But by the time I was halfway through college, I knew I wanted to be a writer, not an artist. During the summer of 1975, I enrolled in the Clarion Writers Workshop at Michigan State University, the leading science fiction writing workshop in the country. Over its six weeks, six of the leading SF writers in the field (Damon Knight, Joe Haldeman, Samuel R. Delany, Roger Zelazny, Kate Wilhelm and Gene Wolfe) lived with and taught the 25 students. At the end of the workshop, Damon Knight bought one of my stories for an anthology he was editing.

Back at UCLA, I finished out my art studies. By the time I graduated college, I knew I wanted to write TV and film. But more than that, I wanted to create works of lasting merit. So I looked to the shows that had inspired me -- TWILIGHT ZONE being foremost among them. But I found little written about how the show had come about and been run. So I decided to write the book I wanted to read. With no journalistic credits to my name, I knew Carol Serling, Rod's widow, would turn me down flat. So first I interviewed 30 people who'd worked on the show. When I finally went to Carol, I knew the subject well and she could check with the people she trusted whom I had already interviewed. She gave me full access to all of Serling's files, scripts, scrapbooks, everything. After five years (and 25 rejections), THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION was published. It was a huge success, earning me an American Book Award nomination and selling over 300,000 copies. It's still in print today, after 18 years.

By then, I was writing for TV. Thanks to my animation-writer friend Michael Reaves, I got started in cartoons, writing for numerous shows including THE SMURFS ("It Came From Outer Smurf" was one of my classics), SUPER-FRIENDS, HE-MAN and many others. I rose quickly, commanding top dollar and having my pick of assignments. But it wasn't where my heart lived, merely a place to start.

Determined to segue to live action prime-time shows, I wrote the romantic adventure screenplay PIECE OF CAKE as a sample. It got optioned by Orion and also gained me an assignment to write an NBC pilot, which got filmed in Thailand and starred Charlie Haid, Soleil Moon Fry, Chad Allen and Pat Morita.

This led to over 90 dramatic television script sales, to such shows as the revival of TWILIGHT ZONE, STAR TREK - THE NEXT GENERATION, DEEP SPACE NINE, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, BABYLON FIVE, FOREVER KNIGHT and SLIDERS, plus six additional pilots for NBC, ABC, Showtime and syndication.

But my goal was to climb the ladder on staff. So far, I've been on four series: as Story Editor on FRIDAY THE 13th - THE SERIES, Executive Story Editor on BEYOND REALITY (a TWILIGHT ZONE-like show starring Shari Belafonte), Co-Producer on LAZARUS MAN (on which Elaine and I co-wrote multiple episodes) and, most recently, a Producer on SLIDERS, where I had the opportunity (thanks to the Sci-Fi Channel) to rework the series to finally live up to its promise as a fresh and innovative show.

While I was doing all this, I was also writing screenplays for New Line, MGM, Orion, the Jim Henson Company, Davis Entertainment and Chanticleer - and serving as a commentator for three years on NPR's MORNING EDITION (telling - what else? -- stories about my family). Always popular as a guest on interview shows (and the world's expert on Rod Serling), I also appeared on hundreds of radio and TV shows, including AMERICAN MASTERS, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, A&E's BIOGRAPHY, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY and THE TODAY SHOW.