LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) — “Ally McBeal’s” biological time clock must be ticking like crazy, now.
“Ally McBeal,” the quirky, critically acclaimed show about a lovelorn lawyer, which helped Fox gain credibility as a major network, will end its five-year run in May after suffering in the ratings this season, the network said Thursday.
The departure of the show, an Emmy-winning sensation that transformed star Calista Flockhart into a household name while launching water-cooler-debates about hemlines in the workplace and unisex bathrooms, means the Fox Broadcasting Co. will start next season without two of its hallmark series.
The network, a unit of News Corp. Ltd., announced earlier that science-fiction thriller “The X-Files” will leave primetime in May after nine years on the air.
Starring Flockhart as the mini-skirted, neurotic McBeal, the show quickly caught on as one of Fox’s biggest series after launching in September 1997, but the offbeat sitcom has been in big trouble this season. Fox executives decided to pull the plug after a highly promoted two-hour episode Monday drew the show’s lowest-ever ratings for a first-run segment among viewers aged 18 to 49, the demographic group most prized by advertisers.
Series creator and executive producer David E. Kelley acquiesced to ending the show, and the decision was announced to the cast and crew Wednesday afternoon, said Stacey Luchs, a spokesman for Kelly’s production company.
“It’s sad to say goodbye to something you love, even when perhaps it is time,” Kelley said in a statement issued by the network. Kelley’s company also produces the new Fox hit “Boston Public,” as well as ABC legal series “The Practice” and an upcoming Fox show, “Girls Club.”
Two former “Ally McBeal” co-stars — Courtney Thorne-Smith and Lisa Nicole Carson — will rejoin the cast for the show’s one-hour series finale, airing May 20, Fox said.
But actor Robert Downey Jr., who landed a recurring role on the series after his release from prison on a drug offense in 2000, will not return, Luchs said.
Downey’s on-screen romantic chemistry with Flockhart helped spark a creative and commercial revival of the series last season, but the actor was written out of the show last spring after two subsequent drug arrests.
CRITICAL DARLING
Together with “X-Files” and the animated sitcom satire “The Simpsons,” “Ally McBeal” proved a critical darling that helped move Fox beyond its “gonzo” image as the network of “Married . . . With Children” and established its credentials as a big-league broadcaster, in the company of CBS, NBC and ABC.
Besides its over-the-top character portrayals and stories, the hour-long “dramedy” was notable for its quirky use of musical sequences and fantasy elements, such as the recurring dancing-baby image and cutaway shots of Ally being shot with arrows or being hurled into a garbage dumpster. The show’s theme song, “Searching My Soul,” became a hit that launched the career of singer Vonda Shepard.
The show earned Emmy awards for outstanding comedy series and outstanding supporting actor for co-star Peter MacNicol, who played the introverted, eccentric lawyer John Cage. The show also won four Golden Globe awards, including two for best comedy series and one for Flockhart as best actress.
The show’s ratings have been low all season, ranking 60th in total viewers with an average audience of 9.74 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.
