Few screenwriters can concentrate for more than a few hours, let alone sustain a career in Hollywood for over 30 years. But the blockbuster comedy writing team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel has been making film and television audiences laugh for decades. In the early 70s, Ganz was writing for The Odd Couple while Mandel was receiving his first paychecks for work on M*A*S*H and Busting Loose. They both eventually landed on Happy Days, and when they followed actor-turned-director Ron Howard into feature films, the result was a frequent and fruitful creative partnership.Listen in as these Bronx-born, old-school funnymen explain the inspiring pleasures of The Dick Van Dyke Show, how to sucker-punch viewers with jokes they never see coming, why writing out loud is the best way to find your voice, how to avoid research, and when to build a scene around a housewife with an axe.
Your Host: Producer Mike De Luca is responsible for some of the most groundbreaking films of the last 15 years. After enrolling in New York University's film studies program at 17, De Luca dropped out four credits shy of graduation to take an unpaid internship at New Line Cinema. He advanced quickly there under the tutelage of founder Robert Shaye and eventually became president of production. The Mask (1994), Se7en (1995), Boogie Nights (1997), Dark City (1998), Pleasantville (1998), and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) were all released under his supervision. In 2003, De Luca left New Line to become president of production at DreamWorks. After a brief tenure there, he left and signed a deal with Sony Pictures, where he produced Zathura (2005) and Ghost Rider (2006). A writer as well, De Luca wrote the screenplays for Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994).
