5. J.J. Abrams

Breakthrough Series: "Felicity"

Defining Show: "Lost"

Other Career Highlights: "Alias"

Signature Style: Keep the audience guessing with murky conspiracies and unfathomable mysteries

J.J. Abrams delivered the fledgling WB network its defining series with the youth-skewing "Felicity," about a small-town girl in a big-city college, but he found his true calling with the high-concept conspiracy spy thriller "Alias." As sexy as it is silly, the adrenaline-powered show mixes high-tech espionage and ancient prophecy with adrenaline-boosted plots laced with double dealing and triple agents, a recipe he perfected with the addictive "Lost," the high-concept survival adventure with supernatural echoes, conspiratorial hints and more mysteries than the complete works of Agatha Christie. Whether Abrams and his collaborators have the show intricately and exactingly mapped out, or they're just improvising their way through the seasons, it's the most tantalizing and enigmatic puzzle on TV.

4. David E. Kelley

Breakthrough Series: "Picket Fences"

Defining Show: "Ally McBeal"

Other Career Highlights: "L.A. Law," "Doogie Howser, M.D.," "Chicago Hope," "The Practice," "Boston Public," "Boston Legal"

Signature Style: Eccentric story twists and colorful characters with quirks aplenty

The Boston lawyer-turned-screenwriter cut his TV chops on Steven Bochco's "L.A. Law" and "Doogie Howser, M.D.," but it was with "Picket Fences" that David E. Kelley found his own cracked voice. The small-town drama where no crime is too bizarre has an oddball sense of humor and whimsy that defines the Kelley touch, from "Chicago Hope" to his current "Boston Legal," with "Ally McBeal" standing as its definitive expression. The prolific Kelley has a history of spreading himself too thin and his shows have a history of wobbling out of control when he shifts attention to a new series, but when he's on his game there are few shows as entertaining as his creations.

3. Steven Bochco

Breakthrough Series: "Hill Street Blues"

Defining Show: "NYPD Blue"

Other Career Highlights: "Paris," "Delvecchio," "L.A. Law," "Hooperman," "Cop Rock," "Murder One," "Over There"

Signature Style: Weaving multiple story lines through multi-episode arcs

Steven Bochco began his career scripting venerable shows such as "Columbo" and "Ironside," and his work as a producer was in the same vein until "Hill Street Blues." The ensemble serial set in an unidentified inner-city precinct practically revolutionized the cop drama. The handheld camerawork gave it a documentary look and feel unlike anything on TV at time, and its bustling ensemble cast, dynamic street culture and long-running dramatic arcs are almost as fresh 25 years later. In addition to subsequent hits such as "L.A. Law" and "Doogie Howser, M.D.," Bochco gets points for creativity for the offbeat crime dramedy "Hooperman" and the one-of-a-kind "Cop Rock," TV's first and only crime show in song.

2. Norman Lear

Breakthrough Series: "All in the Family"

Defining Show: "All in the Family"

Other Career Highlights: "Sanford and Son," "Maude," "The Jeffersons," "Good Times," "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," "Palmerstown, U.S.A."

Signature Style: Morality, social justice and politics served up with a punch line

Norman Lear brought controversy into the sitcom with "All in the Family," a comedy where bigoted blue-collar father doesn't know best, mother is a daffy but good-hearted dingbat and their little girl is a liberated liberal married to a college intellectual constantly bickering with dear old dad over politics, racism, chauvinism, hypocrisy and other favorites from the American Dream. Television was never the same again, especially when Lear had his way with spin-offs such as "Maude," "The Jeffersons" and "Good Times," which dared address an America of crime, unemployment and poverty. Lear helped turn the '70s into the golden age of the American sitcom, but what is less heralded and perhaps more revolutionary, he put black actors and stories on TV more than any other producer in the '70s ... or since.

1. David Simon

Breakthrough Series: "Homicide: Life on the Street"

Defining Show: "The Wire"

Other Career Highlights: "The Corner"

Signature Style: Like the title says: life on the streets

This former Baltimore Sun crime reporter got his first taste of TV when his book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" was transformed into the acclaimed series by Paul Attanasio. Set amidst the bickering camaraderie of a Baltimore homicide squad, "Homicide" was a new slant on the old cop show, confronting issues of job stress and internal politics while solving cases on the mean streets. Simon's HBO miniseries "The Corner," a lucid and painfully human portrait of a drug-dominated corner in the Baltimore slums, focused on the other side the street, and his brilliant, criminally underwatched "The Wire" straddles both sides of the badge as it maps out the power structures and the mundane realities of both sides of the law with the richness, depth and complexity of a Dickens epic. You won't find anything more intelligent, fearless or daring on television.

As with any list, there are runners-up that would have placed but for limited space and the vagaries of personal taste: Steven J. Cannell, whose career runs the gamut from "The A-Team" to TV treasures such as "The Rockford Files" and "Wiseguy"; Chris Carter, who transformed the quirky conspiracy sci-fantasy "The X-Files" into a pop-culture phenomenon; and the producing teams of Joshua Brand and John Falsey ("St. Elsewhere," "Northern Exposure," "I'll Fly Away") and Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz ("Family," "thirtysomething," "My So-Called Life"). And given a little seasoning and a few more shows under their belt, such up-and-comers Denis Leary and Peter Tolan ("Rescue Me") and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") could earn their spot on the list.

And finally, let us acknowledge the creative force of Rod Serling. This class act of television writing created some of the greatest telefilms and imaginative programs in the history of the format, but he produced only one series in his career -- the original, still unmatched anthology show "The Twilight Zone" -- and the title was largely honorific, much to Serling's frustration. TV might have been a better place -- at least a more creative one -- had the networks entrusted Serling to produce the shows that bore his name, rather than simply write and host.