Ally McBeal might be coming Ally McBack
A revisit to the '90s legal dramedy is apparently being developed at ABC by Shondaland alum Karin Gist
In what we can only assume will be huge news for whichever tech genius now owns the original copy of Dancing_Baby.gif, ’90s Fox legal dramedy Ally McBeal is apparently getting a reboot series. This is per Deadline, which reports that Shondaland alum Karin Gist, whose writing and producing credits include Grey’s Anatomy and Revenge, is developing the series at ABC.
Details about this return trip to the Bealiverse are scant, although it’s being reported that the show will focused on a young Black woman (possibly the daughter of Lisa Nicole Carson’s Renée from the original series) breaking into the legal field. We assume that this will be a fairly straightforward process, uncomplicated by sexual misunderstandings, quirky co-workers, or a fiercely independent take on what it means to be a working woman in America that sees her trying to embrace both her femininity and her sharp legal mind, having it all in a world that falsely demands she choose between career or love.
News of the revival comes almost exactly 20 years after the ending of the original series, which was developed by David E. Kelley, and initially starred Calista Flockhart, Greg Germann, Jane Krakowski, Peter MacNicol, Gil Bellows, Carson, and Courtney Thorne-Smith. (Later cast additions included Portia De Rossi, Lucy Liu, Robert Downey Jr., and—and we had managed to block this out of our memories, somehow—a recurring role in the final season for Jon Bon Jovi.)
No word yet on casting, although Flockhart has supposedly been approached to both executive produce and potentially appear on the series. News of the development comes as Gist continues to expand out her portfolio; she serves as an executive producer on Hulu’s Mike Tyson drama Mike, and co-created and served as showrunner on single-season Fox drama Our Kind Of People.