AM-101 "Pilot"

Original Air Date: 9/8/97

The Brief:

The very first episode which maps out the history of Ally and the rest of the characters... And where Ally finds out her One True Love (aka Billy) is *ahhhhhh!* married...

The Verdict:


Short Summary:
This episode begins with a wonderful voice-over by Ally, telling us about her earlier life, her first (and to that date, only) true love and the choices she made. "So here I am, victim of my own choices..." she says. "And I'm just starting..." Thus begins the series... Ally works for a firm that she's satisfied with, but one of her senior partners likes her a little too much and starts grabbing her butt... She tells her boss about this incident, and Billings gets fired, but then decides to sue. Later, both partners reveal that they'd much rather be sued by Ally, and would prefer losing her than him, so she quits. Exiting the building with a box of office stuff, she bumps into an old law school classmate, Richard Fish, who immediately invites her to come work for his new firm. There, a shocked Ally finds Billy, her old (but still burning) flame, and is even more shocked to find out that he's married. Ally is also introduced to her secretary, Elaine, and also finds out that the office has a unisex bathroom, which, according to Richard, "helps co-workers breed familiarity rather than just breed". Ally also helps with an office case, and her lawsuit with Billings is also reviewed. In court, Ally represents a magazine in a case brought up by Rev. Kessler, who opposed to the article featuring him in that magazine. She loses the case, and walking back to the firm, she reflects on her two greatest shocks of the day: "I've lost the case... And Billy's married." Back at the office, she meets Billy's wife, Georgia, who just so happens to be beautiful, charming and smart... Which disappoints Ally, to say the least... Later that day, Georgia comes over to Ally and Renee's place. She and Ally admit that they hate each other, but have a good laugh about it anyway... She also tells Ally about how Billy explained his relationship with her as "a couple of dates in high school". Ally tells Georgia the whole story, which was much more than "a couple of dates in high school"... The next day, Ally confronts Billy about this, and he admits he was wrong. Richard overhears this conversation, which infuriates Billy, but he gets over it. That same day, Georgia comes in to talk to Ally about Ally telling Billy that she came over the evening before... This turns into a loud brawl when Renee and Richard come in, and everyone begins accusing each other at the same time. Georgia apologizes to Ally, and this is taken as the cue to start building a tough but real friendship... Later, after Ally wins her appeals case and Richard, Billy and Ally have a drink in their office, Billy admits to Ally that he still loves her, but he also loves the woman he's married to... The episode ends with Ally walking home, thinking to herself in-between some flashbacks of her past with Billy,: "I actually like the quest-the search. That's the fun. The more lost you are, the more you have to look forward to. What do you know? I'm having a great time and I don't even know it..."