The most memorable and most forgettable David E. Kelley shows

This is where it started for Kelley, from a production perspective. He got a leg up by co-creating “Doogie Howser” with Steven Bochco, a TV veteran (and fellow writer) who created “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A.” Law before founding his own production company. “Doogie Howser,” of course, focused on the titular child doctor, a role that paved Neil Patrick Harris’ way to fame.

As we get back to the memorable hits of Kelley’s career, we will see that he was cooking to start his run as a creator. “Snoops” was a heat check and his first real flop. Fortunately, TV flops are often forgotten. The ABC show debuted in 1999, when Kelley was just past his peak powers, and starred Glenn Hall as the lead of an “unconventional” detective agency. Only 10 of the 13 produced episodes even aired.

“Ally McBeal” was probably the show that put Kelley over the top in terms of getting a blank check. It was a cultural phenomenon. Do people talk about the quirky, steamy legal dramedy all that often now? Maybe not, as it didn’t end up in the TV pantheon (and kind of lost oomph the last couple years). However, if we say “dancing baby,” you know what’s up. “Ally McBeal” was huge, and it remains memorable.

A show about young female lawyers figuring it out in the big city? Would you believe “Girls Club” (sometimes stylized as “girls club,” which, ugh) debuted the same year “Ally McBeal” ended? The show starred Gretchen Mol, making the transition from “The next movie star?” failure to “Okay, maybe TV will work?” Spoiler: It didn’t. “Girls Club” truly tanked. Only two, yes TWO, episodes aired.

Alright, let’s go back to the ‘90s when Kelley was firing on all cylinders. His medical sitcom “Doogie Howser” had hit, so why not go the medical drama route? “Chicago Hope” didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it aired for six seasons and 141 episodes. The show even managed to keep going strong even though Kelley and company made the decision to cast the mercurial Mandy Patinkin as one of the leads. You’ll never believe it, but Patinkin was unhappy and left the show after the second season, appearing in a recurring role until the sixth season.

With a title like this, it feels like failure was inevitable, but it’s impressive that the wordy, clunky “The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire” could not at least become a memorable failure. We’ll admit when we first saw this title we thought, “Was that the show with Donal Logue doing a heist?” Nope, that was “The Knights of Prosperity.” This was a show about three brothers in the titular fictional town who had been local heroes as kids and now are dealing with adult stuff.

This is the last of Kelley’s three shows, all hits, that were airing when “Snoops” debuted. Yeah, we get why TV executives were so keen to let him put whatever on television. Kelley, who had worked on “L.A. Law” considered “The Practice” something of a corrective to that show’s stylized, romantic take on the law. “The Practice” certainly worked. It won Outstanding Drama Series twice in the ‘90s.

Kelley loves himself a legal show. What about a legal reality series? Is that idea bananas? Well, maybe that’s why “The Law Firm” was forgotten. It aired for one season. Young lawyers competed against one another trying real cases with real clients, with results that were binding. Only two episodes aired on NBC, with the rest scurried off to Bravo.

“Boston Legal” is not a spinoff of “Boston Public,” Kelley’s show set in the world of education. No, instead it is a spinoff of “The Practice.” However, it emerged as its own thing. It aired for five seasons and 101 episodes and was built around Candice Bergen, James Spader, and William Shatner. Denny Crane arguably became the role Shatner is known for most next to Captain Kirk.

Kelley gave FOX “Ally McBeal,” and “Boston Public” was at least buzzy at first. That likely earned Kelley another shot after “Girls Club” utterly flopped. Well, “The Wedding Bells” was not a return to form for Kelley. FOX actually approached Kelley looking for a show centered on wedding planners, and apparently, the writer had a rejected ABC pilot about that very subject. FOX took those leftovers, got “The Wedding Bells” (see, the family’s last name is Bell and so…), and it was axed after five episodes. Kelley hasn’t worked with FOX since.

It’s a little surprising that Kelley didn’t work with HBO until 2017, but when he did, it really popped. Kelley was just adapting a popular work of modern fiction in Liane Moriarty’s “Big Little Lies,” but he wrote every episode of the first season, which was originally going to be a limited series. Then, they decided to make a second season, with Kelley and Moriarty writing the story together and Kelley then writing all the episodes. They also got Meryl freakin’ Streep to join the cast, which certainly helped garner attention.

TNT was audacious when it came to original programming for a bit there. Some of its shows were successes, at least by the standards of basic cable. Things were going well enough, and TNT was bold enough, even Kelley got into the mix. Kelley adapted a novel by actual doctor Sanjay Gupta into a medical drama starring Alfred Molina. We remember several TNT shows we never actually watched, but “Monday Mornings” has been completely forgotten. It was canceled after its first season.

This is a unique circumstance on this list. “The Crazy Ones” was unsuccessful and memorable. Why has a 2013 sitcom that was canceled after its first season endured in our memories? Because it starred Robin Williams, who was making his return to sitcoms. That fact got so much buzz, but unfortunately, the show did not live up to that buzz in terms of quality or ratings.

Few Disney+ shows outside of the world of Marvel or Star Wars have found much purchase in the collective memory. “Big Shot” certainly has not. Do you remember hearing about this sports dramedy at all? The show stars John Stamos as a college basketball coach who gets fired and ends up coaching a girls high school team. If you missed “Big Shot,” well, you’re out of luck. It’s one of the shows that Disney, in a deranged fashion, decided to remove from Disney+.

Amazon Prime gave Kelley (and Jonathan Shapiro) a direct-to-series order for their pilot script that became “Goliath.” The show’s first season focused on Billy Bob Thornton as a down-and-out lawyer taking on the “big guy” so to speak, i.e. David versus Goliath. “Goliath” was successful, and would end up earning four seasons from Amazon Prime. However, Kelley did leave the show after the first season, being replaced by Clyde Phillips as showrunner.

How can a show that lasted 30 episodes and is based on the works of Stephen King be forgotten entirely? When it aired on the Audience network. Audience was a network you could originally only find on DirecTV, and then later AT&T’s forgotten foray into streaming after it bought DirecTV. Audience ceased existing as a network in 2020. “Mr. Mercedes” was easy to forget, because most people never had a chance to even hear about it.

This is the only limited series to make the list, but at least it proved memorable. This time, don’t expect another season from HBO and Kelley, as “Love & Death” is based on a true story, and the whole story was told. It’s your usual true crime fictionalization, replete with murder and intrigue. The show was headlined by Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons, though, which helped it stand out and generate intrigue. Olsen got a Golden Globes nomination, and Plemons got an Emmy nomination, which also helped.