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Lowell Ganz
Lowell Ganz (born August 31, 1948 in New York City) is an American screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel. Ganz grew up in Queens, New York, attending Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village. He dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career writing for sitcoms, starting with ''The Odd Couple''. From there, he moved on to writing for the TV series ''Happy Days'' and created two of its spin-off series, ''Laverne and Shirley'' and ''Joanie Loves Chachi''. In 1982, Ganz and Mandel teamed up with ''Happy Days'' actors Ron Howard and Henry Winkler to make their first film, the low-budget comedy '' Night Shift'', which was also actor Michael Keaton's first film; Howard signed on because he wanted to start directing while Winkler wanted to move away from his image as the Fonz. Ganz's second film outing, ''Splash'', made stars of Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah and earned him an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Splash (film)
''Splash'' is a 1984 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard, from a screenplay by Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, and Bruce Jay Friedman, and a story by Friedman and producer Brian Grazer, and starring Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy, and Eugene Levy. It involves a young man who falls in love with a mysterious woman who is secretly a mermaid. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film is notable for being the first film released by Touchstone Pictures, a film label created by Walt Disney Studios that same year in an effort to release films targeted at adult audiences, with mature content not appropriate for the studio's flagship Walt Disney Pictures banner. ''Splash'' received a PG-rating for some profanity and brief nudity. ''Splash'' was critically and commercially successful, earning over $69 million on an $11 million budget, and received praise for the acting, humor, and chemistry between Hanks and Hannah. Plot I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Slickers
''City Slickers'' is a 1991 American comedy film, directed by Ron Underwood and starring Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, and Jack Palance, with supporting roles by Patricia Wettig, Helen Slater, and Noble Willingham with Jake Gyllenhaal in his debut. For his performance, Jack Palance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film's screenplay was written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, and it was shot in New York City; New Mexico; Durango, Colorado; and Spain. A sequel '' City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold'' was released in 1994, with the same cast, with the exception of Kirby, who was replaced by Jon Lovitz. Plot In Pamplona, Spain, middle-aged friends Mitch Robbins, Ed Furrilo, and Phil Berquist, participate in the running of the bulls. Back home in New York City, Mitch realizes he and his friends use adventure trips as escapism from their mundane lives. Mitch hates his radio advertising sales job. Phil is trapped in a loveless marriag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parenthood (film)
''Parenthood'' is a 1989 American family comedy-drama film with an ensemble cast that includes Steve Martin, Tom Hulce, Rick Moranis, Martha Plimpton, Keanu Reeves, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, and Dianne Wiest. The film was directed by Ron Howard, who assisted in developing the story with screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Much of it is based on the family and parenting experiences of Howard, Ganz, Mandel, and producer Brian Grazer, who have at least 17 children among the four of them. Principal photography was filmed in and around Orlando, Florida with some scenes filmed at the University of Florida. It was nominated for two Academy Awards: Dianne Wiest for Best Supporting Actress and Randy Newman for Best Song for "I Love to See You Smile". The film was adapted into an NBC television series in 1990 and 2010. While the first series was canceled after one season, the second series ran for six seasons. Plot Gil Buckman, a St. Louis sales executive, is trying to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vibes (film)
''Vibes'' is a 1988 American romantic adventure comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis and starring Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, Julian Sands and Peter Falk. The plot concerns Sylvia, an eccentric psychic, and Nick, her equally odd psychic friend and their trip into the Ecuadorian Andes to find the "source of psychic energy". Plot Sylvia Pickel (pronounced with an emphasis on the "kel") is a trance-medium who has contact with Louise, a wisecracking spirit guide. She first began communicating with her after falling from a ladder at 12 and remaining comatose for two weeks. Subsequently, Louise taught her astral projection while she was placed in special homes for being "different." At a study of psychics, Sylvia meets fellow psychic Nick Deezy, a psychometrist who can determine the history of events surrounding an object by touching it. Sylvia has a history of bad luck with men, and her overly flirtatious behavior turns him off right away. Sylvia comes home to her apartment one nig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gung Ho (film)
