TELEVISION A LITTLE ABOUT MY TV CAREER I've been writing for TV since the late fifties up until the early-nineties. I've done comedy series, variety shows, specials and pilots. I honestly can't remember all of the shows I wrote. Some of them I probably want to forget. Not everything was that wonderful. But for the most part I really had a pretty nice time and fortunately worked with some very nice people so I don't have too many television horror stories. I loved working with Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Jim Nabors, Alan King, the Smothers Brothers and Tim Conway. It was much easier being a writer in the early days of television because there wasn't the big money involved in a show like there is now. There were less people to deal with and most of the stuff you wrote got on the air with very little rewriting. There were only three networks and the ratings for a show were much higher. Strangely enough, there were more people watching a flop show at that time then there are seeing a hit show today. As more fortunes seemed to be at stake, the environment began to change. More people became involved with notes and opinions and insecurities and when your script finally showed up on the air there was hardly anything left of it. On one of the last shows I worked on, the scripts were sent to rewriters before the producers read them. I knew then that it was time to leave television writing. Listed below are just a few of the many shows I worked on. Alan King Special - The Wonderful World Of Aggravation The Andy Griffith Show Bewitched The Bill Dana Show Captain Kangaroo The Diana Rigg Show The Don Ho Summer Show The Flinstones Get Smart Gomer Pyle, USMC Good Morning World The Hero The Kraft Music Hall Mary Tyler Moore Special On Our Own The Paul Lynde Show Saved By The Bell The Smother's Brother's Comedy Hour Tim Conway Comedy Hour |