Episode 4: Michael Loman
If you could change one thing about television, what would it be?: I think one of the things would be would be in terms of sitcoms, to go back and do some of the live multi camera shows [to bring the format back]. There are a lot of intelligence shows, I watched a number of documentaries. I watched a devastating documentary on CNN about January 6, which was a two hour documentary, which is brilliantly done. But I would increase some of the intellect on television. There are not many intellectual shows on television that cause you to think, some of the shows that I watch do that. But they're from a political point of view may like on MSNBC, I love Rachel Maddow. I love her show. She's really smart. But you don't see that very much, except on that one network, and a few other networks. But that the the level of intellect, I would like to see raised in some different kinds of shows. That would be interesting.
Well, what was your transition like from being a TV writer to a professor?: After doing all that television, I decided that I done enough television and that I knew a great deal about television from all the work that I had done. And so I thought it would be interesting to teach college students how to write for television, that was something that I had not done. So I was living in New York, and I tried to get a job, and nobody would hire me. First of all, I only had a bachelor's degree. So nobody was interested in hiring me. On a just taking a chance I called Yale University, and by accident, I got the co-chair of the film department. They didn't have a television department, only a film department. And he was terrific, Charlie Musser. And he told me, we don't teach television here, but we have a system where all the colleges get to choose one extra course that Yale does not teach so that they have a variety of experiences. And so every college will vote on a new course to teach. And he said the competition is very, very strong. All different people, writers come in with all different projects. And they only can pick one. Well, I wrote up a syllabus for teaching sitcom. And it got selected from all, it was the number one selection of all over all the colleges. And the first day I was supposed to choose 15 students for the class. And I walked into the classroom and there were about 300 students there like a sit-in, sitting on the floor, all the way down the hallways. And I've never seen so many students in my life. So I had to bring it down to 15 which was a really, really difficult task. So what I did was I followed the Yale University guidelines. And first of all, I dismissed the freshmen and then the sophomores, and then the juniors. And I was left with the seniors, which still were about 100 seniors, for 15 slots in the class. So I had them to write a two page sample of writing for me. And that's how I narrowed it down and picked the 15 students. And the class turned out to be really wonderful. I mean, you would think that students at Yale would be kind of snotty and difficult. They were lovely, they were wonderful. And my student evaluations were through the roof. So the professor then hired me to teach that course in the film department. And I taught it for three years, and he kept adding courses for me to teach. [Charlie] said, I think I want you to teach a course about the Golden Age of Television studies course. And I said, Charlie, I don't know anything about television studies, I've always written scripts, he said, I'll help you. He came to my apartment in New York, and sat down with me, and helped me block out a studies course for the golden age of television, showing me which which text to use, I thought that was really rather extraordinary and extraordinary of the co-chair of Yale, where nobody else would hire me except Yale. So I taught at Yale as an adjunct for three years. And then Boston University found me and hired me. Charlie told me that if I had, if I hung around Yale when there was an opening, he would hire me as a regular teacher, but that could be for a long time. And Boston University was a full time job with all the benefits. And also when they flew me up to Boston to meet everybody they took me out to lunch. And I really liked the people at Boston. Boston was different in the sense of the courses that they taught, were all kinds of courses, whereas Yale had more just basically intellectual courses. And I thought students ought to have a wide range in college of what they what they learn. So I like the professors at BU a lot. And they hired me as a full professor. I didn't even know what that meant. [They hired me even though] I only had a bachelor's, but what I really had was a master's of being in the field, actually doing it. And that's what they wanted. They wanted somebody who would not just teach academically, but teach from the point of view of somebody who had written shows and who had gone through that process.
Who are or were your television heroes?: My television hero was Norman Lear. Because he really brought out the truth that people were thinking and put it out there. Norman felt that when he did All in the Family, which was about a bigot, he felt that people said those terrible things that Archie Bunker said in the privacy of their home, but they never talked about them in public. He felt that the only way to deal with bigotry and prejudice is to get it out in the open and have people talk about it because that really deflated it. Good example of that is it used to be a terrible thing to call somebody who is gay a queer. That was a very, very insulting word queer. Now, there are queer studies all over the US and just about every college has a queer studies course. So, by talking about it, and bringing it out in the open, it changed it. And so Norman Leer was really a hero of mine in that respect, I admire him enormously.
What kind of television excites you?: Television that was really funny excited me like All in the Family and shows that were very very good like Mash. Mash excited me because it talked about things that were important and did it brilliantly. I mean, absolutely brilliantly. That was a defining series on the air. I like Chico and the Man because that broke the mold. We had never seen it but Chicano on television before it was all just white people so that helped break the mold of that. And I like that television became more inclusive with Welcome Back Kotter and Chico and the Man and shows like that.
What advice do you have for TV writers just starting out?: Write. Write, write, write, write as much as you can. The more things that you have in your portfolio, the better off and the more that you learn. It gets you into the habit of writing and writing becomes easier as you do it in certain ways. Writing is always difficult, but you begin to have a facility for it and you find your voice the more that you write. You find your voice the way you should write and what you should write. So, my advice for writers is to really write as much as possible. All different things -- you can write plays and you can write movies and you can write other things as well as television. And all of that gives you the experience of writing, which is really important.
MICHAEL LOMAN began his career in musical theatre as an actor and dancer. He appeared on Broadway in the musical FUNNY GIRL and also in Peter Ustinov’s war satire THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER AND HIS WIFE.
