He works hard at fleshing out his characters

PASADENA, Calif. -- Slouching in a blazer and tan slacks, his prematurely graying mane tending toward unkempt and a boyish grin occasionally playing across his face, David E. Kelley doesn't look like the hardest working man in television.

But Kelley, creator of Ally McBeal, The Practice and Chicago Hope, is a legend. Last season, he wrote more than 50 hours of scripts, all of it in long hand with a Parker pen on legal pads. Other writers, armed with word processors, buckle under the pressure of producing more than six scripts a year.

This season, Kelley -- who also was the primary writer on L.A. Law and creator of Picket Fences -- will try to burnish the legend.

In addition to continuing to write Ally McBeal and The Practice, he'll take the helm once again of an ailing Chicago Hope, create a half-hour version of Ally McBeal using outtakes and reruns, and launch an hourlong detective series called Snoops for ABC.

``It's really not that complicated,'' Kelley says. ``One day, I'm writing The Practice, and the next day I'm writing Ally McBeal, and I find time within those days to read scripts on the other shows and give my notes.''

It's not that easy, says Jeffrey Kramer, Kelley's executive producer.

``Don't let him fool you,'' says Kramer. ``There's no one else in this town who could do what David does and maintain the quality.''

Demanding work

Roger Kumble, who wrote the film Cruel Intentions and will be bringing a TV version to Fox this fall under the title of Manchester Prep, says the workload of producing just a single hourlong television drama is crushing.

``All my time is spent writing the stories . . . I'm not David Kelley,'' he says.

Kelley's prolific nature has landed him in a highly unusual position: Two of his shows, Snoops and The Practice, will anchor two hours of ABC's Sunday night lineup.

It's a mixed blessing.

If Snoops, which will air at 9, is a hit, then the networks may have to erect a statue to Kelley in Hollywood. No other producer/writer has had four successful one-hour shows on three different networks in a single season.

If Snoops fails, then it could diminish the number of viewers who will tune in at 10 for Kelley's Emmy-winning The Practice and hand Kelley his first serious career setback.

``It's exciting to have two shows back-to-back,'' Kelley says. ``I can tell you that all the people at The Practice are sort of peeking over the Snoops pages to see what their lead-in is going to be like.''

Snoops, like many of Kelley's shows, is hardly conventional. It's about a Santa Monica private detective agency run by women who often use illegal means to help their clients. It stars Gina Gershon (Showgirls) as Glenn Hall, who founded the high-tech detective agency; Paula Marshall (Cupid), as former homicide detective Dana Plant who joins the firm as Hall's partner; and Paula Jai Parker (Why Do Fools Fall in Love) as undercover agent Roberta Young.

The look of the show is very distinctive, with a lot of pan-action, high-speed segues and extremely colorful sets. The dialogue in the pilot reflects Kelley's ability to write women characters really well.

But the pilot shown at the Television Critics Association meeting also had the feel of a work in progress. It concentrated too much on high-tech gadgets and not enough on character development. It wasn't up to Kelley's standards.

Allan Arkush, who will be co-executive producer, says Kelley is a slave to perfection and that will be reflected when the show debuts in September.

``There's a sensibility of what we can do to keep improving,'' he says. ``It's never `Let's stand pat.' ''

So far, Kelley has written three episodes of Snoops, but he plans to turn primary script responsibilities over to other writers -- something he hasn't done on Ally McBeal and The Practice.

``I don't think this show is nearly as idiosyncratic as the other shows, at least in terms of the characters,'' he says. ``So I don't think it's going to require my sensibility in writing the voices.

``Certainly, when I sat down to write Ally McBeal, I knew that this was kind of a weird cauldron of people, and it would be unfair of me to expect someone else to come in and grasp those voices right away.''

Lifesaver in the wings?

But should Snoops fail to live up to expectations, it's hard to imagine Kelley wouldn't step in to try to save it, much as he has done with Chicago Hope. When CBS was threatening cancellation last season, Kelley promised to take more direct control of the show he created and write new episodes. He brought back Mandy Patinkin as the contentious Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, fired half the cast, and hired Barbara Hershey and Lauren Holly for the new season.

Although it hasn't yet been shown to critics, word in Hollywood is that the season opener of Chicago Hope, which Kelley wrote, is riveting.

Ask Kelley what goes into being a successful TV writer, and he makes it seem so simple.

``You're really just kind of drawing on what interests you, and a little bit maybe of what you would like to watch if you sat down as the viewer,'' he says.

Of course, it also helps if you're David E. Kelley, the hardest working man in Hollywood.