What are the Best Seasons of Ally Mcbeal ?
 

I did used to watch it the first time it aired, but can't remember it too well

Someone lent me the first season. I watched 3 episodes and found it a bit annoying.

I do recall it improved a lot when Billy left.

What were the best seasons ? and which ones focused a bit more on the legal cases rather than Ally's dire personal life ?

Without a doubt, season 6.

The early seasons.

Like most DEK shows, this one petered out towards the end. The last couple of seasons were pretty crappy.

How did you get this show on DVD? I am jealous.

The seasons it was off the air - :rimshot:

What? It's generally agreed that this show went to hell after he died. It became stupid, repetitive and lost all of its originality.

Chris

Beat me to it. I was going to say the current one.

ITA. It did improve somewhat when Robert Downey Jr. showed up but unfortunately he could not stay off of drugs so his stint was much too short.

Then in the last season we had Bon Jovi and Hayden Panettiere shows up as her daughter! I remember being shocked when Heroes started to learn that the hot cheerleader was the little girl on Ally.

1-3

Season 2 - The Emmy for Best Comedy season

That's when Nelle and Ling first arrived, and before they got all soft and useless.

It did start to suck after Billy died. And it languished for a while (the whole dancing baby thing) until they added Robert Downey Jr. in Season 4. Then he got into drug problems again and that character got dropped. It never really recovered after that. Jon Bon Jovi and Hayden Panettiere could not save it by season 5, and it was thankfully terminated.

I believe Desmond is outside of Region 1.

My thoughts, exactly. My wife and I both looked at each other once it got bad, as if to ask why the hell we thought this show was good. We stopped watching at that point.

R. Downey Jr. really made it worth watching again. It's a real shame that his problems prevented the continuation of that storyline.

I did buy Season 1 (R2), and have been enjoying that. It's still listed for $16.88 using the $2 discount link at CD-Wow. Although, lately it's been pretty hit or miss with CD-Wow orders. The rest of the seasons are listed there for $27.82, or you can get the entire set from amazon.co.uk for about $130. I expect to see that set with a greater discount in the future.

Seasons 1-2 are by far the best. Season 3 was really bad as David E. Kelly has a terrible habit of continually introducing new characters and ignoring previous ones. Season 4 brought in Robert Downey, Jr. and the show briefly improved but he was turfed and the final Season 5 was an abomination.

Why is this show not out on DVD? Are there any music rights issues?

Absolutely and precisely. There were always tons of contemporary music and covers (a la Vonda Shepard and the cast while in the bar) that will likely mire this series down so hard that it may never see a full R1 release.

Yep, after Billy died it really went down hill.

For me personally the first 4 episodes of Season 4 (with RDJ's introduction to the cast) are the most enjoyable.