Every big-name TV writer has a series that has come to define them. For Joss Whedon, it's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For Chris Carter, it's The X-Files. For Jed Mercurio, Line of Duty.
But every A-list telly scribe also has a show in their back catalogue that didn't quite hit as big as their most famous creation. Here are nine of TV's writing giants and their most forgotten series...
1. Chris Carter – Harsh Realm
Most famous for: The X-Files
Former surfing journo Chris Carter found himself a broadcasting golden boy after fathering The X-Files in the 1990s. One of the shiniest jewels in the FOX network's crown, it led to Carter co-creating a spin-off show, the one-season wonder The Lone Gunmen, as well as a shared-universe sister series, the sorely underrated Millennium.
But non-X-Files-related success would prove a harder capture, including this little-seen Matrix-style sci-fi series about humans trapped inside a virtual-reality simulation. Led by Samantha Mathis and a pre-Lost Terry O'Quinn, it lasted only three episodes before FOX canned it.
2. Gene Roddenberry – The Lieutenant
Most famous for: Star Trek
Centred on a young, idealistic US Marine, William Tiberius Rice (played by future 2001: A Space Odyssey star Gary Lockwood), The Lieutenant was soon-to-be Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's first network bullseye.
As vigorously moral-minded as his more famous show, only without the sci-fi trimmings, one episode concerning racism in the military (with Nichelle 'Uhura' Nichols) would prove so controversial that NBC yanked it from its schedule before it was ever broadcast. (It was finally screened nearly 30 years later on cable channel TNT).
Leonard 'Spock' Nimoy also appeared in one episode, while the show's lead shares a middle name with Trek's James Tiberius Kirk.
3. Steven Moffat – Chalk
Most famous for: Doctor Who, Sherlock
Although his TV break had come with the much-cherished kids' drama Press Gang, most of Steven Moffat's pre-Doctor Who TV life was in comedy. A critical darling, if not a ratings one, was the BBC Two sitcom Joking Apart, but his BBC One follow-up would prove less loved.
Set in a run-down comprehensive school, and centred around the ruthlessly snobby, catastrophically tactless and stupendously blundering Deputy Head Eric Slatt (David Bamber), it was compared – unfavourably, mind – to Fawlty Towers and was lambasted by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
Even Moffat himself claimed that, when the series was released on DVD, "no-one bought it", not even him.
4. Joss Whedon – Dollhouse
Most famous for: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly
Despite running for 12 episodes more than the tragically short-lived but considerably more acclaimed Firefly, Dollhouse remains Joss Whedon's least celebrated small-screen venture.
On paper, it had everything going for it. Here he was, with a brand spanking new fantasy series centred around a female lead (and not just any lead, but Eliza Dushku, who, as Faith, stole every Buffy episode she was in).
It should've been Buffy Mark 2, but even Whedon's most starry-eyed followers were lukewarm. Despite Whedon having mapped out a five-year plan for the series, it was binned after just two seasons.
5. Chris Chibnall – Born and Bred
Most famous for: Broadchurch
With Broadchurch finished, Chris Chibnall is now the big cheese on Doctor Who, overseeing the writing of Jodie Whittaker's first series, due towards the end of this year.
But 16 years ago, it was this cosy Sunday evening granny-favourite that was paying his mortgage. Co-created with Silent Witness's Nigel McCrery, BBC One's Born and Bred starred James Bolam and Michael French as a father and son who run a cottage hospital in the fictional village of Ormston in the 1950s (though they'd later leave the show, replaced by Richard Wilson and Oliver Milburn).
It lasted four controversy-free seasons, eventually coming to a full stop in 2005.
6. George RR Martin – Beauty and the Beast
Most famous for: Game of Thrones
A decade before his first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (which would later be adapted as Game of Thrones), GRRM was a jobbing TV writer, with credits on the revived Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
But his most lauded small-screen work was as head writer and producer on Beauty and the Beast, a romantically-skewed modern-day reworking of the 18th-century fairy tale. Starring a post-Terminator Linda Hamilton and pre-Hellboy Ron Perlman, Beauty and the Beast was a vital stepping stone for the then 39-year-old Martin.
"I think the experience I gained while working on Beauty and the Beast served me in good stead when I did later work," he told The Hollywood Reporter last year, "including Game of Thrones."
7. JJ Abrams – Felicity
Most famous for: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lost, Star Trek
A bigger deal Stateside than it ever was over here, Felicity now looks quite the oddity on the resume of Jeffrey Jacob Abrams. Whereas most of his small-screen ventures have one or two feet in the sci-fi genre, Felicity was (initially at least) a simple coming-of-age drama about a young girl (an impossibly sweet Keri Russell) fresh out of high school, who follows her crush (Scott Speedman) to the University of New York.
8. Aaron Sorkin – Sports Night
Most famous for: The West Wing
A year before he hit critical gold with The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin debuted this two-season comedy-drama about life – yes, you've got it – behind-the-scenes of a fictional sports news show.
Much like his later, post-West Wing talkathons Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Newsroom, it focused on the relationships and ethical dilemmas faced by the creative talent as they struggled to produce their programme in the face of knuckle-headed network pressure.
Despite being saddled with an epically inappropriate laugh track, there's much to love in this underrated entry in Sorkin's telly oeuvre, not least a blistering turn from the late Robert Guillaume as the gruff Pulitzer Prize-winner Isaac Jaffe.
