Gary David Goldberg
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Gary David Goldberg (born June 25, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer and producer for television and film. He created the hit sitcoms Family Ties and Spin City, both starring Michael J. Fox, as well as the acclaimed 1991-1993 semi-autobiographical series Brooklyn Bridge. He claimed that he created the premises of Family Ties based on his experiences with his wife as former hippies turned into members of suburban America.
He also wrote for shows such as The Bob Newhart Show, The Tony Randall Show, Lou Grant and M*A*S*H. He moved into film screenwriting in 1989 with Dad and in 2005 with the film Must Love Dogs, both which he also directed.
His production company is UBU Productions, famous for their closing of "Sit, Ubu, sit - good dog." Ubu Roi was Goldberg's dog in college.
The First Israeli Super-Hero
Back in 1972, Gary and his wife-to-be, Linda, were traveling from Greece to Israel. In Israel Gary needed money to continue his travel, so he corresponded to an ad he saw on a billboard. The ad called for native English actors, to play in an English teaching programs for IETV (Israeli Educational TV Center), Gary auditioned and got the part of "Scooterman" in the English-teaching show "The Adventures of Scooterman". The show focused on teaching the Israeli 8th graders English through the wild adventures of "Scooterman" and his loyal sidekick "Kickstand". Scooterman was a special Detective that lived in a high-tech garage with Kickstand and they had a boss that sent them to different missions through the computer on their high-tech Vespa. 6 episodes of Scooterman were filmed , but since the masters were in re-runs for numerous years, the got almost destroyed. It is believed that only one episode was left and got transferred to a modern type of media. All 6 episodes were recorded on big 2 inch tapes. Because "The Adventures of Scooterman" was in re-runs for many years, it became a cult show among the young generations of the 70's and 80's in Israel.