Ally McBeal (character)

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Ally McBeal character
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Ally McBeal
Jobs Held	Litigator, Administrative Partner: Cage, Fish & McBeal
Portrayed by:	Calista Flockhart
Seasons	1,2,3,4,5

Allison Marie "Ally" McBeal is the central fictional character in the Fox Television show Ally McBeal played by Calista Flockhart.

Ally is a Boston-based lawyer. She is shown as a woman who believes in love and is continually looking for her soul mate. She often hears songs in her head and suffers from hallucinations, mostly of a dancing baby, due to her biological clock ticking.

[edit] Biography

Ally is the daughter of George McBeal (played by James Naughton) and Jeannie McBeal (played by Jill Clayburgh). She claims to have at least one sister and one brother although neither are ever seen (not even in the occasional flashbacks). She used to have a sister who died at the age of five.

Ally attended Harvard Law School with Billy Thomas (played by Gil Bellows), with whom she had had a relationship since they were eight years old. Billy, however, left Harvard to go to another law school, thereby breaking Ally's heart. The next thing we know about Ally is that she lives with district attorney Renee Radick, and she is employed in a Boston law firm.

Ally quit the law firm because her boss harassed her and was then recruited by old classmate Richard Fish to join his law firm, Cage & Fish. To her own surprise she found out that Billy, now married to fellow lawyer Georgia, who ends up working at Cage & Fish eventually. She immediately fell in love with him again, to the horror of Georgia. However, Ally and Georgia became friends and Ally learned to work side by side with Billy.

Throughout the series Ally dated lots of men. Because Billy remained the love of her life, no relationship ever got serious until she met Dr. Greg Butters (played by Jesse L. Martin). Greg and Ally got quite serious until the two were spotted kissing by Billy. Billy felt so jealous that he imagined himself to be in love with Ally after which he declared his undying love for Ally. The two subsequently engaged in a short affair, which Ally finally broke off. Nonetheless, Greg broke off the relationship after finding out.

Ally started dating again, finally meeting a British lawyer named Brian Selig (played by Tim Dutton). The two started dating and ended up having a six-month relationship (untroubled by Billy, who had by now died of a brain tumor). When, after six months, Brian asked Ally to move in with him, Ally realised Brian was much too boring for her and then broke off the relationship.

Shortly after that, she fell in love with fellow lawyer Larry Paul. The two started a serious but rocky relationship. Although initially troubled by the fact that Larry had an ex-wife with whom he was still close and an ex-girlfriend (played by Famke Janssen) who was also the mother of his child, it was soon evident that Larry was her soulmate. The relationship ended abruptly with Larry breaking up with Ally through a note since he decided to leave Boston to be able to spend more time with his son who lived with his ex. (Initially Ally was supposed to get married to Larry at the end of season 4 but when actor Robert Downey Jr. was arrested on drug-related charges and sent to jail, the network fired Downey, thereby cancelling the marriage storyline).

While in college, Ally, in need of money, donated an egg for research, only to find out years later that it wound up getting adopted. One day a little girl shows up on her doorstep, claiming to be her daughter, prompting Ally to faint. She gets to know her daughter over the course of several episodes.

[edit] Love Life

Ally has had a very tumultuous love life. Her most memorable dates include:

• Ronald Cheanie (Tate Donovan) - a friend of Richard
• Rabbi Stern (Jason Blicker) - Jewish Rabbi whom Ally first repeatedly insulted before dating him.
• Jason Roberts (Andrew Heckler) - Perfect until it turned out he was a sloppy eater who constantly spilled salad dressing all over his face.
• Glenn (Michael Easton) - the professional snowboarder/male nude model with the huge penis.
• Dr. Greg Butters (Jesse L. Martin) - Left Ally because he had to move to Chicago but later came back. He then had a relationship with Ally until she had an affair with Billy.
• Billy Thomas (Gil Bellows) - The love of Ally's life, sweetheart and doomed soulmate. She had a brief affair with him while he was still married to Georgia and Ally was still having a relationship with Greg Butters.
• Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott) - Dumped Ally because he wasn't ready for a relationship. Appeared along with several other characters from The Practice in two crossover episodes. Both shows were produced by David E. Kelly and both were set in Boston. Calista Flockheart, in turn, appeared as Ally in an episode of The Practice.
• Jason Tresham (Richard Lee Jackson) - 18 years old. After one date Ally deemed him too young.
• John Cage (character) (Peter MacNicol) - date was a disaster. Ally and John decided to just stay friends.
• George Madison (John Ritter) - Elaine's boyfriend. Ally and George were attracted to each other but Ally refused to give in to it because of her friendship with Elaine.
• Ross 'Fitzy' Fitzsimmons (Rob Schneider) - hopeless romantic who would not let himself get dumped so that Ally had to get help from Elaine in dumping him.
• Raymond Brown (Justin Theroux) - Georgia's old flame. Ally went on one double date with Raymond, Georgia and Billy until she found out Raymond only agreed to go on double dates with Ally so that he could spend time with Georgia.
• Kevin (Antonio Sabato Jr.) - male escort from Ling's escort service whom Ally hired to make Greg Butters jealous although she later tried to seduce Kevin himself.
• Ling Woo (Lucy Liu) - Ling and Ally share an apparent mutual attraction to one another, particularly in the episode, Buried Pleasures, where Ling and Ally dance together to ward off other men and they kiss (twice), there has been other references throughout other episodes such as when Ally was dancing provocatively towards the office men while dressed in a Santa outfit in Blue Christmas, Ling was the only woman she approached. Also, in Just Friends Ling said that she should not pursue a relationship with John Cage as "She wasn't sure she was even interested in women" which Ally immediately denied, yet she seemed to respond when Ling used Richard's knee pit technique on her.
• Joel (Jason Gedrick) - Ally had anonymous sex with Joel in a car wash. A few days later she was invited to a wedding where Joel turned out to be the groom. She then halted the wedding to persuade the bride not to marry Joel.
• Louis Walters (Ted Marcoux) - Ally met Louis on the street and he appealed to her because he "got her". He tells her he's an insurance agent writing a book about the homeless demographic, but she finds out he was fired six months ago and has a mental illness. She reluctantly breaks it off.
• Hammond Deering (Mark Feuerstein) - worked at Ally's local coffee bar and asked Ally out. Ally refused to date him because of his social position but subsequently found out Deering only worked at the coffee bar in his spare time when he was not being an Appelate Court Judge. The two then briefly dated until Deering confessed to being bisexual which Ally could not get past, admitting she was more homophobic than she realized.
• Chris 'Thunderthighs' Emerson (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) - Ally had an internet relationship with Chris until she finally agreed to meet him. He then turned out be only 16 (instead of 31) after which Ally was arrested.
• Brian Selig (Tim Dutton) - British lawyer who Ally dated for six months until she realized he was too boring for her.
• Michael Bassett (William Russ) - Older lawyer whom Ally dated because of his positive energy, until she realized the other man she was dating at the same time was Michael's son.
• Jonathan Bassett (Michael Vartan) - lawyer whom Ally dated until she found out the other man she was dating at the same time was Jonathan's father.
• Larry Paul (Robert Downey Jr.) - Ally's soulmate after Billy. Ally originally mistook him for a therapist and told him all of her problems. Only after a while did she find out Paul was actually a lawyer. They then dated until Larry abruptly left to live in Michigan to be closer to his son.
• Victor Morrison (Jon Bon Jovi) - A plumber/babysitter to whom both Ally and her newly-discovered daughter attach themselves.