Long before David E. Kelly got to stretch his legal and comedic skills with the incredibly successful Boston Legal but after a long run on L.A. Law, uneven medical melodrama Chicago Hope, as well as a stab at the nighttime soap Picket Fences, he stumbled onto what would become a cultural phenomenon titled Ally McBeal.

Sort of a modern-day Mary Tyler Moore’s Mary Richards with a law degree, relative newcomer Calista Flockhart took Hollywood by storm with her quirky portrayal of title character Ally McBeal. Case in point, television makes stars (as opposed to recycles them). This pop-culture phenomenon releases the complete first season on six-disc set.

Set in Boston, we first find the beautiful and brainy Ally as she meets up with Richard Fish (played by Greg Germann), a former college friend. He hires her at the prestigious Cage & Fish law-firm. The fur quickly flies when she discovers she’ll be working with her first love, Billy (played by Gil Bellows), as well as his wife (played by fresh-from-Melrose Place Courtney Thorne-Smith).

What immediately sets the show apart from the law genre, of course, is how we watch Ally slip into one fantasy after another as a coping mechanism with her day-to-day life. Who could forget the now-classic dancing baby, or episode-bumpers featuring the music of Vonda Shepard? Fortunately, with the exquisitely packaged release of this formative comedy drama, none of us need to.

Costarring 30 Rock scene-stealer Jane Krakowski as well as Emmy Award-winning performances by Peter MacNicol, it’s easy to rediscover what made this show so very special. Aside from Courtney Thorne Smith, the cast is made up of primarily fresh faces. David E. Kelly’s smartly crafted legal stories served as a backdrop against the fascinating lives of Ally and her office pals, woven together with witty dialogue and anti-cliches like the infamous unisex bathroom.

Re-watching some of the episodes, it’s surprising to find how well they hold up. Oftentimes, legal dramas stay about as fresh as bread — sometimes not lasting until summer rerun season, never mind a boxed DVD set. But Ally, like Mary before her, is a timeless addition to our television memory — frozen in time with an innocence and perpetual quirkiness that’s impossible to resist.

If you haven’t seen it since its 1997-2002 run on Fox, or have yet to tune in to it altogether, Ally McBeal ‘The Complete First Season’ makes for a quality addition to any DVD library or will guarantee nary an objection on anyone’s Christmas list.