His first professional job was for the acclaimed PBS series THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE. He wrote a piece entitled “Painting the Flowers” performed by Eli Wallach. That was followed by another assignment on Public Television. PBS was producing an hour comedy special to educate Americans about venereal disease. They brought together comedy writers, famous composers/lyricists like Kander and Ebb, animators and cartoonists like Jules Pfeiffer and they asked Michael to write a comedy song and sketch for this hour long special hosted by Dick Cavett. Michael obliged by writing a song and sketch entitled, Even Bankers Get Chancres.Michael then sought to expand his job-writing possibilities. He decided to write a spec script for Norman Lear’s hit television series, MAUDE which starred Bea Arthur. That script got him an agent (The William Morris Agency) and his first commercial jobs in television. Loman decided to travel out to Los Angeles and test his luck as a writer for television. He landed a job creating a pilot for Universal on his first day in Hollywood. Unfortunately, that project didn’t make it. His next job was writing a script for Mel Brooks’ sitcom satire on ROBIN HOOD entitled WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN. As Loman was about to start on the second draft of his script the series was cancelled. But then some better news prevailed. His agent had sent his MAUDE spec script to the Norman Lear company and they offered him a script on Lear’s hit series, ONE DAY AT A TIME. Mr. Lear, who reads all scripts for all of his series, wrote on Michael’s script “Michael Loman is a terrific writer.” Loman made a hundred copies of Lear’s remarks and sent them to everyone he had ever known.
At that time, the producer of ONE DAY AT A TIME was leaving to produce Mr. Lear’s brilliant and groundbreaking situation comedy ALL IN THE FAMILY and asked Michael to write an episode for the series. That episode entitled “Archie’s Secret Passion” was so successful that Loman was asked to write three more episodes. His shows are on the seventh season DVD of ALL IN THE FAMILY. Michael was fortunate enough to work closely with Mr. Lear on three of his series.
Next, Michael moved up from staff writer to Story Editor on the hit series HAPPY DAYS. He wrote four shows for that series as well…and one of his episodes (“Smokin’ Ain’t Cool“) has been used by the American Heart Association for many years to discourage teenagers from smoking.
Following HAPPY DAYS Loman moved up to both producing and writing for the Bob Newhart series which took place in an Inn in Vermont, NEWHART. After that, his next assignment was producing and writing THE HOGAN FAMILY which starred Jason Bateman. Michael is very proud of a special episode he wrote for that series entitled “The Best of Times; The Worst of Times.” This was one of the first (if not the first) sitcom scripts to address the topic of AIDS.
In the late 1980s Michael wanted to again expand his career and wrote the libretto and Joe Raposo wrote the music and lyrics for an original musical comedy entitled THE LITTLE RASCALS. This had a successful three month run at the esteemed Goodspeed Opera House.
There was one more sitcom series that Loman worked on as both a producer and writer: THE COSBY SHOW. Loman received an Emmy for this show.
Back in Los Angeles, Michael noticed a story on page one of the trade papers that the current Executive Producer of SESAME STREET was leaving. He felt this would bring together all aspects of his career so far: producing, comedy writing, public speaking, and especially education. He asked his agents to get him an interview for that position. SESAME STREET had hired a headhunting firm that came out to Los Angeles and interviewed every producer they could find for the job. After interviewing Michael for the first time, they came back to Los Angeles to interview him again and again for ten times asking how he would change the show, how he would deal with difficult personalities, etc. etc. Finally, they flew him to New York to meet Joan Ganz Cooney who had created SESAME STREET and the current executives in charge. They offered him the job of Executive Producer. Mr. Loman served as Executive Producer of SESAME STREET for ten years winning 3 ten personal Emmys for producing The Most Outstanding Children’s Series or Pre-School Series on television. As Executive Producer he oversaw all the creative aspects of the show, the financial aspects, and he worked closely with the Research and Curriculum Educational departments. He invited many illustrious guest stars to appear on SESAME STREET including Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Kofi Annon just before Mr. Annon left to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Loman also invited a whole range of artists from opera, ballet, literature, popular stars and celebrities. He even invited Pablo Picasso…in a way. SESAME STREET filmed a piece teaching children body parts at the MOMA with a Picasso painting.
During his tenure as Executive Producer of SESAME STREET Michael was the public spokesperson for the series appearing on just about every television interview show including GOOD MORNING AMERICA, THE TODAY SHOW, CNN, and was interviewed by most of the major newspapers in America from the New York Times to The Los Angeles Times…he was profiled in a lead story in Barron’s, he gave a radio interview to the BBC, and was the focus of a documentary on French television.
Loman was also instrumental in creating foreign productions of SESAME STREET. He went to Jerusalem to help create a combined Israeli-Palestinian Sesame Street which aired, he went to Shanghai to help develop a Chinese SESAME STREET…and he gave advice and input to many international productions including Russia, Spain, Egypt, Norway, Mexico and others.
Michael then decided to expand his career even further. He felt he knew a great deal about the television industry, comedy, and producing that would be of benefit to college students. So he began a career as a college professor…he only had a B.S. degree but colleges felt he had a doctorate in the field. His first job was as a lecturer and then adjunct at Yale University where he taught several courses for three years. Then in 2005 Loman was offered a visiting professor and then in 2006 a full Professor at Boston University College of Communication where he has happily taught for thirteen years and continues to very much enjoy it.
Michael Loman has won eleven Emmy awards, Two Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellowships. Among his many honors and awards is a Humanitas Certificate, awards from civil rights organizations such as the Easter Seal Society for his work with children and adults with disabilities, La Raza, and many other professional organizations. He has lectured at Harvard 4 University School of Education, Yale University, NYU, and he was invited to deliver a major speech on Diversity at the Smithsonian Institute which was a great thrill. He has been a guest on just about every daytime and many nighttime television interview shows and has also been interviewed by most major newspapers in the U.S.
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