It's unfair.
That's the charge more than 11 years after Time magazine put 'Ally McBeal' star Calista Flockhart on its cover as an "icon" of failed feminism, and it was a hot topic of conversation among Flockhart and the 'Ally McBeal' gang when they appeared on ABC's 'Good Morning America' Tuesday for a second day of interviews to promote the series DVD release.
"I think the point they were trying to make was that there wasn't a modern feminist women to look toward,'' said Flockhart of the Time cover. "In some ways it was oddly flattering that Ally McBeal was now who we were looking at.''
The Time article, citing Ally as the most popular female character on TV, said that the character was ditsy, her clothes were too skimpy and she spent too much time obsessing over her ex-boyfriend to be a good feminist role model.
"She was a fictional TV character, and to compare her to with Susan B. Anthony is slightly ludicrous and not really a fair comparison,'' Flockhart said.
Ally's faults were what endeared viewers to her. The series ran on Fox from from 1997 to 2002.
"Ally was criticized for being unabashedly self-absorbed, but I always found her to be so authentic and imaginative and she didn't really have a censor -- and I think people liked that about her and wished they could be more like Ally, sort of outspoken,'' Flockhart said.
Seven members of the cast were interviewed by 'GMA''s Tom Bergeron in Los Angeles. Former cast members Portia de Rossi, Lucy Liu and Robert Downey Jr. did not participate in the reunion.
Flockhart, long-time partner of actor Harrison Ford, now stars on the ABC drama 'Brothers & Sisters.'
"(Ally) did have a lot of good friends and she was a good friend and it was this great world world to live in," Flockhart said. "Anything could sort of go."
Read about Day 1 of the 'Ally McBeal' reunion on 'Good Morning America'

Reader Comments (1)
chip at 1:59PM on Nov 4th 2009
"Ally's faults were what endeared viewers to her." Wrong. Other way around. Her faults endeared HER to VIEWERS. You want to be a writer? Learn the difference between a subject and an object.