A legal comedy from the 1990s is reportedly being revived at ABC by Karin Gist, a former Shondaland employee.
The 1990s Fox legal dramedy Ally McBeal is reportedly getting a reboot series, which we can only guess will be wonderful news for whomever tech genius now holds the original file of Dancing Baby.gif. According to Deadline, ABC is developing the show with Shondaland alum Karin Gist, whose writing and producing credentials include Grey’s Anatomy and Revenge.
There are few details about this return to the Bealiverse, although it is rumoured that the show will centre on a young Black woman getting into the legal profession (perhaps the daughter of Lisa Nicole Carson’s Renée from the original series). We anticipate that this will be a relatively simple process, free of sexual misunderstandings, odd coworkers, or a fiercely independent perspective on what it means to be a working woman in America who tries to embrace both her femininity and her astute legal mind while having it all in a society that falsely demands she choose between career and love.
The original series, created by David E. Kelley, and featuring Calista Flockhart, Greg Germann, Jane Krakowski, Peter MacNicol, Gil Bellows, Carson, and Courtney Thorne-Smith in its early seasons, ended nearly precisely 20 years ago. (Later cast additions included Lucy Liu, Robert Downey Jr., Portia De Rossi, and—and we had somehow managed to shut this out of our memories—a recurring role for Jon Bon Jovi in the last season.)
Although Flockhart reportedly has been approached to executive produce and conceivably star in the series, there has been no announcement about casting. The news of the development comes as Gist broadens her resume; she co-created and served as showrunner for the one-season Fox drama Our Kind Of People as well as the Mike Tyson drama Mike on Hulu.