CONGRA-->TULATIONS to David Kelley

and the rest of the wonderful team 

on their well-deserved
 
best dramatic series Emmy

for "The Practice"

AND for her work on that series

Camryn Manheim

for her best-supporting actress nod 

... and that AMAZING acceptance speech.


 ALLY MCBEAL RETURNS

AND I'M IN LOVE... with the new character.

(Just what the series needed.)

As for Ally, her "highschool vacation"

may even have recalibrated her soul enough

to once again deserve her theme song.




THE DUAL-EPISODE SEASON FINALE

OF LA FEMME NIKITA... illustrates

how good a vehicle this concept is...

and the strength of its star.




HOLLYWOOD NOTES: SUNDAY, 6/21/98


 LOOKING BACK 

OVER THIS TV SEASON...


(A) The WB network has two smart

and beautiful teen dramas

with "Buffy" and "Dawson's Creek."

 (And WB would do well
to leave them back to back
on Tuesday night.)


(B) DAVID KELLEY's marvelous mix of 

his words, Calista Flockhart's expressive face

Vonda Shepard's music (especially the theme)

and everything...

... worked delightfully  for six episodes

... at which point

Ally McBeal "hardened up" 

from a "bitchy little thing"... 

to a (hmmm?)

"pissy little bitch."





(C) KELLEY's "The Practice" is beautifully

cast and written... but Bobby and Ally would 

would work better in the same series --

where Flockhart could better blend 

hard and vulnerable (as she did
in the final scene of the Ally/Practice
linkage)

###JBT


BOKE