John Cage (character)
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John Cage is a fictional character in the television show Ally McBeal, Played by Peter MacNicol. John Cage founded the firm, Cage & Fish, along with Richard Fish, John initially appears as a shy character however proves himself to be an excellent litigator, usually winning his cases with tricks and distraction tactics rather than winning the case on the merits.
John Cage is one of only four characters to have appeared in all five seasons of the show. The other three characters are Ally Mcbeal, Richard Fish, and Elaine Vassel.
Background
John founded the firm of Cage & Fish along with Richard Fish. John's first appearance on the show was a memorable one. It saw a newly hired associate, Ally McBeal, defending John in court for hiring a prostitute. After this, John is not seen for a while in court. However, he forges a close personal relationship with Ally, she often speaks to him concerning her insecurities, relationships, and more often than not her hallucinations.John Eccentricities
The Dismount
During Season one there are multiple scenes in the Unisex bathroom. A running gag is John falling out of a bathroom stall with the excuse that he is unable to perform his dismount. The Dismount is presumably a gymnastic procedure. When he is finally able to do the 'Dismount you see him do a 360 degrees swing on the frame of the toilet cubicle and release in mid air and endup landing on his feet. That said there have been a great many mishaps with John's Dismount. For instance, once when he did not see Ally and then began his dismount, he knocked Ally into a toilet.Barry White
In Season 1 we discover that Barry White is John's idol, and he cannot perform properly in court if he cannot draw inspiration from the persona of White.Remote Control Toilet
In Season 1 we discover that John has a remote control to his toilet, which makes it flush before he enters the room. Whenever he walks in the bathroom after doing this he says "I like a FRESH Bowl."The Hole
In Season 4 we discover that in the toilet that John always uses, the back wall slides back to reveal a small concealed room which John uses to escape from the real world when he needs to think.John as a Trial Attorney
When in a court, if it cant be won on the merits John will employ an impressive array of stunts and distraction tactics, two examples of which involve a case from Season 2. In this case a recently elected US Senator was being sued by the owner of a bookshop because his campaign sullied her reputation and lost her a significant amount of business. The first stunt took place when the senator's attorney was asking him questions, and the senator then went off topic and began giving a speech at which point John set off a blow torch. He subsequently apologised to the judge saying "I apologise your honor one of my props went awry, there must be gas in the room". The second example took place in the same case in which during his cross examination he managed to get the jury to sing the song "You've got trouble from the Music Man".Season 2 Onwards
In the beginning of the second season 2 new characters were introduced, Nelle Porter and Ling Woo. John immediately confides to Richard that he is "drawn" to Nelle. Nelle then finds out and confronts John at which point a relationship ensues. The relationship brings up many embarrassing situations. One such situation was when John was where John overheard Nelle tell Ling that she had a fantasy of being spanked, so that evening John decides to be spontaneous and attempts to fulfil Nelle's fantasy. However John is over enthuastic and injures Nelle, Nelle kicks him out of her apartment and following this the relationship eventually dissolves. During the course of Nelle and John's relationship it is also discovered that John can only make love to a woman by imagining he is Barry White. At the Beginning of season five John realises that he is in love with Ally. He eventually plucks up the courage to ask her out but she rejects him. He seems okay with this until he discovers that Ally is interested in a newly hired assosciate named Glenn Foy. John then disappears for 4 episodes. He returns for three episodes but subsequently leaves again on a trip to Mexico, it is then later revealed that John is a member of a Marriachi Band in a Mexican Restaurant.
External links
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