5/5 Ally McBeal Lives On!!!
  by Mark E. Cromer (Pittsburgh, PA USA)
I just received the DVD collection yesterday. I bought it for myself as a birthday present. The best $100 I ever spent!!! As a big fan of the series,I was hesitant to purchase it because of past purchases. But, I should have realized that if David E, Kelley and Fox put their names on it, it would be great.
The collection came in an easy to open/use package including 6 boxes/cases. One for each Season (1 - 5) and one for the special features DVD's. The quality is impeccable. tThe music is all original and fantastic. Season 1 is in regular screen and Seasons 2 - 5 are Widescreen. That's because Fox didn't broadcast in Widescreen until Fall of 1988.
In closing, I highly recommend this collection to anyone who ejoyed the show. I would recommend it also to anyone who appreciates good Television.

Mark (mecwag)

5/5 Original Music Confirmed by Studio!!!
  by ML (Quebec Canada)
Finally it's available and in the proper format.
Fox studios has confirmed that all original music will be included in the release in addition to a CD with the best music from the show and The Practice cross-over episode "Axe Murderer". This is all that I wanted and more from the release of one of my favorite shows!

5/5 Piki-Piki- Piki- Pikipsi! Ally has arrived!
  by Geoffrey R. Tourville
I love this show. I love it so much that when it was released on DVD in the UK I got copies imported to me and bought myself a region free player. It has been so wonderful having these shows when no one else in America does at the moment. It feels like my little secret. But I am worried over the state of the DVD's.

This set will be 32 discs. Originally I thought they'd just be rencoded versions of the British DVDs... That would have been more comforting. But here we get 5 seasons on 30 discs. The first season is full frame and the rest widescreen. Then disc 31 has a new retrospective featurette, and 5 or 6 vintage featurettes. Also an episode of "The Practice" when Ally crossed over and a music video.

The 32nd disc is curious. Fox has announced the set but has not stated if the music has been left intact. I can't see it being changed as a majority of the stories Need the specific songs chosen. They are not random. Also the characters mostly sing them live. It be practically impossible to change the music. Yet I am still concerned as this is fox and you would think they'd advertise the fact no music was changed... But disc 32 offers hope as it is a "Best of Ally McBeal" soundtrack. I am hoping these will be new songs not incorporated on the previous 4 albums released for the show.

The album included seems to be Fox's way of saying they too believe that the music was pivotal too the show. Quite recently Fox confirmed- that Yes= ALL OF THE MUSIC IS INTACT!This makes this a most have for anyone who loved this neurotic, short skirt wearing lawyer and her zany friends.

The soundtrack is the gigantic let down of this set. The press release led us to believe there would be previously unreleased music on this album. Bull****! For those of you who already have the other albums you will notice there is only one un- released song and that is "I Know Better." They had a huge opportunity to do something really great here and they blew it. Beyond that I will still buy this for the bonus material. The soundtrack listing is as follows.

1. Searchin' My Soul
2. Something About You
3. Chances Are
4. The Wildest Times Of The World
5. Home Again (Live)
6. Sweet Inspiration
7. I Know Better
8. You Belong To Me
9. Hooked On a Feeling
10. I Only Want To Be With You
11. It's In His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)
12. Tell Him
13. Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow
14. Maryland



5/5 I'm rating the show itself here...
  by calvinnme (Fredericksburg, Va)
...not the product since that relies entirely upon the issue of the music that originally aired with the episodes. Special excerpts and clip collections are all we in the U.S.A. have seen of Ally McBeal on DVD up to now due to the large incorporation of popular music in the show. Many episodes of Ally had the closing ten minutes or so set in the bar where Vonda Shepard and guests such as Barry White would belt out popular, and unfortunately, copyrighted music. Also, the various characters would express themselves by dancing to popular tunes in a way that I just don't think would come across with muzak.

This has made DVD sets of entire seasons a licensing nightmare. Since Ally was in production from 1997 until 2002, just prior and a little bit after the advent of TV on DVD, this probably did not figure into the calculation of Fox as to how this would turn into a legal quagmire that could not be overcome. The same was true for "WKRP in Cincinatti" - the original masters of those shows with the music have been destroyed from what I hear - and then there also is "Daria".

Fox has been very tight-lipped about the status of the music that was woven irreplaceably into this show. Do you really think we could get this show for this price if the music was there? Based on Fox's past record of deleting music from TV shows and not telling anyone until after they collected their money, and given the state of the economy and the DVD market right now, I'd think they'd be telling the world if the music was intact. I also think they'd be telling noone if it was missing. So far their silence has been deafening. My opinion is to either wait until some definitive word comes out on the condition of these sets or maybe a compromise would be to buy Ally McBeal: The Complete First Season and see what was done there as indication of what was done with the other four seasons.

5/5 Great Show, Great Buy....
  by JAC
At $99 this was an unbelieveable deal! It's great to have the seasons intact in their own cases, with the box simply acting as a storage for them. Love how it pulls out easily and the seasons sit in the 'envelope'. I kind of think the box construction itself could be better and the quality of the cover art on the seasons isn't that great. I'm also disappointed there is no episode guide or booklet. But really....these are picky things . What matters is that the episodes are unedited, original music....and an amazing price. Great strategy. At this price, more people can buy it...supporting the efforts that Fox put into getting this set out to us. I've been loving every minute of catching up with this show once again! It is as relevant as when it first aired.