Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 18 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2023.
Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter, director and author, most famous as a creator and producer of the television series M*A*S*H, and as co-writer of the Broadway musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and City of Angels.
George Burns was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer, and one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century. He and his wife Gracie Allen appeared on radio, television and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen.
Carl Reiner was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999.
The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Herbert Ross, written by Neil Simon and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings and Paul Benedict. The film, produced by Ray Stark, centers on an odd trio of characters: a struggling actor who has sublet a Manhattan apartment from a friend, the current occupant, and her precocious young daughter.
My Favorite Year is a 1982 American comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo from a story written by Palumbo. The film tells the story of a young comedy writer and stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, and Joseph Bologna. O'Toole was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was adapted into an unsuccessful 1992 Broadway musical of the same name.
The Cable Guy is a 1996 American black comedy psychological thriller film directed by Ben Stiller, written by Lou Holtz Jr. and starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. It was released in the United States on June 14, 1996. The film co-stars Leslie Mann, Jack Black, George Segal, Diane Baker, Eric Roberts, Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, David Cross, Andy Dick, Ben Stiller, and Bob Odenkirk.
North is a 1994 American comedy-drama adventure film directed by Rob Reiner. The story is based on the 1984 novel North: The Tale of a 9-Year-Old Boy Who Becomes a Free Agent and Travels the World in Search of the Perfect Parents by Alan Zweibel, who wrote the screenplay and has a minor role in the film.
Moonlighting is a 1982 British drama film written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. It is set in the early 1980s at the time of the Solidarity protests in Poland. It stars Jeremy Irons as Nowak, a Polish builder leading a team working illegally in London.
Jerome Charles "Jerry" Weintraub was an American film producer, talent manager and actor whose television films won him three Emmys.
Back to the Beach is a 1987 American comedy film starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, directed by Lyndall Hobbs. The original music score is composed by Steve Dorff. The film generated a total domestic gross of $13,110,903. It received a "two thumbs up" rating from Siskel and Ebert, who compared it favorably to Grease.
Wholly Moses! is a 1980 American Biblical spoof film written by Guy Thomas and directed by Gary Weis. Dudley Moore plays Old Testament-era idol maker Herschel, whose life and adventures seem to parallel that of the more famous Moses, all the while being misled to think he is the prophet of God. The film also stars Laraine Newman, James Coco, Paul Sand, Jack Gilford, Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, David Lander, Richard Pryor, and John Ritter.
Mad Dog Time is a 1996 American ensemble crime comedy film written and directed by Larry Bishop and starring Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeff Goldblum and Diane Lane. The film is notable for the various cameo appearances, including the first, and final film appearance by Christopher Jones in over a quarter-century.
Dear God is a 1996 American comedy film distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Garry Marshall and starring Greg Kinnear and Laurie Metcalf.
Where's Poppa? is a 1970 American black comedy film based on the 1970 novel by Robert Klane and starring George Segal, Ruth Gordon, Ron Leibman, and Trish Van Devere. The plot revolves around the troubled relationship between a lawyer (Segal) and his senile mother (Gordon), who keeps interfering with his love life. The film was directed by Carl Reiner, whose son Rob Reiner had a role in an early performance. Others in the cast include Paul Sorvino, Rae Allen, Vincent Gardenia and Garrett Morris. The film was re-released in 1975, under the title Going Ape, and maintains a cult following.
Mel Tolkin was a television comedy writer best known as head writer of the live sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows during the Golden Age of Television. There he presided over a staff that at times included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Danny Simon. The writers' room inspired the film My Favorite Year (1982), produced by Brooks, and the Broadway play Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993), written by Neil Simon.
Oh, God! You Devil is a 1984 American comedy film starring George Burns, Ted Wass, Ron Silver and Roxanne Hart. Directed by Paul Bogart and produced by Robert M. Sherman, the screenplay is by Andrew Bergman. Oh, God! You Devil is the third and final installment in the Oh, God! film series, following Oh, God! (1977) and Oh, God! Book II (1980), based on the 1971 novel of the same title by Avery Corman.
Agnes of God is a 1985 American neo-noir mystery film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft and Meg Tilly. It was written by John Pielmeier, based on his 1979 play of the same name. The plot is about a novice nun (Tilly) who gives birth and insists that the dead child was the result of a virginal conception. A psychiatrist (Fonda) and the mother superior (Bancroft) of the convent clash during the resulting investigation.
Sheldon Bernard "Shelly" Keller was an American screenwriter and composer.
Robert Klane was an American screenwriter, novelist and filmmaker, best known for early iconoclastic novels and for his screenplays for dark comedies such as Where's Poppa? (1970) and Weekend at Bernie's (1989).
