William Rabkin is an American television producer, television writer and author.
William Rabkin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Washington, UCLA |
| Occupation(s) | Television producer television writer and author |
| Years active | 1987–present |
Early life
editRabkin grew up in Berkeley, CA, where his father was a Classics professor. He graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, then received his MFA in screenwriting from UCLA, where he wrote for the Daily Bruin student newspaper.[1][2]
Career
editHe has written for a number of notable television series namely Spenser: For Hire, Murphy's Law, Hunter, Baywatch, Diagnosis Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories, Monk and many other series.
Nearly all of his television work has been collaborations with fellow writer and producer Lee Goldberg, whom he met when they were both UCLA students working on Daily Bruin. They first teamed up as writers on the unmade, feature film adaptation of Goldberg's novel .357 Vigilante, beginning a professional partnership that lasted for twenty years.[3]
Rabkin is also the author of a number of tie-in companion novels for the Psych television series,[4] as well as the reference books Successful Television Writing (2003) (which he co-authored with Goldberg), Beginning Television Writing, (2010),[5] and Writing the Pilot (2011).
Teaching
editHe teaches screenwriting as part of the faculty at UC Riverside's Low-Residency Graduate Creative Writing Program in Palm Desert, California.[6] and is assistant director of the MFA program at Long Island University[7]
Personal life
editHis father was Norman Rabkin (1930-2012),[8] the Shakespearean scholar best known for his work Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning.[9][10]
Bibliography
edit
The Dead Man Seriesedit
|
Psych Tie-Insedit
Non-fictionedit
|
Filmography
edit| Year | Title | Role/Job | # of Episodes Written/ Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987–1988 | Spenser For Hire | Writer | 3 episodes, including the unsold spin-off pilot "Play It Again, Sammy" |
| 1988 | The Highwayman | Writer | 1 episode, "Haunted Highway" |
| 1988–1989 | Murphy's Law | Staff Writer | 5 episodes, ABC TV series starring George Segal based on the "Trace" and "Digger" books by Warren Murphy |
| 1989 | Hunter | Writer, Story Editor | 1 episode, "On Air" |
| 1989–1990 | Baywatch | Writer, Executive Story Editor | 4 episodes, including the final NBC episode, entitled "The End," before the series went into first-run syndication |
| 1990–1991 | She-Wolf of London | Writer, Supervising Producer | 11 episodes |
| 1991–1992 | Likely Suspects | Writer, Supervising Producer | 5 episodes, including "Smells Like Teen Spirit," an Edgar Award Finalist for Best Teleplay |
| 1993–1994 | Cobra | Writer, Supervising Producer | 7 episodes |
| 1994–1995 | Diagnosis: Murder | Writer | 6 episodes |
| 1995 | The Cosby Mysteries | Writer, Supervising Producer | 2 episodes |
| 1995 | Sliders | Writer | 1 episodes, “Prince of Wails” |
| 1995 | Deadly Games | Writer | 2 episodes, "The Boss" and "The Car Mechanic" |
| 1995 | Stick With Me, Kid | Writer, Supervising producer | 3 episodes |
| 1995 | SeaQuest DSV | Writer, Supervising producer | 3 episodes |
| 1995 | The Greatest Shows You Never Saw | Writer, producer | CBS TV Special |
| 1995–1996 | Flipper | Writer | 2 episodes |
| 1996–1998 | Diagnosis: Murder | Writer, Supervising Producer, Executive Producer | 26 episodes |
| 1999 | Martial Law | Writer, executive producer | 3 episodes |
| 2001–2002 | A Nero Wolfe Mystery | Writer | 6 episodes, including "Prisoners Base," an Edgar Award Finalist for Best Teleplay |
| 2002 | The Nightmare Room | Writer | 1 episode, “My Name is Evil” |
| 2003 | She Spies | Writer | 1 Episode, "Crossed Out" |
| 2003–2005 | 1-800-Missing aka Missing | Writer / Supervising Producer | 8 episodes |
| 2003–2006 | Monk | Writer | 3 episodes “Mr. Monk Can’t See a Thing”, “Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather,” “Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico” |
| 2004 | The Best TV Shows That Never Were | Writer, executive producer | ABC TV Special |
| 2007 | Psych | Writer | 1 episode, “Forget Me Not” |
| 2010–2012 | The Glades | Writer | 3 episodes |
| 2020 | Dream Raider | Writer | 8 episodes, HBO Max series |
References
edit- ^ "Author Q&A: William Rabkin, "Psych: Mind Over Magic"". Write On Online. 10 July 2009. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
- ^ "Writer Lee Goldberg: 'Almost all the work comes from personal relationships' – MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises". creative.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
- ^ "The Brothers Goldberg". Los Angeles Review of Books. 28 May 2018.
- ^ "William Rabkin Fiction Bibliography". Fantastic Fiction.
- ^ "William Rabkin Biography". writersstore.com.
- ^ "Faculty and Staff". palmdesertmfa.ucr.edu.
- ^ "TV Writers Studio Info Session: Long Island University's MFA in Writing and Producing for Television | Calendar of Events | Amherst College". amherst.edu.
- ^ "Content Uploads" (PDF). shakespeareassociation.org.
- ^ Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning. University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Mowat, Barbara A. (1982). "Reviewed work: Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning, Norman Rabkin". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 81 (3): 414–418. JSTOR 27709048.