David E. Kelley's TV Series Finally Coming to DVD ? (1 Viewer)

[Aryn Leroux]

All the original music is in the R2 sets of Ally Mcbeal which is great. I really like the sets except it is odd with the aspect ratio. S1,S5 are widescreen and the others Full-Screen. Does anyone know why this is the case ? thats the only thing that bothers me with the sets.

 

[Jay_B!]

I just hope Fox didn't pull a Dawson's Creek here (Sony got so cheap with DC that they didn't bother clearing ANY song by an artist you might've heard of and replaced it with generic stuff) and has the music intact. All of the Vonda Shephard songs really contributed to the mood of the series, and when they used an oldie that wasn't being performed by Vonda, it was always effective (Hooked On A Feeling, Just What I Needed, Love Machine, etc..)

 

[John Berggren]

Excellent. I'd love to pick up both of these.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Sometimes you don't remember what was there until you see the episode again. Anyway, I don't recall anything that'd resemble a music issue on The Practice either.

 

[Julio Diaz]

I'd buy Ally, The Practice and Picket Fences if the prices were right. Maybe even Boston Public if it were a spectacular deal. But I burned out on Kelly toward the end of Ally and Practice, when both started to get very silly, and I've not even checked out Boston Legal despite hearing many good things about it.

 

[Eve Brown]

Not sure if i'd buy ally since i own all the region 2 but
I would do Boston Public, and Picket Fences. Would be nice if they would include crossover episodes since they were many epsiecally between Kelly's own shows.

The Pracite most likeily not the last couple seasons of but the begining for sure loved when helen and bobby were together(season 2), never cared much for lidnesy character and don't understand why when reading fanfic so many of the stories put her with Bobby.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I think Ally was innovative in Season One, and very strong in season 2 and 3. Downey Jr. breathed some life into the 4th season...the 5th season was not as bad as people remember, but it was missing most of the original cast. That's what hurt it the most.

For Ally's music, if you really think about it, almost all of it was part of the plot. There was hardly ever any "incidental" music. Just for a handful of examples, you will recall how important the "Ooga Chugga" music was to the dancing babies LOL. Also you will recall how Barry White's songs played a big part in the storylines. And the song "Dulcinea" from "Man of La Mancha" served as a major insight in Ally's childhood. I don't think you could dare release this series without all of that and much much more. I think Fox should just bite the bullet and pay for every bit of it. I don't care if the season sets cost $80 or whatever. That's just the way it is.

 

[Jake Yenor]

Booston Legal?!?!?! YES!!! I didn't expect it to ever come!

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Ally Seasons 1-3 are 4:3 (in region 2). I believe only seasons 4 and 5 are widescreen. I know because I've spent the last couple of months watching them.

Not really sure I'd pick them up if FOX released them here. Amazon.co.uk had a great sale a while back and I got all five seasons for under 120.00.

There'd have to be a really strong reason (lots of features, remastered picture, etc. etc) for me to pick them up again.)

But sign me up for Picket Fences.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

I Totally Agree!

 

[Jay_B!]

that completely killed the show IMO and it became unwatchable from there on out

 

[ElijahS]

Eh, huh?

 

[Jay_B!]

well, I was pointing out the moment that Ally McBeal was killed for me. I only put spoiler space because I remember how pissed people got over six year old Buffy episodes being freely discussed, so I just spoiler-spaced it out of respect since a lot of people had tuned out of Ally by season 5 and might want to give it a second chance on DVD.

 

[ElijahS]

No, I've only seen the six episodes put on DVD (it was a library rental). Spoilers don't bother me so much. My reaction was more along the lines of a "WTF?" moment.

 

[Jay_B!]

ohhh, I'm with ya there Elijah. It's been four years and it's still a "WTF?" moment for me that I never understood. If it was a male character, I could understand, but the whole excuse for Ally was really stupid and was the death of the show as far as I was concerned.

Seasons 1-4 were all great and you should check them out if you liked the 6-episode DVD, but that "plot twist" in the middle of season 5 was really the moment that the show officially lost it.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

hm, that's very odd, my copy of seasons 1-4 all list them as 4:3 on the box. I'll upload you a picture of the back later on. I'm puzzled. Perhaps two editions have been released in region 2 or something. I do know that my copies are all from the re-release FOX did, in what I hear were new boxes (white keep-case style boxes housing six discs).

The show also had a terrible series finale. Did a poor job of really wrapping things up, and gave Ally a very depressing send-off for a character people had grown to love. She deserved better.

 

[Jay_B!]

I agree, the open ending sucked too considering we knew there wasn't any likely plans for a reunion anytime soon.

I guess I'll try to pretend season 5 never happened, seasons 1-4 were must-see television but the last year was just bad IMO. I think if season 5 was better, the show could've gone on at least 7 or 8 seasons

 

[Rob T]

I also want Chicago Hope.

 

[Christian Preischl]

That certainly seems to be the case. I have the Benelux version of Season 4 which is full screen, but the German edition seems to be widescreen.
For what it's worth, I've found numerous goofs happening outside the 4:3 frame on seasons 3 and 5 (the only ones I have in widescreen), so I have a strong feeling this was composed for 4:3. (The beginning of episode 3.01 even has a lot of stock footage in 4:3 only.)

Chris

 

[Aryn Leroux]

Sound's like that might be the case.