Three for the showman; David E. Kelley pens 'Ally McBeal,' 'The Practice' and 'Boston Public'

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. - On the outside, this row of modern, sand-and-adobe-colored buildings looks like just another southern California officeplex. But inside are sights that millions of TV viewers would instantly recognize: the unisex bathroom of "Ally McBeal"; the Boston courtroom of "The Practice"; Winslow High of "Boston Public." Three television shows, all hits, are filmed here on state-of-the-art soundstages. Overlooking them, in a third-floor office suite, is the CEO of the company that produces all three. But he is not reading spreadsheets or making conference calls. In fact, he doesn't use a computer. He writes on a yellow legal pad. Three TV shows, all hits, all breathed into life by one man - David E. Kelley, America's most prolific storyteller in its most prolific medium. You may not recognize the name, or maybe you know he's the hubby of actress Michelle Pfeiffer. You've probably seen his three-second calling card after an episode: The words "David E. Kelley Productions" pop out of a TV set and knock Granny off her rocker ("You stinka!" she says). But it is what pops out of the head of Kelley that has made an industry legend out of the 45-year-old former lawyer. From the small-town weirdness of "Picket Fences" to the high-decibel confrontations of "The Practice" to Ally's daffy daydreams, Kelley has been responsible for creating more provocative, addictively watchable television than anyone else in the last decade. He has done it by writing - and we mean actually writing, on special legal pads that are no longer made. (His staff has several years' worth stowed away.) Of the 66 hours of network television his company produced last year , Kelley wrote or co-wrote all but three. Almost unbelievably, he wrote 39 scripts by himself, including 19 episodes of "Ally McBeal," a program so idiosyncratic that Kelley has had trouble farming it out to other writers. To hear people around him describe it, there's nothing in the least bit exciting about watching Kelley do scripts. Camryn Manheim, who won an Emmy Award in 1998 for "The Practice," has called him an "idiot savant," someone who writes brilliantly without a clue how he does it. Robert Breech, the executive producer of "The Practice," has worked with Kelley since "L.A. Law" in the mid-1980s. "It's beyond me how he's able to process a concept (from) thought to pen that immediately," Breech says. "But he's had it for as long as I've known him." Typical is the story Breech tells of the time he and another staffer were in Kelley's office, discussing an episode in production. Kelley, silently immersed in another script, put down his pen to join the conversation. When the subject changed, Kelley instantly returned to writing. ("Not thinking," Breech underscores, "writing.") Critics would use this story as proof not just of Kelley's freakish powers of concentration, but for why his shows become so gratingly repetitive. Here is the wordsmith as drone, an automaton who knows only how to "create" the same thing over and over. Like most successful producers, however, Kelley has an instinct for what draws people to television shows. He understands the peculiar rhythms of commercial TV, and how to jolt, tease and flirt with viewers so they'll stay tuned during the breaks. "He can see a different way to tell a story and turn a script sideways," says Pam Wisne, president of Kelley's production company. Wisne, who was hired last year in part to help Kelley cut down on his workload, adds that her boss works well with other writers, some of whom have been with him for years. That is another key to Kelley's success - he is a talent magnet. It takes dozens of people behind the cameras to make a television show, and it's a safe bet that few if any of them live near Manhattan Beach, a 20-mile crawl down the 405 freeway from West L.A. But they come and they stay, lured by the promise of working for stable, long-running shows, career advancement and a high-tech facility with every amenity, including a day care center. "This is the best work environment I've ever been in," says Alice West, who like nearly all of Kelley's top lieutenants, has been with him since the "L.A. Law" days. West, the co-executive producer of "Ally McBeal," offers a tour of the set, including the surprisingly small bar that has become synonymous with song stylist Vonda Shepard (the bar scenes are filmed with long lenses to give the illusion of size). Next door, on the "Boston Public" set, no camera tricks are needed to enlarge the hallowed halls of Winslow High. It's a football field long, built to the scale of a large public high school. When Kelley agreed last year to create "Boston Public" for Fox, people at first assumed he would simply lend his studio's name to the show, but not write episodes. After all, he was already writing most of the scripts for two TV shows. Surely he wasn't about to add a third program to his writing chores. Was he? He was, and he did. Kelley wrote the first eight episodes of "Boston Public" himself and eventually penned 13 solo scripts while sharing credit on another eight. OK, so the guy has focus and work ethic. But is that enough to accomplish 50 percent more work in the same amount of time? Apparently so: Kelley still arrives for work at 9 and leaves at 6. The joke is that you'd leave at 6 too if Michelle Pfeiffer was waiting at home. Over the years Kelley has shed much of the day-to-day oversight of his shows and become a pure writer again. Today all he does is write and revise episodes, trusting longtime associates to handle everything else. "He hands over the script and then it's up to us," says Bill D'Elia, "Ally McBeal's" executive producer, who has known Kelley 13 years. "He doesn't come down to the set and micromanage." In fact, everyone seems to agree that Kelley hardly comes down from his office at all, except for a 12:30 p.m. lunch break. He jealously guards his writing time and his personal life. Except for a few well-timed appearances to promote a new show, Kelley rarely meets with the press anymore. When we have an unscheduled mid-afternoon encounter, Kelley is casual and relaxed, as if he's going for a walk on the beach. He's wearing a short-sleeved shirt, faded jeans and white sneakers. The only thing that's missing is a floppy hat, though that would mat down his perfectly windswept hair. We chitchat briefly, but Kelley is the opposite of focused. He nods a couple of times, then saunters off to his office. This is a quality colleagues have noticed. If there is a meeting, and his attention starts to flag, he will simply look down and start writing. Meeting adjourned. How much longer will Kelley be able to continue this regimen of longhand - or want to? Wisne said one of her jobs this year is to help Kelley reduce his workload. He plans to write only two "Practice" scripts and, for the first time, he has writers to help him with "Ally McBeal." Recently Kelley's company agreed to develop a fourth TV show, again for the Fox network, called "The Understudy." The script for the pilot episode will be written by Ivan Menchel. In what might be the beginning of the end of a unique era in television, a David Kelley show will not be developed from a David Kelley script. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com THE SHOWS "The Practice" 9 p.m. Sundays ABC (Channel 9) "Boston Public" 7 p.m. Mondays Fox (Channel 4) "Ally McBeal" 8 p.m. Mondays Fox (Channel 4) @ART CAPTION:Calista Flockhart stars in "Ally McBeal." @ART CAPTION:The "Boston Public School" cast features Chi McBride (from left), Michael Rapaport, Jeri Ryan and Anthony Heald @ART CREDIT:Fox @ART CAPTION:Featured in "The Practice" are Lara Flynn Boyle (from left), Camryn Manheim, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Marla Sokoloff and Kelli Williams. @ART CREDIT:ABC @ART CAPTION:David E. Kelley @ART:Photos (4, color and b/w)