Not All Fine Writers Are Literati

Tucson Weather Today

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179 pounds

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Do you remember a writer by the name of Larry Gelbart?

Remember M*A*S*H?

Larry Gelbart began as a writer at the age of sixteen for Danny Thomas's radio show after his father, who was Thomas's barber, showed Thomas some jokes Gelbart had written. During the 1940s Gelbart also wrote for Jack Paar and Bob Hope. In the 1950s, his most important work in television involved writing for Red Buttons, Sid Caesar on Caesar's Hour, in Celeste Holm's Honestly, Celeste!, as well as with writers Mel Tolkin, Michael Stewart, Selma Diamond, Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Woody Allen.

In 1972, Gelbart was one of the main forces behind the creation of the television series M*A*S*H, writing the pilot (for which he received a "Developed for Television by..." credit) and then producing, often writing and occasionally directing the series for its first four seasons (1972–1976). M*A*S*H earned Gelbart a Peabody Award and an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and went on to considerable commercial and critical success.
--Wikipedia entry for Larry Gelbart

Larry Gelbart interview


Another extremely talented writer:

Stephen Joseph Cannell (Feb 5, 1941 - Sept 30, 2010) was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

After college, Cannell sold his first script to the Universal series It Takes a Thief in 1968. He was quickly hired by the television production branch of Universal Studios and was soon freelance writing for such other crime shows as Ironside and Columbo. Not long afterward, he received his first full-time gig as the story editor of Jack Webb's police series Adam-12.

Cannell created or co-created nearly 40 television series, mostly crime dramas, including The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Hardcastle and McCormick, Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street, Silk Stalkings, and The Commish. In the process he had, by his own count, scripted more than 450 episodes, and produced or executive produced over 1,500 episodes.

In the 2000s, Cannell turned his attention to novels. As of 2008, he had written 14, half of which featured the character of detective Shane Scully of the Los Angeles Police Department..

Some of his novels were The Plan (1996) Final Victim (1997) King Con (1998) Riding the Snake (1999) The Devil's Workshop (2000) Runaway Heart (2003) and At First Sight (200I)

I have a copy of Cannell's novel King Con which I plan to start reading after I finish John Grishim's The Racketeer which I now have opened on my Kiindle.

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At THE DAILY DISH a few moments ago, I read:

Do children have the right to die?

A reader feels that Belgium is moving in the right direction to legalize euthanasia for terminally-ill kids: "I don’t see why we should force a child to suffer when death is imminent in the short term, the child wants to die, the parents consent, and the doctors are in agreement. I think people in the US need to be much more rational and realistic about these things."

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Did You Know . . .?

Celebrated British military surgeon James Barry was found to be a woman on his death.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1915, The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle was published in novel form. Sherlock Holmes had been a popular character since he first appeared in the story "A Study in Scarlet," published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887. The thin, highly strung detective with extraordinary deductive powers was modeled partly on Dr. Joseph Bell, a medical school teacher at the University of Edinburgh, where Holmes' creator studied.

Conan Doyle created Holmes while practicing medicine in London. Starting in 1891, a series of Holmes stories appeared in The Strand magazine. Holmes' success enabled Doyle to devote himself to writing, but the author soon grew weary of his creation. In The Final Problem, he appeared to kill off both Holmes and his nemesis, Dr. Moriarty, only to resuscitate Holmes later due to popular demand.

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WORD FOR TODAY

literati
noun
persons of scholarly or literary attainments; intellectuals.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Howard Hesseman

(born February 27, 1940)

Howard Hesseman is an American actor best known for playing disc jockey Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and schoolteacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class.

Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor

(Feb 27, 1932 - Mar 23, 2011)

Elizabeth Taylor was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. National Velvet (1944) was Taylor's first success, and she starred in Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Butterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963), and married her costar Richard Burton. They appeared together in 11 films, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won a second Academy Award.

Joanne Woodward

(born February 27, 1930)

Joanne Woodward is an American actress and producer. She is perhaps best known for her Academy Award-winning role in The Three Faces of Eve (1957). She married in actor Paul Newman in 1958 after their work together in the film The Long, Hot Summer.

Chelsea Victoria Clinton

(born February 27, 1980)

Chelsea Clinton is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is a special correspondent for NBC News and works with the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative.

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"Writers, I suppose, are like children imagining."
--Mavis Gallant

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