Billy's death shocks the audience on 'Ally McBeal'

Billy with a brain tumor? It had to be a gimmick to grab ratings, a joke. This week's episode started out cheesily enough, with Biscuit's rear end sticking out of an elevator shaft and Billy hallucinating everything from Asian doctors singing "Lean on Me" to various female characters suddenly losing their clothes. His tumor, announced at the very end of the previous show, seemed like nothing more than an excuse for more titillation. Being "benign," it looked like some weak device to build tension. Wasn't it a running joke in the John Candy movie, "Delirious," that soap operas give their characters brain tumors when they need a quick plot twist?