Biography
American series show-runner with a particular flair for comedy and black comedy. Now writing in the UK.
Selected credits:
TV: M*A*S*H, FAST TRACK and HELP, I'M A TEENAGE OUTLAW
Full Credits:
Television:
2004
HELP, I'M A TEENAGE OUTLAW
ITV / Granada: Writer
2003
M*A*S*H*B*A*C*K
CBS: Executive Producer / Writer: TV Movie
1997-98
FAST TRACK
Alliance / Showtime: Creator / Executive Producer / Writer: Series: 22 Episodes
1993
RUNNING WILDE
NBC / Tristar TV: Starring Pierce Brosnan: Creator / Executive Producer / Writer: Pilot
1992
EERIE INDIANA
NBC / Hearst: Producer / Writer: Series
1990
ELVIS
ABC / New World: Supervising Producer / Writer: Series
1987-88
SAWDUST
CBS / MGM / Bedford Falls: Creator / Producer / Writer: Pilot: Overall Deal: GTG
1985
WASHINGTOON
Showtime: Head Writer: Series
1983
BUFFALO BILL
NBC: Writer: Multiple Episodes: Series
1981
UNITED STATES
NBC: Producer / Co-Creator / Writer: Series
1978
ALICE
CBS: Story Editor / Writer: Series
1973
M*A*S*H
CBS: Writer: Multiple Episodes: Series
Film:
2007
THE VIEW FROM LAST THURSDAY
Screenplay co-written with Larry Gelbart: Five time Oscar nominee Sidney Lumet attached to direct: Currently seeking financing
1993
OVERNIGHTS
MGM / Pathe: Screenplay
1988
BLIND CURVE
Short Film: Starring Rip Torn and Candy Clark: Writer / Director:
Prizewinner: Cannes Film Festival, Aspen Film Festival, Official Selection:
Sundance Film Festival
Biog:
Gary Markowitz was born in the smog-and-palm-lined heart of Hollywood, California, but was torn from those insubstantial roots when his stepfather, the legendary Larry Gelbart, moved the family to London. Markowitz arrived there, Zelig-like, exactly a week before the Beatles. He spent his teens and early twenties watching as the city underwent cultural convulsions, and was influenced by the warped realities of people such as Spike Milligan, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, and the Python juggernaut.
His first scriptwriting break was on MASH. Thereafter he rose through the ranks of freelance sitcom writers, to Story Editor, to Head Writer where he gained invaluable experience in the black arts of table/team writing, to Producer, to Executive Producer, to Show Runner. Along the way, he wrote for the MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW; for the seminal, U.S. sitcom, BUFFALO BILL (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/b/buffalobill_1299000454.shtml); he wrote monologues for David Letterman, pilots for all the major networks, was nominated for a Humanitas Award for a U.S. series that ran in the UK entitled Married (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080300/); he wrote and directed a short, 35mm film that won the Critic's Prize at the Cannes Film Festival starring Academy-Award nominees Rip Torn and Candy Clark (http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=3202); produced an acclaimed miniseries about Elvis (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098786/fullcredits); created a short-lived series called RUNNING WILDE, starring Pierce Brosnan who, himself, was suddenly dragooned into the Bond Factory; and co-created a TV series with US TV maestro Steven Bochco entitled Doogie Hauser, M.D.
Recently, Markowitz completed a movie for CBS: an homage to Gelbart and MASH, and a new spec screenplay entitled HOTEL NOBEL: a black comedy about designer suicide at a lodgement where the guests check in to check out. Currently, he is reunited with former accomplice Regier, writing a 'summer blockbuster' about the heroic 10th Mountain Division's exploits in WWII in which a bunch of spoiled, rich kids drive the elite German troops from the Gothic Line in the mountain strongholds of Italy.
In television, Markowitz is writing for OUTLAW! - a new, Granada Kids / Nickelodeon series from the creator of MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS. Markowitz is developing comedies and dramatic series for both the US and UK markets. His heroes are the Charlie Kaufmans and Alan Balls of the world, those writers who have paid their dues in the US TV sweatshops but have emerged with subversive, original voices and stories to tell.
Markowitz lives in Malibu Canyon, California with his wife Sheri and three daughters and telecommutes to the UK. He still writes while wearing a pocket protector.
View all Film and TV clients