Ally McBeal: Volume 1: Pilot Episode & Silver Bells Episode[VHS]

With the premiere of its untitled pilot episode on the Fox network in 1997, Ally McBeal arrived as a comedy-drama worth watching. Springing from the observant mind of creator David E. Kelley, the show briskly established its well-cast ensemble of oddballs, legal sharks, neurotics, and semihappy couples in love, lust, or various stages of personality crisis. The pilot instantly sets the tone for the series, introducing Ally (Calista Flockhart), a young Boston lawyer who's just joined a firm where her now-married former boyfriend Billy (Gil Bellows) is also employed. To make matters worse, Billy's wife, Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith), is jealous of Ally's romantic past with her husband (a conflict developed in subsequent episodes), and Ally loses her first case in court. Through all of these emotional crises, this impressive pilot introduces meddlesome legal assistant Elaine (Jane Krakowski); Ally's former classmate and new boss, Richard Fish (Greg Germann), who excuses every tactless remark he makes with the word "bygones"; Ally's hip and headstrong roommate, Renée (Lisa Nicole Carson); and Vonda Shepard as the house singer at the nightclub that provides the show's after-hours pressure valve and watering hole. A slick, engagingly comedic study of human foibles, the pilot gets this popular series off to a rousing start.

"Silver Bells" (first season, episode 11) is a Christmas episode, following an impasse in the relationship between Fish and Judge "Whipper" Cone (series semiregular Dyan Cannon), while Georgia continues to stew when husband Billy confides in Ally over private marital matters. The episode also deepens the platonic affection between Ally and law-firm partner John Cage (Peter MacNicol), who, like Ally, is at odds with being perpetually single. Culminating in a memorable scene during an office Christmas party, this delightful episode conveys series creator David E. Kelley's expert ability to combine humor and melancholy in a way that perfectly captures the personalities of the characters, all of whom reflect some quirky manifestation of human strengths and weaknesses. --Jeff Shannon