Wake Me When It's Funny: How to Break into Show Business and Stay

by Garry Marshall, Lori Marshall

Overview

This memoir and show-business primer from one of film and TV's most successful writer-producer-director-actors (Pretty Woman, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Murphy Brown) gives sound advice on how to create comedy, break into TV, shoot movies, and deal with Hollywood. 40 b/w photos.

Garry ("Allergic to Everything but Success") Marshall has written hundreds of TV scripts, produced and created 14 prime-time series, including The Odd Couple and Happy Days, and has written a number of stage plays. This entertaining portrait of Marshall's life takes readers on a tumultuous, behind-the-scenes journey, from his early days to the peak of sitcom success to his work in movies today. 32 pages of photos.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557042880
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/01/1997
Series:	Insider Filmbooks
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	310,615
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.88(d)

Editorial Reviews

Marshall was king of TV sitcoms in the 1970s with Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy and The Odd Couple, then turned to film, directing Pretty Woman and Beaches. He claims he has not been hurt by critics who blasted him for targeting society's lowest common denominator; rather, he glories in that assessment, for his aim was to be ``the Norman Rockwell of television.'' This autobiography, written with his daughter, shows how he reached his goal. The book is a sort of how-to guide, for he explains the processes of writing, directing and producing TV comedy and directing movies in a way that should prove helpful for anyone aspiring to break into either medium. He takes readers from his youth in the Bronx to freelancing for famous comics and thence to Hollywood, with entertaining anecdotes about showbiz types from Danny Thomas to Robin Williams. Photos. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly