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Lowell Ganz (born August 31, 1948) is an American writer and producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel and has written for television, film, and theatre. Ganz grew up in a Jewish family in Queens, New York, attending Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village.
Lowell Ganz is an American writer and producer who has worked on movies and TV shows such as Splash, Parenthood, and Robots. He has been nominated for an Oscar and has three children in the entertainment industry.
- January 1, 1
- 16 sec
Jul 1, 2022 · Legendary comedy screenwriter Lowell Ganz talks about creating the surprise hit that's endured across generations with co-writer Babaloo Mandel. He reveals how they researched the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, why they avoided a romance between Jimmy and Dottie, and how Tom Hanks and Madonna joined the cast.
Watch a four-hour interview with Lowell Ganz, a prolific writer and producer for sitcoms like The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Busting Loose. Learn about his career, his partnership with Mark Roth and Babaloo Mandel, and his views on the industry.
- The Idea Behind City Slickers
- Writing Broad Comedies
- A Perfect Writing Team
- No Middle Ground
- Writing Characters
- Screenwriting Misfits
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The initial spark of an idea actually came from Billy Crystal, who pitched us the premise. “We hadn’t met him yet,” said Ganz, “but he knew our work and we knew his work. So he invited us to a meeting and he pitched a one-liner, or elevator pitch, and wanted to know if we were interested.” It’s been argued that screenplays work best when writers ad...
“I don’t know if our comedic style is unique, but our movies tend to be very sincere. They’re not satirical. You are supposed to believe these characters exist in the real world,” pondered Ganz. “I don’t know if that is unique to us, but it’s specific to our writing.” In one film example, Splash, the majority of the story is real except for one fic...
Logistically, Ganz and Mandel work as an integrated team, chatting from opposite sides of the desk. “Every word in every one of our scripts came out of a session in which we were in the same room at the same time. One of us might get an idea driving to the office, but basically it’s very tight and conversational at work,” said the team.“Writing is ...
“We used to have a sign that said, ‘No one knows anything — especially us.’ It would hang above the desk in our old office just so, no matter how many hits you got, we didn’t want to fall in the trap of ‘We know the code.’” The writers said they learned this after the release of their first movie in 1982, Night Shift, which starred Henry Winkler an...
All in all, despite changes in the industry, the writers always write people. One could argue the type of movies they wrote have gone to television, but in terms of staying relevant, true characters are always appreciated no matter the decade. “When we wrote Fever Pitch, about young people, no one told us those weren’t relatable characters. We were...
In the good ol’ days, when people like Ron Howard, Penny Marshall or Billy Crystal had deals with the studios, the writers could talk to them about a project, then they would approach the studio, and the movie would essentially be in the works. For City Slickers, they discussed the idea of “running of the bulls” to start the movie. They pitched thi...
The screenwriting duo behind City Slickers, Splash, and Parenthood share their insights on comedy, collaboration, and persistence in an interview. Learn how they developed their sincere and relatable characters, adapted to industry changes, and avoided the middle ground.
Lowell Ganz is a writer and producer of movies and TV shows, such as Splash, Robots and Parenthood. He was born in New York City in 1948 and has three children who work in entertainment.
Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are Academy-Award nominated screenwriters (for SPLASH, 1984) and are also responsible for such classics as A LEAGUE OF THEIR O...
- 109 min
- 2.8K
- Writers Guild Foundation
