the series was created by the group responsible for the hit show "Taxi," featured music by B.B. King, starred British character actor Wilfrid Hyde- White (as senior partner Emerson Marshall), had strong network sup- port, and was generally well-received by the critics, it too failed to catch on with the public and was canceled before the end of its first year.49 hit: NBC's "Night Court."50 Set in the Manhattan courtroom of Judge Harold T. Stone (Harry Anderson), an unorthodox boyish jurist with a soft spot for the oddball defendants who paraded through his court and a penchant for bluejeans, magic tricks, and the music of Mel Tormé, "Night Court" pitted lecherous prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larro- quette) against sexy and idealistic public defender Christine Sullivan (Markie Post).51 The show also featured an unusual bailiff known as "Bull" (Richard Moll) and a harried court clerk named Mac Robinson (Charles Robinson).52 Although nearly an exact duplicate of the failed "Sirota's Court," a combination of better casting, scripts, and scheduling allowed "Night Court" to enjoy a long life. By the time the series ended in 1992, its once- unknown cast had become stars and John Larroquette had won four straight Emmys.53 In stark contrast to earlier lawyer sitcoms, "Night Court" managed to remain funny while tackling a wide array of life's many problems, including alcoholism, mental illness, drug abuse, home- lessness, racial prejudice, and greed.54 One year after "Night Court's" arrival, two other sitcoms that fea- tured lawyers at work came to the small screen. In "Sara," NBC cast Geena Davis as Sara McKenna, a young, attractive, single attorney who worked in a legal aid office in San Francisco with three other attorneys.55 Despite extensive promotion by the network, the show folded after just six months.56 Its brief revival in 1988 led to one of the most scathing re- views ever written about a sitcom.57 Six months after "Sara" ended its original run, CBS introduced a sim- ilar series called "Foley Square." The show starred Hector Elizondo as Manhattan District Attorney Jesse Steinberg and featured three junior assistant district attorneys: perky Alex Harrigan (Margaret Colin), inex- perienced Molly Dobbs (Cathy Silvers), and ambitious and overbearing Carter DeVries (Sanford Jensen).58 Although many of the show's episodes dealt with criminal law, nearly as much time was spent on Alex's uneven social life.59 Like "Sara," "Foley Square" struck out with both the pub- lic and the critics and was canceled after six months.60 At the same time that it began airing "Night Court," NBC inaugu- rated an even more popular series called "The Cosby Show." Bill Cosby played Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, a successful obstetrician who lived with his large family in a tastefully-furnished Brooklyn brownstone.61 Although warm and kindly, Dr. Huxtable often had trouble coping with the in- congruities of modern life, particularly where his children were concerned. At such times, Clair (Phylicia Rashad), his beautiful and intelligent at- torney-wife, would come to the rescue.
for her kids. She stresses education, commitment and personal respon- sibility to her children. Her loving relationship with her husband is a testament to the institution of marriage. She's a fine role model for youngsters. Yes, she's also wealthy, but maybe that's because of all the above.62 viewers soon learned, "Amen's" Ernest Frye had little in common with Clair Huxtable and more often resembled "Amos 'n' Andy's" Algonquin J. Calhoun.
to be based on religion. Sherman Hemsley, who played pushy, egotisti- cal George Jefferson on The Jeffersons for ten years, played a similar character here as an insufferable deacon (and lawyer) whose father had founded the First Community Church of Philadelphia, and who intended to keep it under his thumb. Unfortunately the new minister, Rev. Gre- gory, had other ideas and every week he quietly deflated the strutting deacon .... In the final season, Deacon Frye was appointed a judge, so he could wreak havoc in the courts, too.63 wind down, NBC introduced a third black sitcom lawyer. "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" starred Will Smith as a teenage rapper from a tough West Philadelphia neighborhood who had been sent to live in California with the Banks, his snobbish upscale relatives.64 The head of Will's new fam- ily was Philip Banks (James Avery), a successful lawyer who was rich enough to employ a liveried butler.65 Although Banks was originally in- tended to be a black George Baxter, by the time the series ended in 1996 he had became a judge and, along the way, evolved into a figure that was not unlike Clair Huxtable.
of the hour dealing with the notion of fatherhood and the bond that has formed between Will and his uncle, Philip (James Avery). Indeed, the growth and development of the Philip Banks character is emblematic of the maturation of the show. Initially, Uncle Philip, a black attorney living in Bel Air, was set up to be a target for easy laughs. The dynamic was the same as that at play in 19th-century minstrel shows, which mocked blackface characters who tried to use refined language. As Philip Banks evolved, dimensions of social class and racial aware- ness were added to the character, with Philip often telling Will in im- passioned terms about the obstacles he overcame in moving from his working-class roots through law school and up to Bel Air. The power of the final hour comes from Will's struggle to use what he's learned from Philip, continue his growth and make that most difficult passage to becoming a man.66 out of favor. However, in the fall of 1995 NBC launched "The Home Court." Similar in concept to its 1950s hit "I Married Joan," "The Home Court" revolved around the chaotic life of a hapless domestic court judge. But whereas Bradley J. Stevens had found favor with the public, Sydney J. Solomon did not.
