April 4: Happy Birthday David E. Kelley & Robert Downey, Jr.

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https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/04/04/...mer-bernstein/

David E. Kelley is turning 62 today. Kelley graduated from Princeton and then Boston University School of Law, and while working for a Boston Law, and while working for a Boston Law firm, he wrote a screenplay for a legal thriller. When producer Steven Bochco was looking for writers with a legal background for L.A. Law, someone showed him Kelley’s script (which eventually became the feature From the Hip), and Kelley wound up being hired as a writer and story editor for the series. Kelley later moved up to become an executive producer on the series, and won five Emmys as either a producer or writer during his tenure. In 1989, he created his first series (with Bochco as co-creator), about a teenage medical prodigy, Doogie Howser, M.D. For the next two decades, at least one series created by Kelley was on the prime-time schedule every year. Given his background, it’s no surprise that a number of them were centered around lawyers, including the legal drama The Practice and its spinoff series Boston Legal, and the more comic Ally McBeal. He also created the acclaimed small-town drama Picket Fences, the medical drama Chicago Hope, and Boston Public, set in a Boston-area high school.


Kelley seemed to hit a creative dry patch around 2008. His projects for nearly a decade fell into two categories—series which were canceled after one season or less, like Monday Morning or The Crazy Ones, and those that were not picked up at all, like his proposed Wonder Woman series. But he has rebounded in the past two years with three successes. Most-acclaimed has been Big Little Lies, the HBO miniseries (albeit one returning for a second season) which cleaned up at the Emmys last year, with eight wins, including one for Kelley as a producer (his eleventh). Goliath, an Amazon series, and Mr. Mercedes, aired by the Audience Network, have also been well-received and been renewed for second seasons. Kelley and actress Michelle Pfeiffer have been married for nearly 25 years.

Robert Downey, Jr., turns 53 today. He returned to the role of Iron Man/Tony Stark for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and will put on the suit for the eighth time in this year’s Avengers: Infinity War. He is also scheduled to star in the title role of Stephen Gaghan’s upcoming The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle.