David E. Kelley
David E. Kelley
David Edward Kelleyis an American television writer and producer, known as the creator of Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Boston Legal, and Harry's Law as well as several films. Kelley is one of very few screenwriters to have created shows aired on all four top commercial U.S. television networks...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionProducer
Date of Birth4 April 1956
CountryUnited States of America
thinking strange process
I don't think it's that strange that a show has sort of a bumpy beginning. It's just part and parcel of the process.
writing stories process
When the stories come easily and the writing process doesn't feel laboring, that's usually a good sign for me.
home night people
People are out of their home on a Saturday night or they're at the movies or they're at dinner and a lot of the people who flip on the television are doing just that. They may have never seen your show before and you can't count on to your audience to be there week in and week out.
writing way feels
The way I personally work is I like to write what I know, what I feel, and also where I am.
scratches stories claws
When I really have to push and grope and scratch and claw to make a story work, that's a telltale sign that maybe something conceptually isn't right.
children character people
When you create a show, and create characters, these people are like children to you.
when-things-go-wrong
You learn more when things go wrong.
thinking law morality
I gravitate toward the law, I think, certainly more times than not, because it's our best mechanism for legislating human behavior, and morality, and ethics.
people rooms interviews
If you interview people or friends who work with me, they would say I'm private or internal or don't emote a lot. Yet I do it every day for 10 million people. I just don't do it for the 30 people I'm in the room with.
people succeed triggers
It gets harder and harder to succeed and find audiences with the 500-channel universe, the remote control, and people being so trigger happy with that remote control. It just gets harder to get a foothold.
ideas people everyday
One of the most fundamental questions people have about defense attorneys is, 'How can you do that? How can you go to bat everyday for a person that you may not know is guilty but you have a pretty good idea that he's not so innocent?' It's a question that defense attorneys answer for themselves by not addressing.
mean long challenges
You've got to honor your relationship with your audience - that they sit down because they want to be entertained. And that doesn't mean you can't provoke them and antagonize them and challenge them in the course of the entertainment as long as you keep the entertainment part of the equation alive.
teacher school imagination
Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.
chemistry producers plans
Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan; you just hope for it.