[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Billy Van Zandt, Comedy Writer/Playwright/Author: I think of it as you get this big block of marble. That’s your first draft, a big shapeless thing. Then you start chipping away at it, that’s your second draft. Chip again, that’s your third draft, fourth draft.
Film Courage: What happened with the first spec script that you’ve ever written?
Billy: I came out to LA as a playwright. I got my agent out here. He looked at all my published books and he went:
These are fantastic. Nobody out here cares about little books.
I said:
What?
He said:
You need to write a spec script.
He explained what that was.
We said:
I don’t know, what should we write?
He said:
I know Head of the Class is looking for people to write their show, so why don’t you write a Head of the Class?
I said:
Alright.
We went home, we wrote a Head of the Class script which I thought to this day is probably the best Head of the Class script they would have ever seen. [We] handed it to the agent. He read it. He went:
It’s okay, it didn’t make me laugh.
I was like:
Didn’t make you laugh? That’s all we do.
I went home with Jane [Milmore] and we said:
Okay, we’re writing another one.
We picked the show called Slap Maxwell, it was Dabney Coleman. I think it only lasted a season, but it was a guy having a midlife crisis. It was a hilariously funny show…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
Billy Van Zandt and his writing partner, the late Jane Milmore, are two of the most often produced playwrights in the world. Billy and Jane met at a high school acting competition in their home state of New Jersey. Together for 46 years, they wrote and starred in 25 plays together. Billy’s solo play “The Property Known as Garland” starring his ex-wife Adrienne Barbeau broke box office records at Off-Broadway’s Actors Playhouse. The plays have been produced in thousands of theaters worldwide, including two productions directed by Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis (“Billy and Jane are funny, outrageous, off-the chart writers/performers”) and one by film legend Burt Reynolds. For television, these award-winning writers have produced over three hundred hours of television comedy, including “Newhart;” “Martin,” which won them a People’s Choice Award; “The Hughley’s,” which won them a Prism Award;” “Suddenly Susan” for Brooke Shields; “Daddy Dearest” for Don Rickles and Richard Lewis; “Anything But Love” for Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis; “The Wayans Bros.”; and “I Love Lucy: The Very First Show” which won them an Emmy nomination. As an actor, Billy made his film debut in “Jaws 2”; Billy lives in Los Angeles, when he’s not touring the world in the last Van Zandt/Milmore musical, “The Boomer Boys Musical.”
PRE-ORDER THE BOOK
BECAUSE IT’S FUNNY!: The Plays of Billy Van Zandt & Jane Milmore
BUY THE BOOK – GET IN THE CAR, JANE!: Adventures in the TV Wasteland https://amzn.to/3AfFSFn
CONNECT WITH BILLY VAN ZANDT
Advertisement – contains affiliate links
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
More affiliates:
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