''Gung Ho'' (released in Australia as ''Working Class Man'') is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton. The story portrayed the takeover of an American car plant by a Japanese corporation (although the title is an Americanized Chinese expression, for "work" and "together"). Most of the movie was filmed on location in the Pittsburgh area with additional scenes shot in Tokyo and Argentina. A short-lived TV series based on the film, followed in 1987. Plot In fictional Hadleyville, Pennsylvania, the local auto plant, which supplied most of the town's jobs, has been closed for nine months. Former foreman Hunt Stevenson (Keaton) goes to Tokyo to try to convince the Assan Motors Corporation to reopen the plant. The Japanese company agrees and, upon their arrival in the U.S., they take advantage of the desperate work force to institute many changes. The workers are not permitted a union, are paid lower wages, are moved around within the factory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spies Like Us
''Spies Like Us'' is a 1985 American spy comedy film directed by John Landis, and starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest and Donna Dixon. The film presents the comic adventures of two novice intelligence agents sent to the Soviet Union. Originally written by Aykroyd and Dave Thomas to star Aykroyd and John Belushi at Universal, the script went into turnaround and was later picked up by Warner Bros. with Aykroyd and Chase starring. Partly filmed on location near Sognefjord in Norway (as Russia) and the Sahara (as Pakistan), the film is an homage to the famous Bob Hope and Bing Crosby '' Road to...'' film series. Hope himself cameos in one scene. Other cameos include directors Terry Gilliam, Sam Raimi, Costa-Gavras, Martin Brest, Frank Oz, and Joel Coen, musician B.B. King and visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen. The film was negatively received by critics, but was a box office success and went on to become a cult classic. Plot Austin Millbarge is a code breaker dwe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Script Doctor
A script doctor is a writer or playwright hired by a film, television, or theatre production company to rewrite an existing script or improve specific aspects of it, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, themes, and other elements. Script doctors generally do their work uncredited for a variety of commercial and artistic reasons. They are usually brought in for scripts that have been almost "green-lit" during the development and pre-production phases of a film to address specific issues with the script, as identified by the financiers, production team, and cast. To receive credit, the Writers Guild of America screenwriting credit system requires a second screenwriter to contribute more than 50 percent of an original screenplay or 33 percent of an adaptation. Uncredited screenwriters are not eligible to win the Academy Award or the Writers Guild of America Award. Examples Many screenwriters have done uncredited work on screenplays: * Paul Attanasio: ''Speed'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called " runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter). The principal objective of the batting team is to have a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Crystal
William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s for television roles as Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom ''Soap'' and as a cast member and frequent host of ''Saturday Night Live''. Crystal then became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in '' Running Scared'' (1986), ''The Princess Bride'' (1987), ''Throw Momma from the Train'' (1987), ''Memories of Me'' (1988), '' When Harry Met Sally...'' (1989), ''City Slickers'' (1991), ''Mr. Saturday Night'' (1992), ''Analyze This'' (1999), and '' Parental Guidance'' (2012). He provided the voice of Mike Wazowski in the ''Monsters, Inc.'' franchise. He also starred on the Broadway stage in ''700 Sundays'' in 2004 and again in 2014 and in ''Mr. Saturday Night'' in 2022. Cryst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penny Marshall
Carole Penny MarshallBorn Carole Penny Marshall in 1943, as per ''My Mother Was Nuts, a Memoir'', p. 10; . Copyright 2012 (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director and producer. She is known for her role as Laverne DeFazio on the television sitcom ''Laverne & Shirley'' (1976–1983), receiving three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for her portrayal. Marshall made her directorial debut with ''Jumpin' Jack Flash'' (1986) before directing ''Big'' (1988), which became the first film directed by a woman to gross more than $100 million at the U.S. box office. Her subsequent directing credits included ''Awakenings'' (1990), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, ''A League of Their Own'' (1992), ''Renaissance Man'' (1994), ''The Preacher's Wife'' (1996) and ''Riding in Cars with Boys'' (2001). She also produced '' Cinderella Man'' (2005) and ''Bewitched'' (2005), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award For Writing Original Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay. See also the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a similar award for screenplays that are adaptations of pre-existing material. Superlatives Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3 (for ''Annie Hall'', ''Hannah and Her Sisters'', and ''Midnight in Paris''). Paddy Chayefsky and Billy Wilder have also won three screenwriting Oscars: Chayefsky won two for Original Screenplay (''The Hospital'' and ''Network'') and one for Adapted Screenplay ('' Marty''), while Wilder won one for Adapted Screenplay ('' The Lost Weekend'', shared with Charles Brackett), and two for Original Screenplay (''Sunset Boulevard'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
