Overview
This was series the epitome of FOX shows in the 1990s. The ran for five seasons, starting the same year Ellen’s character came out. The hour-long series was about a post-feminist lawyer and made David E. Kelley a massive hit. The show was witty, it “anti-p.c.”, it had quirky characters, and it was a dramedy. This was novel in the mid-’90s.
It was also horribly, deliberately, sensationalist. It played with contentious topics like homosexuality — especially lesbian experimentation. While there are multiple same-sex kisses between women on the show, every last one of them ended with the woman wanting men or identifying as heterosexual. It flirted with the concept of heteroflexibility and made the assumption all women are a little gay, but at the end of the day, all women want a man.
The show had 2 transgender characters and treated them horribly by killing one and making jokes about another.
Notable Queer-Centric Episodes
- Season 1 Episode 10 “Boy To The World” – Ally’s client, Stephanie, is arrested for solicitation and everyone is shocked to find out she’s MTF. Ally hires her, but Stephanie is murdered.
- Season 4 Episode 2, 3, 4 “Girls’ Night Out,” “Two’s a Crowd,” and “Without a Net” – A continuing story about a transgender woman named Cindy, who fights a discrimination lawsuit over a mandated physical. She was avoiding the physical so they wouldn’t find her penis. She ends up having to describe her entire transition process. Also she dates Mark, who doesn’t know about the situation at first. When he does find out, Mark breaks up with her.
Characters
There are 3 queer characters listed for this show; 1 is dead.