By the time 1999 rolled around, David E. Kelley had already more than proven his bonafides as a megaproducer and an Emmy dynamo nearly without peer. He had already won five statuettes as a producer for Best Drama Series – three for “L.A. Law” (1989, ’90 and ’91) and two more for “Picket Fences” (1993 and ’94) – as well as another pair for writing Emmys for “L.A. Law” (’90 and ’91). Oh, and there was also a 1998 Best Drama win for “The Practice,” giving him six trophies for top series and eight Emmys overall. Not too shabby. In fact, his run of winning Best Drama five times in six years had never happened. The closest anyone came was Kelley’s mentor Steven Bochco’s run of four straight for “Hill Street Blues” in the early 1980s.
And still, even with all of that, the best was yet to come for Kelley.
In ’99, the producer was coming off his “Practice” win the year before and found himself in the middle of an embarrassment of riches. “The Practice” and his second-year hourlong comedy series “Ally McBeal” received 13 nominations apiece. Kelley was himself honored with three bids: for Best Comedy Series, Best Drama Series, and Best Writing on a Comedy for an installment of “Ally McBeal.”
But the truth is that his incredible track record notwithstanding, he wasn’t favored to win either of the top series Emmys. In comedy, the nominees were “Ally,” “Frasier,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Sex and the City” and “Friends,” a formidable a group as there has been in recent memory. “Frasier” was coming off five straight wins in the category, and it wasn’t unreasonable to expect it would make it a record sixth. But when presenter Jay Leno opened the envelope, “Ally McBeal” was the one he read.
An ebullient Kelley bounded up to the stage and graciously passed all of the credit over to his star. “If someone were going to ask me the fastest or best way to win an Emmy,” he said, “I’d say, ‘Write a script and get Calista Flockhart to say the words’.”
The odds against “The Practice” taking the drama prize for a second consecutive year seemed even greater, nominated against “NYPD Blue,” “ER,” “Law & Order” ad a first-year juggernaut called “The Sopranos” (which was the heavy favorite). However, “Sopranos” would have to wait five more years before claiming its first series prize in 2004 and would win a second in its final season (2007). But 1999 improbably belonged to Kelley and “The Practice,” and the double win by a single producer in the same Emmy year remains an unmatched feat.
Kelley would win one more series Emmy as an executive producer, in limited in 2017 for “Big Little Lies.” That gave him a whopping nine Emmy series wins in all and 11 triumphs overall, one more than Bochco, the man who gave Kelley his original shot on “L.A. Law” and helped guide his career. The student clearly learned well.
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