David E. Kelley at 70: Still Chasing the ‘Scream Inside’
On 40 years in TV, Michelle Pfeiffer and his warning that ‘executives are not letting storytellers be storytellers.’ Plus: two new projects revealed
I wrote about the Pitt casting controversy, what’s taking Peter Friedlander so long to set TV strategy at Amazon, why Netflix is buying so many shows, Dana Walden’s Disney TV re-org and who slayed the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot. I’m lesley.goldberg@theankler.com
It’s a milestone year for David E. Kelley.
The prolific producer, who turned 70 on April 4, is marking his 40th year in the television industry by working — for the first time — with his wife of more than three decades, Michelle Pfeiffer, on Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
Launching April 15, the highly anticipated dramedy stars Elle Fanning as a young woman who turns to her former pro-wrestler father (Nick Offerman) for advice on launching an OnlyFans after an affair with her college professor ends badly. Pfeiffer plays her mother. The project sparked a bidding war for the rights to Rufi Thorpe’s New York Times bestseller, ultimately landing at A24 and Apple.
Margo marks Kelley’s third show at Apple TV, joining the recently ordered adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities — his second take on a Tom Wolfe title after the disappointing Netflix limited series A Man in Full — and anthology Presumed Innocent. Margo is also the latest book adaptation for Kelley, who, starting with Big Little Lies, embraced developing other people’s work (Lies’ third season, based on a follow-up novel by Liane Moriarty publishing in August, is expected to film this fall). The HBO drama marked a new chapter in a storied career that included Emmy-winning originals Ally McBeal, The Practice and Picket Fences.
Having spent the past decade making shows for everyone from Amazon, ABC, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix and Peacock, he suggests always going with the buyer who has the most “zeal” for the material rather than the biggest payday. “It’s folly for any writer, producer or studio to just chase the best financial model because that’s not always going to carry the day,” says Kelley, who set up Margo with Apple after comparable offers elsewhere.
After he moved from his native Boston to L.A. in the mid-’80s, Kelley’s first screenplay — 1987’s From the Hip — garnered the attention of Steven Bochco and landed him a job working on NBC’s L.A. Law, where he would eventually rise to showrunner. Speaking from L.A., where he and Pfeiffer raised their two grown children, he gets candid about the state of the industry — from consolidation to the recent WGA deal — and how his five-person company is navigating a rapidly changing industry.
Also today:
Exclusive intel about a new HBO series he’s developing and a Hulu unscripted project — an uncharted genre for his company
Kelley’s secret for career longevity and the “scream inside” that drives him
How aggressive he’s getting in the superheated book market
His multi-season plan for Margo — and why it was one of his easiest projects ever
How the success of The Pitt and the elevated procedural is impacting his own development
His take on the possible Paramount-Warner merger and working at HBO under David Ellison
Legacy executives’ edge over their streaming counterparts
His unvarnished thoughts on: reboots, algorithms, the need for “town criers” in Hollywood and Disney’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel