‘Ally McBeal’ Revival With Calista Flockhart Explored By 20th Television

A new iteration of Ally McBeal may be headed to the small screen.

Ideas about a possible revival of the legal comedy-drama series, which became a pop culture phenomenon, are being bounced around 20th TV, which would produce, sources tell Deadline. Original series creator David E. Kelley is expected to have some involvement in the project, but likely not as a writer. We hear Calista Flockhart, who starred in the title role, has been approached about reprising her role, but there have been no formal talks.

Ally McBeal aired for five seasons on Fox from 1997 to 2002. Created by Kelley, the series starred Flockhart as Ally, a lawyer working in the Boston law firm Cage and Fish along with her ex-lover and his wife, and followed Ally’s trials and tribulations through life as she looked for love and fulfillment. The main focus of the series was the romantic and personal lives of the main characters, often using legal proceedings as plot device. The series pushed sexual boundaries in the workplace, where lawyers and secretaries in the firm would routinely date, flirt with, or have a romantic history with each other, something that would be clearly forbidden in the #MeToo era.

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The critically praised series won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 1997 and 1998, and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1999.

The ensemble cast also included Courtney Thorne-Smith, Greg Germann, Lisa Nicole Carson, Jane Krakowski, Peter MacNicol and Gil Bellows.

20th Century Fox Television, now 20th TV, and David E. Kelley Productions produced.

Deadline’s sister pub TVLine was first to report the news.

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