Mel Tolkin

Writer

"When you began in television, you didn’t have a television set. It’s an actual fact. And that’s one of the biggest lessons in show business: too many people learned to write television from watching television, which is the reason so many of them are all alike. In fact, somebody once said that before you sit down to write, stand up and live. You have to learn from life, not from television."

About This Interview

Mel Tolkin was interviewed for four hours in Beverly Hills, CA. Tolkin discussed his long writing partnership with Lucille Kallen and writing for such shows as Admiral Broadway Revue and Your Show of Shows, Caesar's Hour, and The Danny Kaye Show; as well as writing for All in the Family. The interview was conducted by Bob Claster on November 4, 1997.