cover image Prime-Time Authorship: Works about and by Three TV Dramatists

Prime-Time Authorship: Works about and by Three TV Dramatists

Douglas Heil. Syracuse University Press, $19.95 (467pp) ISBN 978-0-8156-2879-8

Aspiring TV writers will find practical insight via studies of Marion Hargrove (Maverick; The Waltons), Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething) and Michael Kozoll (Hill Street Blues), complete with sample scripts, in Prime-Time Authorship: Works About and by Three TV Dramatists by Douglas Heil (writer and producer of the film The Story of the Cat). Pointing to recent shows like Xena: Warrior Princess, The Sopranos and La Femme Nikita that have revitalized the dramatic genre, he posits that ""auterism"" as it exists in film ""the notion that a motion picture can embody the intentions and sensibility of a single person"" can likewise surface in TV writing. ( July)