A golden age of TV is theirs

When scriptwriters Marvin J. Wolf and Larry Mintz showed up at the USA Network in Universal City to pitch several television projects, they suddenly felt conscious of their age -- they had more than a few gray hairs and were nearly twice as old as their competitors. “The room was full of writers, and I assume agents, all in their 20s and 30s,” Wolf said. “We were the oldest ones there.”

The pitch, nonetheless, proved successful. And now both men -- Wolf, 63, and Mintz, 55 -- are enjoying the product of their success with tonight’s airing of “Ladies Night,” a USA telefilm that is a true-life account of father-and-son serial killers who seduce women into embezzling -- and then murder them.

The movie, which stars Paul Michael Glaser and Kett Turton, is something of a comeback for Mintz, a veteran comedy writer who had been unable to find work for six years, and a new career for Wolf, an award-winning author and journalist who began writing scripts only four years ago.

In a business in which “Desperate Housewives” is considered a TV novelty because most of its stars are older than 40, Wolf and Mintz are a rarity.

“Ladies Night” is based on a chapter of Wolf’s 1988 true-crime book “Platinum Crime,” which he co-wrote with a private investigator. In the summer of 2001, he asked Mintz, whom he had befriended from years of weekly softball games in Rancho Park, about collaborating on a script. Over lunch at Santa Monica Airport, a partnership was born.

Mintz, who lives in Marina del Rey and had been struggling to find work, was willing to give it a try. In the 1970s and 1980s, he and partner Alan Eisenstock wrote for such series as “Sanford and Son,” “Mork and Mindy” and “What’s Happening!!” His career flourished well into the 1990s, when he produced such shows as “Family Matters” and “Step by Step.” But after 1997, Mintz said, as he approached 50, “things dried up.”

Eisenstock went off to write books, and Mintz tried working with a second writer but couldn’t make any sales -- and then that writer went off to teach. Mintz believed his age was hurting him.

“I couldn’t get a meeting, couldn’t get an agent,” he said. “I was purged. Agents and producers said, ‘You’re too old.’ ”

His wife began working from home as a personal assistant. Mintz got a substitute-teaching credential and spent a semester working at a Beverly Hills night school, but found that teaching wasn’t a good fit.

“There’s nothing else for me but writing. It’s my passion,” he said. “When it stopped I was at a loss, not fulfilled. When I started with Marv, I was fulfilled again.”

The two, working out of Wolf’s house in Mar Vista, wrote a spec script based on Wolf’s experience serving in the Army in Korea. They submitted it to Judy Coppage, a North Hollywood writers representative who has worked with other older scribes. Though she didn’t think she could sell that script, she believed in their talent and signed them as clients.

In October 2002, Coppage, knowing USA was looking for true crime stories, sent them to the cable network to pitch 10 ideas to development executive Christof Bove. Bove wanted two -- one, the “Platinum Crime” chapter; the other, Wolf’s account of the 1972 Pierre Hotel jewel theft, from his anthology of New York true crimes, “Rotten Apples.”

He assigned “The Pierre Heist” to a producer who hired his own writer. Canadian credit restrictions for films shot north of the border meant Wolf and Mintz had to forsake their intended co-executive producer credit for a more nebulous “Special Thanks” instead.

But “Ladies Night” was theirs. And to the writers’ surprise, their ages were pretty much a nonissue in getting the movie produced, though they say they were sometimes reminded of it.

Someone, recognizing Mintz’s name, told him, “You used to be huge.” Both men also got some startled looks from members of the production company when they first met. “You could tell from their reactions, they didn’t know we were that old,” Wolf said.

USA’s Bove, 34, vice president of long-form programming, said, “I didn’t know their ages, and I didn’t care. We work with a lot of people of different ages. The reaction I had when I heard their ‘Ladies Night’ pitch was the same that I have with any project that seems promising -- one that’s cautiously optimistic. They framed their story in such a way that I felt I could sell it to the network.”

Their collaboration, by both men’s accounts, has been smooth. From Mintz, Wolf has learned script structure and how to make decisions about including or omitting scenes. Mintz, in turn, said he has learned from Wolf how to navigate the Web and the art of packing lines to succinctly convey information and drama.

He’s also discovered a sense of freedom in dramatic writing, which, unlike comedy, isn’t dependent on setting up the next joke.

Still, though Mintz is enjoying the “sweetness” of seeing his name on screen again, the last six years have taken their toll financially and emotionally. He is one of about 150 older writers who are plaintiffs in a series of 23 class-action lawsuits against networks, studios and talent agencies, alleging ageism; the cases are awaiting assignment to a trial judge in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The scriptwriting duo, meanwhile, are hoping for continued success. Their Pierre Hotel story, now titled “Cool Money,” is scheduled to premiere March 18 on USA. They are writing a Christmas-themed script, “The Bicycle,” based on a Wolf essay about a Chicago newspaper delivery boy, under option at the Hallmark Channel. Another true crime script, “Family Jewels,” is being shopped around, and other projects are in development.

Coppage said she finds that their age gives them deeper perspective about life, compared with younger writers. “Older writers have more experience. They’ve read more,” she said. “There’s not a day goes by that Marv and Larry don’t call me with an idea. They’re working every day.”

Wolf, viewing this as a whole new career, said he doesn’t worry about his senior status “because in my heart I’m a very young guy.” He is, after all, playing softball every week, pitching to men half his age. (Mintz is his catcher.)

“I play hard and well, with people mainly in their 20s and 30s, and I keep up with the culture. And because I tore my knee up two years ago I started going to the gym three or four days a week,” he said. “I’m stronger and quicker than I was in my 50s.”