William Rabkin

Last updated
William Rabkin
Born
Alma mater University of Washington, UCLA
Occupation(s)Television producer
television writer and author
Years active1987–present

William Rabkin is an American television producer, television writer and author.

Contents

Early life

He did his undergraduate work at the University of Washington in Seattle, then attended UCLA, where he did his MFA in screenwriting and was a part of the Daily Bruin student newspaper. [1] [2]

Career

He has written for a number of notable television series namely Spenser: For Hire , Murphy's Law , Hunter , Baywatch , Diagnosis Murder , A Nero Wolfe Mystery , Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories , Monk and many other series.

Nearly all of his television work has been collaborations with fellow writer and producer Lee Goldberg, whom he met when they were both UCLA students working on Daily Bruin. They first teamed up as writers on the unmade, feature film adaptation of Goldberg's novel .357 Vigilante, beginning a professional partnership that lasted for twenty years. [3]

Rabkin is also the author of a number of tie-in companion novels for the Psych television series, [4] as well as the reference books Successful Television Writing (2003) (which he co-authored with Goldberg), Beginning Television Writing, (2010), [5] and Writing the Pilot (2011).

Teaching

He teaches screenwriting as part of the faculty at UC Riverside's Low-Residency Graduate Creative Writing Program in Palm Desert, California. [6] and is assistant director of the MFA program at Long Island University [7]

Personal life

His father was Norman Rabkin (1930-2012), [8] the Shakespearean scholar best known for his work Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning. [9] [10]

Bibliography

Filmography

YearTitleRole/Job# of Episodes Written/
Notes
1987–1988 Spenser For Hire Writer3 episodes, including the unsold spin-off pilot "Play It Again, Sammy"
1988 The Highwayman Writer1 episode, "Haunted Highway"
1988–1989Murphy's LawStaff Writer5 episodes, ABC TV series starring George Segal based on the "Trace" and "Digger" books by Warren Murphy
1989 Hunter Writer, Story Editor1 episode, "On Air"
1989–1990 Baywatch Writer, Executive Story Editor4 episodes, including the final NBC episode, entitled "The End," before the series went into first-run syndication
1990–1991 She-Wolf of London Writer, Supervising Producer11 episodes
1991–1992 Likely Suspects Writer, Supervising Producer5 episodes, including "Smells Like Teen Spirit," an Edgar Award Finalist for Best Teleplay
1993–1994 Cobra Writer, Supervising Producer7 episodes
1994–1995 Diagnosis: Murder Writer6 episodes
1995 The Cosby Mysteries Writer, Supervising Producer2 episodes
1995 Sliders Writer1 episodes, “Prince of Wails”
1995 Deadly Games Writer2 episodes, "The Boss" and "The Car Mechanic"
1995 Stick With Me, Kid Writer, Supervising producer3 episodes
1995 SeaQuest DSV Writer, Supervising producer3 episodes
1995The Greatest Shows You Never SawWriter, producerCBS TV Special
1995–1996 Flipper Writer2 episodes
1996–1998 Diagnosis: Murder Writer, Supervising Producer, Executive Producer26 episodes
1999 Martial Law Writer, executive producer3 episodes
2001–2002 A Nero Wolfe Mystery Writer6 episodes, including "Prisoners Base," an Edgar Award Finalist for Best Teleplay
2002 The Nightmare Room Writer1 episode, “My Name is Evil”
2003 She Spies Writer1 Episode, "Crossed Out"
2003–2005 1-800-Missing aka Missing Writer / Supervising Producer8 episodes
2003–2006 Monk Writer3 episodes “Mr. Monk Can’t See a Thing”, “Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather,” “Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico
2004The Best TV Shows That Never WereWriter, executive producerABC TV Special
2007 Psych Writer1 episode, “Forget Me Not”
2010–2012 The Glades Writer3 episodes
2020 Dream Raider Writer8 episodes, HBO Max series

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References

  1. "Author Q&A: William Rabkin, "Psych: Mind Over Magic"". Write On Online. 10 July 2009. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  2. "Writer Lee Goldberg: 'Almost all the work comes from personal relationships' – MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises". creative.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  3. "The Brothers Goldberg". Los Angeles Review of Books. 28 May 2018.
  4. "William Rabkin Fiction Bibliography". Fantastic Fiction.
  5. "William Rabkin Biography". writersstore.com.
  6. "Faculty and Staff". palmdesertmfa.ucr.edu.
  7. "TV Writers Studio Info Session: Long Island University's MFA in Writing and Producing for Television | Calendar of Events | Amherst College". amherst.edu.
  8. "Content Uploads" (PDF). shakespeareassociation.org.
  9. Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning. University of Chicago Press.
  10. Mowat, Barbara A. (1982). "Reviewed work: Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning, Norman Rabkin". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 81 (3): 414–418. JSTOR   27709048.