Larry Gelbart
Larry Gelbart
Lawrence Simon "Larry" Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author, most famous as a creator and producer of the record-breaking hit TV show M*A*S*H...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth25 February 1928
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
writing california southern
I know one thing - very few writers in Southern California get to write what they want to write. We are more or less worker ants, working for either film companies or tv companies or Internet companies. We do a lot of assigned work. Feelings hardly ever enter into it. If they do, they tend to be on a sort of soap opera level.
real television honest
Reality television is less honest than YouTube. YouTube is the real reality.
stars mean thinking
I don't think you can name a good picture where the production or the possible promotion isn't "cast-contingent." That means the film needs not just star power but star box office power.
mean technology thinking
I think technology is such that we can reach new heights but we need some of the basics of the pre-technological age. It's counter-productive to be able to type a hundred words a minute but not know what the words mean.
home differences example
The subtle differences in language and humor that get lost in translation, for example, make it almost impossible for big companies to do something that will appeal at home and abroad.
writing make-happy ridiculous
You can write something that has continuity, but it makes happy endings all the more ridiculous.
thinking wind people
I think it makes people frustrated when they have to live their actual lives commercial free and they can't just magically wind up at the part with the happy ending.
writing thinking numbers
I write what I write and I honestly don't care if it gets on or not. I'm writing to see if I can find out some of what I think about any number of situations. I work it out in the writing.
legs firsts belief
Contrary to popular belief, it's not the legs that go first; it's remembering the word for legs.
television vaudeville boxes
If vaudeville had died, television was the box they put it in.
humor sense-of-humor good-sense-of-humor
One doesn't have a sense of humor. It has you.
writing play two
I love to play with language; make it do tricks, turn a word inside out to see if it's got a hidden meaning tucked away somewhere, or perhaps find that it's capable of an extra entendre or two. . . . Plotting is nothing I did, or do, naturally. It is the hardest part of the writing process. No matter how many times you plot a script successfully, the next one, representing new and uncharted territory, convinces you that you really don't know how to do it at all.
writing easy hopefully
I refuse to do anything easy. I'm writing for the smartest person out there. I'm not equating myself with the smartest person out there, but hopefully I'm writing to say you're not alone. I'm not alone. We're not alone.
exercise thinking imagination
I think the greatest imagination we can exercise is one that imagines how someone else feels. Because you know how you feel, but so often we attribute our own feelings on to someone else.