Also, Ian Fleming actually had a hand in the creation of "The Man From UNCLE." When some kind of contract conflict came up, Fleming basically signed away any claims to the work so far, allowing the project to proceed without him.
In Goldfinger, one of the hoods that Mr. Goldfinger gasses was named "Mr. Solo"... The Man from UNCLE was going to be called "Solo", but that was one of the conflicts. Ian Fleming sold his contributions to the MFU for $1.00.
Joseph Heller was briefly a jobbing comedy writer. His TV and movie work does not approach the ferocious genius of his great books. (I was lucky enough to meet him and have time alone with him, many years ago. It probably helped that I worshipped him.)
Heller gave a lecture to my English class when I was at Stuyvesant High School in New York back in the 1970s. By that time I was both aware he had done a script for McHale's Navy and the fact Heller was pretty disdainful of having had to do a script for McHale's Navy to pay the bills, just prior to the release of "Catch 22". So discretion was the better part of not getting on the wrong side of my English teacher (some guy named Frank McCourt) in not asking Heller -- who was mainly there to talk about his new novel -- what it was like to write for Tim Conway.
(Though as I mentioned a few days ago, the first season of McHale's Navy, especially the first dozen or so episodes, really aren't that bad, and downplay the Conway-Flynn slapstick in favor of the writing. Heller's episode doesn't have any heavy moments, but it's not much different than an early Season 1 episode of MASH, when CBS was pushing Larry Gelbart not to do any serious plot lines.)
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More to the point, Ken...he co-wrote the screenplay for SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL
Also, Ian Fleming actually had a hand in the creation of "The Man From UNCLE." When some kind of contract conflict came up, Fleming basically signed away any claims to the work so far, allowing the project to proceed without him.
In Goldfinger, one of the hoods that Mr. Goldfinger gasses was named "Mr. Solo"... The Man from UNCLE was going to be called "Solo", but that was one of the conflicts. Ian Fleming sold his contributions to the MFU for $1.00.
I'm a geek.
Joseph Heller was briefly a jobbing comedy writer. His TV and movie work does not approach the ferocious genius of his great books. (I was lucky enough to meet him and have time alone with him, many years ago. It probably helped that I worshipped him.)
Heller gave a lecture to my English class when I was at Stuyvesant High School in New York back in the 1970s. By that time I was both aware he had done a script for McHale's Navy and the fact Heller was pretty disdainful of having had to do a script for McHale's Navy to pay the bills, just prior to the release of "Catch 22". So discretion was the better part of not getting on the wrong side of my English teacher (some guy named Frank McCourt) in not asking Heller -- who was mainly there to talk about his new novel -- what it was like to write for Tim Conway.
(Though as I mentioned a few days ago, the first season of McHale's Navy, especially the first dozen or so episodes, really aren't that bad, and downplay the Conway-Flynn slapstick in favor of the writing. Heller's episode doesn't have any heavy moments, but it's not much different than an early Season 1 episode of MASH, when CBS was pushing Larry Gelbart not to do any serious plot lines.)
Herman Wouk once was a comedy writer for Fred Allen.
Hey...Robert Bloch (PSYCHO) wrote three episodes of the original STAR TREK.
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