Tears as Ally McBeal is axed

Ally McBeal was axed today after suffering a dramatic plunge in viewing figures.

Many members of the cast and crew were in tears as they heard the news from the award winning show's creator and producer, David E Kelley.

The legal comedy-drama, which has been running on Channel 4 for four years, made a star of Calista Flockhart, 38, who played neurotic lawyer Ally.

Last year she said of the series: "I'm sick of it. I just don't care any more. All Ally does is try to find a boyfriend or worry about not having a boyfriend. And I'm bored by it. It's just not interesting to me."

However, when the announcement came that the show is being scrapped, she burst into tears. A set insider said: "When David told us the news there were a lot of tears.

"Calista was particularly upset, but who can blame her? Ally McBeal has been a huge part of her life and it's a role people will always associate with her."

Offbeat, and often dark but romantic, the programme's extra lure was an edge of surrealism - the needy lawyer, her biological clock ticking, was haunted by an image of a dancing baby. It was a formula that won the show the American Emmy award for best comedy in 1999.

One of Ally's loves was played by Chaplin star Robert Downey Jr, whose own real-life troubles with drugs led to his departure from the show. Lisa Nicole Carson, who played Ally's flatmate, was also written out after she reportedly suffered problems with drink and drugs.

Miss Flockhart has come under fire for presenting a poor role model for young women with her worryingly thin frame, which at one awards ceremony attracted gasps when her weight was reported to be at around six and a half stone.

However, earlier this year she appeared to have put weight back on, possibly in an attempt to silence critics and help revive the flagging show. Co-star Portia de Rossi has also been worryingly skinny.

Mr Kelley, the husband of Hollywood star Michelle Pfeiffer, took drastic measures to hold off the axe by bringing in the star power of former rock singer turned actor Jon Bon Jovi, Dame Edna Everage and appearances from Sting, Sir Elton John and Mariah Carey.

When that failed to work, he then also resorted to a series of even more guest stars, with a two-hour special screened in the US this week which featured Matthew Perry, who plays Chandler in Friends, and Addams Family actress Christina Ricci.

US TV sources say the decision to pull the plug on Ally McBeal came when even Tuesday's twohour special failed to bring in viewers. It attracted 8.1 million viewers in the US - a 32 per cent drop off from a one-hour show that aired exactly a year ago with nearly 12 million viewers. In the UK Ally McBeal was watched by around three million.

A source said: "Ally has clearly had its day. Fox told David Kelley that Ally had run out of steam, and as much as he didn't want to, he had to agree."

The final episode will air in America on 20 May.

Off screen, the issues raised by the show and its cast generated huge interest. At first it sparked a feminism debate with Time magazine dedicating a cover to Ally McBeal, asking: "Is feminism dead?".

Along with Bridget Jones's Diary, the programme seemed to sum up the Nineties for many thirtysomething professional women - struggling to balance the demands of work with the quest for love.