The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (2006)

Few screenwriters can concentrate for more than a few hours, let alone sustain a career in Hollywood for over 30 years. But the blockbuster comedy writing team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel has been making television and film audiences laugh for decades. In the early '70s, Ganz was writing for The Odd Couple while Mandel was receiving his first paychecks for work on M*A*S*H and Busting Loose. They both eventually landed on Happy Days, and when they followed actor-turned-director Ron Howard into feature films, the result was a frequent and fruitful creative partnership that led to hilarious and heartwarming comedies like Night Shift, Splash, Gung Ho, Parenthood, and Edtv. In total, Ganz and Mandel have written an astonishing 18 produced feature screenplays, including City Slickers, A League of Their Own, Mr. Saturday Night, Forget Paris, Where the Heart Is, Robots, and Fever Pitch, while also maintaining a "secret career" of un-credited rewrites on studio comedies. Listen in as these Bronx-born, old-school funnymen explain the inspiring pleasures of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," how to suckerpunch viewers with jokes they never see coming, why writing out loud is the best way to find your voice, how to avoid research, and when to build a scene around a housewife with an axe.