Who on earth would have guessed that James Brown would lose his title “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” to a Wonderbread boy from Waterville, Maine?

Tall, dark-haired, and full of drive, TV mogul David Kelley, 44, is creator and screenwriter of Ally McBeal, The Practice, Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, and Boston Public. Leaving Waterville at 6 when dad Jack Kelley, then coach of Colby College’s hockey team, was named coach at B.U. (Jack went on to become G.M. of the Hartford Whalers), David kept his connection with Maine when “in 1969 my whole family begged me to purchase Camp Kelley here on East Pond, part of the Belgrade Lakes,” says Jack. A hockey star himself as captain of Princeton’s team, David spent at least one Maine summer working for the local Budweiser distributor.” After graduating in 1979, “he went overseas and played in the Elite League of Switzerland, where his team won the league title. He was drafted 8th or 9th in the WHA draft” when he was accepted into B.U. Law School (graduating in 1983),” so two possible careers beckoned when he chose the law.

According to Television Cities, David “practiced law in Boston for 3 years at Fine & Ambrogne before getting his big break, when he caught Steven Bochco’s attention with a script he’d written that would later be produced as From The Hip, starring Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, and John Hurt.” Invited to submit a script for L.A. Law, David so impressed creators Bochco and Terry Louise Fischer that he was hired as a story editor. By 1989, with Bochco’s departure, David had become executive producer, writing all the episodes. Then, teaming up with Bochco, Kelley created Doogie Howser, M.D., followed by solo creations of the award-winning Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, and The Practice. In 1993, he married actress Michelle Pfeiffer; they have two children, Claudie Rose Kelley, 7, and John Henry Kelley, 6. “When he’s here, he never misses going to his favorite stop, Bailey’s Hot Dogs,” Jack laughs. “He comes every summer a week or so with his family. Michelle loves it here. She and the kids came up for a visit in early June and stayed 10 days.” “I love Oakland,” David tells us. “Our family comes to Maine to be with family. Once I’m at the Pond, I like to go fishing.” Beyond Boston Public, David’s newest effort is the screenplay for Pond Rules, an upcoming film starring Burt Reynolds.