PacMan2006

Wow--almost a twenty year bump. Did I set a record?

Anyway, thanks to Hulu, I watched this entire series for the very first time. Took me about an entire year. Overall, I really enjoyed it and liked a characters a whole lot--especially Ally and John Cage. They had a pretty special bond I can honestly say I've rarely seen on TV when it comes to both platonic friendship between a man and a woman, as well as unrequited love.

Sadly, I agree with others from way back in 2001 that the final season unraveled in a pretty shocking fashion. I honestly can't remember a show undergoing so many casting changes in one season--series regulars disappeared, new cast members get massive screen time (and are duds) and are canned mid-way through for even newer cast members. Just very strange. I did like the very late addition of Chrisitna Ricci to the cast. And although I thought season five was poor overall, I actually really liked the series finale and thought they did a good job giving the show and a lot of its principal characters some finality. I was worried the show wouldn't have a true series finale, but I'm happy to see it did.

I'm going to try and do a little digging on this show, but for anyone who watched the final season in 2001-2002 (and can actually remember watching it two decades ago ), do you know the following:

1) Was Robert Downey Jr. not on the final season because of his drug habits?

2) Why was the character of John Cage, who was a major part of the series, so massively absent for long stretches of the final season? There was 21 episodes, and if I had to guess, he seemed to appear in only half of them.

3) What was the deal behind the actress who played Renee being gone the entire season and only appearing in the series finale? Looking through this thread, someone claimed she had a "mental episode." I don't know if that's true (I'll hit Google soon), but wanted to know if anyone was familiar with this or maybe heard the actress give interviews in the years since the show aired?

4) Did David E. Kelley regret his casting choices in the final season? The season began introducing new characters (James Marsden, the actress who was his former girlfriend, an arrogant male lawyer character) and then halfway through the season either wrote them completely off the show or sidelined them entirely. It didn't bother me, because I didn't like any of those new characters on the show, but I've never seen a show attempt to "course correct" so many times in one season--especially the final season.

5) Lastly--Ally McBeal ends up having a daughter that randomly pops up into her life halfway through the final season. Curious to know, for the people that watched the show back then, was this something that you or the fans of the show seemed to like or dislike? And what about Jon Bon Jovi, as well? Neither worked for me.

I will say, although David E. Kelley gets a lot of heat for his shows nosediving, he did write about 90-95% of the Ally McBeal episodes. Although I have no doubt he had a writers room, that's an impressive feat.

sherm42

Holy crap. This thread just reminds me of how long I have been on this site. I posted int his thread 19 years ago, and I know I was posting here years before that.

Anyway, can’t answer most of your questions. Regarding Robert Downey, Jr., don’t know why he was not in the last season but I don’t think it had anything to do with the drug history. If I recall correctly, his gig on this show was the first after all the drug issues and it was seen as a big risk to hire him. I don’t think he ever relapsed after this. I could be wrong though.

Gizmo

I've been here 2 decades as well.

WOW

majorjoe23

Robert Downey Jr was fired from Ally McBeal due to a drug arrest:

https://www.foxnews.com/story/robert...another-arrest

sherm42

Bummer. Guess I was wrong. Glad he got his life in order.

hdtv00

Is this another show they completely gutted the music that was originally in it.....

ben12

I was bummed Richard Fish never showed up in other David E. Kelley shows. I would've loved to see him go up against Shatner and Spader in Boston Legal.

DWilson

I never watched "McBeal" but I was reading the (revived) thread and this question intrigued me for some reason. Here's a portion of the Wikipedia page for actress Lisa Nicole Carson:

Career

On television, she played the recurring character Carla Reece, the on/off girlfriend of Eriq La Salle's Dr Peter Benton in NBC's ER between 1996 and 2001. Between 1997 and 2002 she played prosecutor Renee Raddick in Fox's Ally McBeal, a role for which she received multiple award nominations. Carson was fired from both roles, amid reports about her erratic behavior on and off set, alleged drug use, being arrested and admissions to a mental health facility.[4] In 2012, she was featured in a guest appearance in the second-season finale of the canceled NBC series Harry's Law reprising her character Renee Raddick from Ally McBeal.[5]

Personal life

In 2000, she was arrested for 'interfering with a lawful business establishment' and 'not leaving the premises' after a disorderly conduct incident at a luxury hotel.[7]

In the July 2015 issue of Essence magazine, Carson gave an interview in which she openly described her struggles with bipolar disorder and how the illness has affected her life and career. After having taken a 10-year hiatus from show business to live and receive treatment in New York, she reported having moved back to Los Angeles with plans to revitalize her acting career.[8]