Les Charles

Glen and Les Charles were interviewed for four hours in Los Angeles, CA, consisting of a half-hour session with each alone and three hours together.  The writing-partner brothers talked about their early years growing up near Las Vegas, Nevada and their decision in the mid-70s to try their hand at freelance writing for television.  They talked about selling their first script (to M*A*S*H) and their break into staff writing at MTM Productions where they worked as writer-producers on Phyllis and the final season of The Bob Newhart Show.  They talked about other writing assignments on such series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Betty White Show.   They detailed working with the cast and crew on the hit series Taxi, for which they produced (and wrote for) the ABC run [the show would run a final season on NBC].  The two chronicled their creation (with James Burrows) of the series Cheers for which they served as producers and later executive producers during the show’s entire eleven year run.  The interview was conducted by Gary Rutkowski on December 8, 2003.