The Early Years
My first "real job" in Hollywood was as one of the fabled "boys in the mailroom" at Aaron Spelling Productions. We were on the 20th Century Fox lot at that time, and my job was to travel the studio in a golf cart, picking up and delivering mail.
I was taken with the technical magic of motion picture and television production:
- the special effects department, hidden in basement of the sound stage;
- the sound department, with its giant 35mm "mag" recording machines;
- the dusty old sound stages with their moveable scenery "flats".
I almost lost my job because of my fascination with studio-as-illusion-factory, but gained redemption by selling my "spec" teleplay to the company while still in the mailroom.
I'm not sure who first said that if Shakespeare were alive today he would be writing for television, but we certainly believe it's true.
