William Blinn

William Blinn was interviewed for four hours in Encino, CA. Blinn talked about some of his first writing for television in a variety of dramatic genres for such series as Bonanza, Here Comes the Bride s, and The Interns. He spoke thoroughly about writing the teleplay for the landmark television movie Brian’s Song, for which he won an Emmy and a Peabody Award. For Brian’s Song, he talked about the casting of the telefilm, researching the real-life people on which it was based, and the audience reaction to the movie. He detailed his work on the popular 1970s series The Rookies and Starsky and Hutch. For Starsky, Blinn described his creation of the series and talked about the 2004 feature film adaptation. Blinn spoke in great detail about his work as the head writer of the landmark television miniseries Roots.  He talked about working with Roots author Alex Haley on the miniseries outline, talked about cast members, discussed many of the miniseries’ dramatic moments, and offered his opinion of its legacy. He also talked about producing the popular series Eight Is Enough and Fame, describing the ups and downs of working on both of these shows.  Additionally, he spoke about his teleplay for the movie A Question of Love, one of the first television dramas involving a lesbian theme. The interview was conducted by Gary Rutkowski on October 7, 2005.