David Jacobs (born August 12, 1939) is an American television writer, producer and director. He is most well known as the creator of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

primetime series ''

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

'', ''

Knots Landing ''Knots Landing'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from December 27, 1979, to May 13, 1993. A spin-off of ''Dallas'', it was set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles and initially centered on the lives of ...

'', and ''

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

''.

Life and career

David Jacobs was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, the elder of two children (with a younger sister). His Jewish parents were of modest means, and Jacobs's father worked as a household appliance salesman. Jacobs was educated at

Baltimore City College High School Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

, and received a BFA from the

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the U ...

. Soon after graduation, he moved to New York City, where he worked as an illustrator and researcher for ''Grolier's Encyclopedia''. He soon branched out as a freelance writer of nonfiction articles, the best known of which concerned the architect and inventor

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

. He also wrote a children's book on the great artists of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

.. In 1975 he co-wrote the non-fiction book "Police, a Precinct at Work", with Sara Ann Friedman. The book was a series of stories based upon 6 months of the authors'

ride-along A ride-along is an arrangement for a civilian to spend a shift in the passenger seat of an emergency vehicle, observing the work day of a police officer, firefighter, or paramedic. Ride-alongs are offered by many police departments around the wo ...

s with police from NYPD's 24th precinct. His marriage to actress Lynn Pleshette produced one child, his daughter Albyn, but ended in divorce. Later, he married his current wife Diana, with whom he has two children, Aaron and Molly. Jacobs moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to be closer to his daughter, and tried his hand at screenwriting. His script for a proposed unnamed pilot mini series was later named ''Dallas''. The mini series was so successful that the show was picked up as an on-going series & cemented his career as a writer and producer.

Filmography

References

External links

* *
David Jacobs
at

Columbia College Hollywood Columbia College Hollywood (CCH) is a private college in Los Angeles, California. It is one of only 20 film institutions in the United States that have been awarded full membership by the International Association of Film and Television Schools ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, David 1939 births Living people American soap opera writers American male television writers American television producers Jewish American writers Showrunners Writers from Baltimore Maryland Institute College of Art alumni Screenwriters from Maryland 21st-century American Jews