Gail Parent
{{short description|American screenwriter}}
{{BLP sources|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Gail Parent
|birth_name = Gail Kostner
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|8|12}}
|birth_place = New York City, U.S.
|occupation = Screenwriter, television producer
}}
Gail Parent (born August 12, 1940) is an American television screenwriter, producer, and author.
Life and career
Parent was born Gail Kostner in New York City, New York, the daughter of Ruth (née Goldberg) and Theodore Kostner, a Wall Street executive.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/14/Gail-Parent.html |title=Gail Parent Biography (1940-) |publisher=Filmreference.com |access-date=2012-08-25}} Parent is Jewish.{{cite book|author=June Sochen|title=Consecrate Every Day: The Public Lives of Jewish American Women, 1880-1980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUtDmLCnhTQC&pg=PA90|date=1 February 2012|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-2061-5|page=90|quote=Gail Parent, a good example of this approach, can never rid herself of the Jewish parents...}} Parent's writing career began in the 1960s where she teamed up with writer Kenny Solms. Her big break came when she began writing for The Carol Burnett Show. She later went on to write for other TV shows including a 1971 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The following year her novel Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York, which chronicled its unattractive, overweight, Jewish heroine's romantic misadventures in Manhattan, became a best-seller that later served as the basis of a film starring Jeannie Berlin. Although the screenplay was adapted by someone else, she penned the scripts for Barbra Streisand's The Main Event (1979) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
Parent co-wrote the book for the 1974 musical Lorelei. It is her sole Broadway credit.
Parent's greatest success has been in television, most notably with The Golden Girls and Tracey Ullman's sketch comedy series Tracey Takes On..., serving as a producer and writer for both. She also wrote episodes of The Smothers Brothers Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Rhoda, Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories, Babes (of which she also served as series creator) and Finder of Lost Loves, and the musical variety special Sills and Burnett at the Met (1976). With Ann Marcus, she co-created the 1976-77 soap opera satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. With Kenny Solms, she created the 1970 situation comedy The Tim Conway Show. During the 1990-91 television season, Parent and Los Angeles newscaster Kelly Lange co-hosted the Kelly and Gail talk show which aired on KNBC-TV.{{cite AV media |title = KELLY & GAIL Talk Show: Best of Moments! |url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdZR1QD27pA |publisher = Gail Parent |access-date = March 26, 2023 |via = YouTube |at = 0:00}}
Parent is the winner of a CableACE Award and two Emmys, and has been nominated for an additional twelve Emmys and two Writers Guild of America Awards.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|661275}}
- {{emmytvlegends name|gail-parent}}
{{EmmyAward ComedyVarietyMusicWriting 1970s}}
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Category:Jewish American screenwriters
Category:American television producers
Category:American women television producers
Category:American women television writers
Category:American television writers
Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners
Category:American women screenwriters
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)