Terrence McDonnell Q&A
Q: How did Memoirs of a Hollywood Unknown: Book One: Prime Time originate?
A: In the first place, I never intended to write a book, let alone three of them. But I did have plenty of great stories worth sharing. Maybe fifteen or twenty years ago when I had some time on my hands, I sat down and wrote a piece about working behind the scenes on one particular television show. I don’t even remember what show it was, because the whole point of it was just an exercise for me, and it came out well. I really had no idea what to do with it until I realized that if I wrote enough of them, I might be able to sell them as articles for airline magazines (or others) when I retired. So whenever I had some spare time, I wrote more, saving each one in a file. In 2023, I opened it and was amazed at how many were in there. And that’s when I realized it was almost a book. I worked through all of 2023 to complete it, and I finished my 500-page autobiography on New Year’s Eve Day. It told my story in linear fashion from year to year.
Q: Five hundred pages seems perfectly manageable, so why did it turn into three books?
A: I sent it to a friend and game show colleague of mine, Shelley Herman, author of My Peacock Tale (also from Bear Manor Media), a fun book about her adventures as an NBC Page during the Johnny Carson years. She liked it and thought that Bear Manor would be interested, and then asked, “Um…do you know about ‘word count’?” I’d certainly heard the phrase, but it wasn’t anything that television writers had to worry about. Then she said that books usually use 250 words per page, which meant that my autobiography was about 1,000 pages long.
Q: No wonder it took so long to write! So how did you handle the deconstruction?
A: It was relatively easy (though time-consuming), since my career basically consisted of an intertwining of three different arenas: prime time, kids’ shows (both live-action and animation), and game shows. I did have to make transitional adjustments, but I’m happy with the result, especially since not everyone who likes prime time also likes kids’ shows or game shows or vice-versa. This way, readers can pick and choose where their interests lie.
Q: So tell us about the book.
A: I wanted to give the reader a first-person account of what one writer’s life was like behind the scenes back then on all of these different shows, because as far as I know, there are few television writers who have talked about how and why stories changed, the often craziness of network notes, and what being a part of a writing team entailed. I also wanted to tell the incredible personal adventures that went along with it, including my days growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, to help connect the dots that led me to Hollywood.
Q: Let’s talk about one of those stories. On the back cover, it claims that you fought Martians as a boy. You can’t be serious.
A: It was on an outdoor sleepover. The campgrounds were flanked by a country club golf course on one side and on the other by deep woods, and in the darkest part of the night, a couple of other campers and I were awakened by the distinct sound of a flying saucer landing and went to investigate. That’s when we saw the Martians, dressed in strange spacesuits and carrying nasty-looking weapons with needles on the end of them. There was a physical confrontation. You’ll have to read the book to learn what may or may not have happened. My high school and college years were also filled with incredibly crazy events. One of them during college is allegedly still discussed in its radio-tv classes and involved my comedy radio show and the local airport. The chaos of that event made me leave radio and turn my sights on television. And then Hollywood.
Q: With all of your success, why did you title the book “Memoirs Of A Hollywood Unknown”?
A: Because I’m absolutely an unknown to just about everyone, nothing more than one of many names seen in the credits. Which is why the first thing I wanted to do in Book One was to get the reader to know me a little, from my early days through college, and the experiences that sent me on my journey.
Q: Tell us about your first prime time show and what was it like?
A: It was The Six Million Dollar Man with my great writing partner Jim Carlson. We did four scripts, including a two-hour episode that featured the Air Force Thunderbirds. Writing for that show, and for all of the shows I’ve ever done, was generally fun, lots of hard work, and absolutely thrilling, and it’s always been like that from the very beginning. Nothing else comes close.
Q: Later, you and Jim were hired as Story Editors on the original version of Battlestar Galactica. What was that like?
A: A lot of it was great, but it was also challenging due to the interference of ABC in terms of show content, and also because Executive Producer Glen Larson could be difficult. You’ll see what I mean in the book. You’ll also discover what he had planned for Season Two if the show had been picked up, with multiple changes in terms of show regulars, and what I consider to be less-than-stellar story lines.
Q: What do you hope your readers will take away from Book One?
A: My enthusiasm for working in this business all these years, even when thing got tough, and my sense of humor about it all. To this day, whenever I walk onto a studio lot, there’s this wonderful adrenaline rush that’s never gone away, and I hope the readers will be able to feel it in my stories and look forward to the next two volumes. Book Two: Kids' Shows is scheduled for August and Book Three: Game Shows for November.