Working with Paddy Chayefsky on his only sitcom pilot

“There are no rules. Work however you guys like to work. After four hours, I start to fink out… We start tomorrow at 11:15.”

Imagine you and your partner are young TV writers. Now imagine those words cited above being said to you by none other than Paddy Chayefsky, arguably the greatest screenwriter of his generation, winner of three Academy Awards for Marty, The Hospital and Network. And here, you have been tasked by NBC to work with Paddy on his return to TV, writing an original sit-com pilot.

That was the experience of Elias Davis and David Pollock in 1974, and Pollock has penned a wonderful piece in this month’s Written By magazine which you can read here.

By the way, I did some digging and if you are up in the Midwest, the Wisconsin Society Historical Archives reportedly has a copy of the pilot episode of the TV series “Your Place or Mine,” co-written by Elias, Pollock and Chayefsky. For more information on that, go here.

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