He’s Written a Big Book on Those Who Write for the Small Screen

Tom Stempel is a professor of cinema at Los Angeles City College, but he took a break from the big screen to write a book on the history of television.

Stempel, a Mar Vista resident, recently published “Storytellers to the Nation: A History of American Television Writing.”

His work is considered by industry insiders to be the first comprehensive history of American television writers. It recounts the writers’ experiences working with the networks, censors, sponsors, producers and stars. The book provides an insider’s view of the industry through anecdotes from well-known writers including Gore Vidal, Norman Lear and Steven Bochco as well as many lesser-known writers of comedy, variety and dramatic shows over the past 40 years.

Stempel began his work three years ago. He gathered firsthand accounts, conducting more than 40 interviews with the writers for shows like “I Love Lucy,” “All in the Family” and “thirtysomething.”

“The research for this book was more fun than any book I’ve done before,” said the 52-year-old professor. “It was great fun to go out and listen to writers like Roy Huggins who wrote (and created) ‘The Rockford Files.’ . . . I’ve tried to get into the book all these wonderful stories.

“The hardest part was having all of this wonderful material and figuring out how do all these things connect. Finding a pattern was the tricky part.”

A graduate of Yale University and UCLA, Stempel later joined the LACC faculty and has taught film history and film writing for 20 years. In addition to his most recent work, he has also written “Framework: A History of Screenwriting in the American Film” and “Screenwriting.”

“I found my niche is writing about screenwriting and television writing,” he said. “And there are not a lot of people who do that.”

The National Council of Jewish Women/Los Angeles’ Women’s Center has been selected by the Social and Public Art Resource Center as the site for one of its “Great Walls Unlimited: Neighborhood Pride” murals for 1993.

The artist, awarded a $5,000 commission by SPARC for her design, is Daryl Elaine Wells. This is her first commission as a solo artist.

The Western Los Angeles County Council and Boy Scouts of America Troop 223 awarded 14 Scouts the rank of Eagle Scout.

Recipients were Bill Bagshaw, Mike Brockmeier, Teddy Friedrichs, Henning Hogue, Jay Ingram, Sean Jenkins, Jeff Lemen, Brian Martin, Rennie Nelson, Kevin Niles, Hugh O’neill, Kris Paulson, James Turner and Trevor Wilson.

They were recognized at a ceremony last month.

The Center for the Partially Sighted has named three new board members to its 20-person board of directors.

Newly elected officers are Bobbie McMorrow, Patricia Mitchell and Jack Robinson.

They will assist the Santa Monica nonprofit agency that provides optometric services and rehabilitative programs to individuals with severe vision impairments.

Steven Lemley has been appointed to the position of provost of Pepperdine University.

Lemley, who has served as president of Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, Texas, will assume the duties of chief academic officer for the Malibu campus on July 1.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pepperdine and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology in 1988.

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