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Creating Primetime: Interviews with TV Showrunners of the 1950s-1980s
Paperback
Series: Lee Goldberg's Television Books, Book 4
ISBN13: 9781970848250
Publisher: Cutting Edge Books
Published: Sep 7 2026
Pages: 148
Weight: 0.39
Height: 0.34 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Before Lee Goldberg became a television writer-producer, he went looking for the people who knew how great television was made.
In CREATING PRIMETIME, Goldberg sits down with the legendary writers, producers, and creators who built some of the most enduring series of the 1950s through the 1980s. Stephen J. Cannell, Steven Bochco, Roy Huggins, Sherwood Schwartz, Kenneth Johnson, Michael Landon, Sam Rolfe, Rockne S. O'Bannon, and others discuss the art and business of creating television: developing characters, breaking stories, battling networks, surviving cancellation, reviving beloved shows, and keeping a series alive week after week.
These interviews capture television at a pivotal moment, when the showrunner was becoming the central creative force behind a series but the job had not yet become a household term. They also document Goldberg's own apprenticeship in making television. As a young journalist, he asked the questions of someone determined to learn the craft. Years later, he would apply those lessons as a writer and producer on series including Hunter, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, and many others.
CREATING PRIMETIME is an inside look at how classic television was conceived, written, produced-and fought for-by the people who made it happen.
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