Ally McBeal Series Premiere: The Most '90s Moments

By Dave Nemetz
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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

The opening shot

Back then, TV shows weren't afraid to open with a woman staring wistfully out of a window while a sad song plays.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Billy's entire look

The boxy suit. The patterned ties. The high-waisted pleated pants. The weird pseudo-Doug Ross haircut. He belongs in a Museum of '90s Men's Fashion.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

A gratuitous bra scene

Hey, we can't have young men flipping over to Monday Night Football, can we?

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

The senior partner at Ally's old law firm grabbing her ass

With both hands! (Sexual harassment was a bit more overt back then, you see.)

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Opening credits that were a full minute long!

With an original theme song, no less!

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Ally dancing with this extra from a Nirvana video

His hair is twice as long as hers!

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Ally's frizzy Felicity wig in the college flashbacks

A year before Felicity premiered, mind you.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Fish's repeated obsession with "lower taxes"

Yes, very Newt Gingrich of him.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Ally's roommate Renée referring to sex as "the hokey-pokey"

Hey, Standards & Practices was already on their backs about the bra scene, OK?

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

An eager, twentysomething Jane Krakowski as assistant Elaine

Yet somehow, she looks the same today? (How do you not age, Jane??)

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Ally objecting to Fish putting her "in a room to smile at lesbians!"

Just the way she says "lesbians," like they're an alien species, feels five hundred years old.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

The over-explanation of "OCD"

The script had to spell out that OCD stands for "obsessive-compulsive disorder." Right. Got it.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Cage and Fish's "avant-rich," industrial-chic offices

Look at all that exposed brick! It looks like a Real World house from the mid-'90s.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Elaine warning Ally that a judge is "not big on pantsuits for women"

"Women wearing pants? Not in my courtroom!"

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

This scarf of Ally's

Is she a stewardess for Pan Am? What do you even call that? A kerchief? A lady ascot? I don't believe women even wore those back in the '90s, to be honest.

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

The firm's unisex bathrooms

No bathroom bills needed here! As Fish puts it, "it helps men and women employees breed familiarity... so long as they don't come in and just breed."

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Ally McBeal Series Premiere Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

The gauzy, girl-power songs from Vonda Shepard

They're so Lilith Fair — and I mean that as a compliment.

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