Where's that gavel? Producers of The Home Court must have used it to wallop Pamela Reed in the head, then while she was still dizzy forced a contract under her. How else can one plausibly explain how someone as talented as Reed got sucked into such a stupid sitcom. She plays Sydney Solomon, a family court judge (get it? Yeah, it's too easy, just like the rest of the jokes) who dispenses wise advice from 9-5 then goes home to her own unruly brood. In the pilot, the most troubling case facing Solomon's court on this particular day is a couple who wants to give their foster child back be- cause he won't tinkle in the toilet. This is Chicago, after all, a land where there are no drugs, gangs or real juvenile crime. A land where a box of Cheerios and a toilet-bowl game of Battleship can solve everything. At home, Sydney has bigger problems: her eldest son Mike has dropped out of college. Without a hearing, she throws him out, no doubt violat- ing his Constitutional rights. When he takes up residence in his Volvo, she has him towed. Then comes one of those nice, whiz-bang, aw-shucks everything's solved endings, and that folks is a TV show. This judge's ruling would fine producers for digging up four of the most stereotypical kids to hit TV since The Brady Bunch. As a condition of parole, Sydney's coworkers would be sent to Sing-Sing. And for com- munity service, The Home Court would only consist of Reed and Meagen Fay, who plays her sister Greer, a trophy wife content growing herbs.67 Although "The Home Court" was not renewed,68 the genre was clearly back, and in the fall of 1996 viewers were given the opportunity to sam- ple three new lawyer sitcoms. Hoping to win over African-American viewers, the upstart UPN network rolled out "Sparks." The show re- volved around two mismatched brothers, Maxie and Greg Sparks (Miguel A. Nunez, Jr. and Terrence Howard), who worked as junior partners in their father's storefront law firm. James Avery, having just finished his long run on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," was cast as Alonzo Sparks, the pair's bombastic father, while Robin Givens, boxer Mike Tyson's ex- wife, was Wilma, the firm's brainy associate (as well as the object of both Maxie's and Greg's desires).69 The season's other two new lawyer sitcoms both appeared on ABC. Having consistently passed over lawyer sitcoms since its string of flops in the late 1970s, ABC now returned to the category in "Life's Work" and "Common Law." In "Life's Work," which was set in Baltimore, comedienne Lisa Ann Walter appeared as Lisa Hunter, a wife, mother of two, and fresh-out- of-night-law-school assistant state attorney who found it difficult to keep up with her professional and family responsibilities. Michael O'Keefe co- starred as Lisa's husband Kevin Hunter, a college basketball coach who tried to lend support while pursuing his dream of moving up to a Divi- sion I school.70 "Common Law" had a much more upscale premise. Comedian (and actual Harvard Law School alumnus) Greg Giraldo appeared as John Al- varez, an offbeat, Harvard-educated attorney who had worked his way up from a poor family to become the only Hispanic associate at Scovell, Powers, Green & Gütenhimmel, a tony Manhattan law firm. Alvarez's live-in girl friend was the gorgeous and wealthy Nancy Slaton (Megyn Price). Because they were associates in the same firm, Alvarez and Slaton were forced to keep their affair secret. The show also featured Gregory Sierra as Alvarez's moralistic father, Luis, who provided a "reality check" for his son.71 In short order, "Common Law" and "Life's Work" were canceled; the former after just four weeks,72 the latter after its first season.73 "Sparks," meanwhile, was permitted to continue until the end of its second season, when UPN, anxious to expand its appeal beyond its core black audience, decided that the show no longer fit its corporate image.74 In the fall of 1997, however, Fox hit paydirt with "Ally McBeal." Pro- duced by David E. Kelley, the creator of such well-regarded television shows as "Picket Fences," "Chicago Hope," and "The Practice," the show's star is a young, single, Harvard-educated lawyer named Ally McBeal (portrayed by Calista Flockhart) whose professional life is only slightly more under control than her personal life. Forced to leave a pres- tigious Boston law firm to escape unchecked sexual harassment, she re- luctantly agrees to go to work for Richard Fish (Greg Germann), an amoral creep she has known (and loathed) since law school. Upon join- ing Cage/Fish & Associates, McBeal discovers that the firm's star litiga- tor is none other than Billy Alan Thomas (Gil Bellows), with whom McBeal had a wrenching breakup while in law school. Although McBeal still has strong feelings for Thomas, he has since married a gorgeous lawyer named Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith). Despite uneven writing, "Ally McBeal" quickly became the unqualified hit of the 1997-98 television season; a midseason review noted that "'Ally McBeal' is the one new show people are talking about and embracing. We can start dreading the 'Ally' clones now."75 Yet despite being hailed as "sophisticated" and "distinctive,"76 the show actually represents a throwback to such earlier series as "Bachelor Father," "Hazel," and "Green Acres."
middle-class Anglo-Saxon -- she's imperfection idealized. She went to Harvard Law School, and professionally she appears to be a great suc- cess. But in fact she's an emotional muddle, confused about her career and her love life .... Smart yet also emotional, Ally represents the modern fe- male trying to remain true to herself in a harsh male world. Ally's self-involvement can make the viewer wince ... and ... her predicaments often seem so false.... [Moreover,] Ally's competence at work changes capriciously, depending on the needs of the story and the jokes. In its story lines as well as in fantasy sequences depicting what Ally is thinking, the show edges towards absurdism .... [A] whole episode is devoted to the consequences of Ally's argument with a woman over a container of Pringles.... 77 dled personal life, in large part because of the reappearance of someone from her recent past; like George Baxter, Ally is professionally accom- plished except when the story line demands otherwise; like Oliver Dou- glas, Ally is a Harvard Law School graduate who finds herself in surreal situations which serve to remind viewers of her various struggles. And like all three, Ally's crises often seem contrived and trivial. crete phases -- from foolish (George Baxter and Oliver Douglas), to hard- working (Paul Simms and George Platt), to goodhearted (Harry Ander- son and Sara McKenna), to respected (Clair Huxtable and Philip Banks). With the emergence of Ally McBeal, television is now embarking on a fifth phase. So far, however, it looks more recycled than original. |
