Jane Krakowski reveals landlord evicted her from apartment after recognizing her from “Ally McBeal”
"We know you don't live here," the actress recalls being told by her landlord's lawyers as the legal dramedy took off.
Sometimes success can have a bit of a downside, as actress Jane Krakowski learned during her run on Ally McBeal.
She recently revealed that the landlord of her rent-controlled New York City apartment decided to evict her after seeing her on the show during its early days.
Related: Jesse Tyler Ferguson recalls Jane Krakowski recognizing him as her Starbucks barista
"I had a rent-stabilized apartment on the Upper West Side," Krakowski told Jesse Tyler Ferguson in a recent episode of his podcast Dinner's On Me. "I thought the show might not make it and so I tried to keep it the whole first year. But as Ally McBeal got more and more known, I got like a certified letter from my landlord's lawyers saying, 'We know you don't live here.'"
"Yeah, because we're watching you on TV right now!" Ferguson joked.
After all, it's hard to justify living in a New York apartment when you have a day job in L.A.
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Calista Flockhart and Jane Krakowski on 'Ally McBeal.'Ally McBeal starred Calista Flockhart as the titular character, a young Boston-based lawyer looking for both love and career success. Krakowski played Elaine Vassal, the assistant to Flockhart's character, on all five seasons of the legal dramedy.
The series struck a rather unique tone for TV. Lawyer shows are usually buttoned-up and serious, but this show was as focused on office gossip and the characters' personal lives as the details of their legal cases. There were also moments of light surrealism, like Ally's hallucinations of a dancing baby. According to Krakowski, the cast didn't realize how wacky the show was going to be until they screened the pilot.
"I have such a clear memory of the first screening that we watched the pilot," Krakowski said. "I think 'cause we all had no idea what we were making or what it really was going to be. I mean, we knew we all loved the script. It was so creative, and I remember sitting with all my other castmates and we all just kind of looked at each other and I felt like a little shaky inside because I think we knew it was something so different that it might really change our lives."
As of 2022, ABC was reportedly developing an Ally McBeal sequel series that would focus on a young Black woman entering the show's wacky law firm, but there hasn't been much news since. Some members of the original cast (including Flockhart but not Krakowski) reunited on stage at the Emmys earlier this year.
Elaine was far from Krakowski's last role in a wacky TV comedy. She's even more famous for playing actress Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock.
Listen to Krakowski's full conversation with Ferguson below.
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