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Hollywood Huckster: A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions
It’s Mad Men of the ‘70s and ‘80s, set in Hollywood! “HOLLYWOOD HUCKSTER” is the true story of the television and film industry from the mid ‘70s through the mid ‘80s. The pot-smoking, acid-dropping, counter-culture students of the turbulent ’60s were bringing their skewed comedy, irreverent attitudes and anti-establishment views to America via Hollywood. The lunatics started running the asylum. And one of them pushed the envelope more than anyone else of that era. He was Kevin Hartigan, the most infamous industry player you’ve never heard of.
- GenresTv
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 27, 2013
About the author
David Garber
8 books2 followersBestselling author David Garber has spent a lifetime in Hollywood — writing it, teaching it, and now mining its darkest corners for fiction. His memoir, Hollywood Huckster: A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions, reached #1 on Amazon's Biography & Memoir list. His new historical mystery-noir, Four Coins, a Yo-Yo, and a Gun, is his third book and his second to plunge into the Hollywood he knows better than most — the real one, behind the glamour.
Garber spent more than three decades as a writer, producer, and showrunner, amassing over 100 produced scripts across some of television's most beloved series. His credits include The Fall Guy, Saved by the Bell, Love Boat, Alien Nation, 227, Sweet Valley High, and the Power Rangers franchise. His theatrical feature work includes Dennis the Menace for Disney and the Sweet Valley High feature for Saban Films. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West, and has been recognized with a Prism Award for outstanding writing and a TV Critics Award for Special of the Year.
Since 2013, he has taught screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film and Television — bringing the same hard-won insider perspective to the classroom that animates his fiction.
Away from the page, Garber is an avid disc golfer and lifelong Boston sports fan. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Hava, and their two adult children — just a few miles from the backlots where his career began and his stories now live.
To reach the author: Email: DavidGarber@LinzackPublishing.com
Garber spent more than three decades as a writer, producer, and showrunner, amassing over 100 produced scripts across some of television's most beloved series. His credits include The Fall Guy, Saved by the Bell, Love Boat, Alien Nation, 227, Sweet Valley High, and the Power Rangers franchise. His theatrical feature work includes Dennis the Menace for Disney and the Sweet Valley High feature for Saban Films. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West, and has been recognized with a Prism Award for outstanding writing and a TV Critics Award for Special of the Year.
Since 2013, he has taught screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film and Television — bringing the same hard-won insider perspective to the classroom that animates his fiction.
Away from the page, Garber is an avid disc golfer and lifelong Boston sports fan. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Hava, and their two adult children — just a few miles from the backlots where his career began and his stories now live.
To reach the author: Email: DavidGarber@LinzackPublishing.com
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 12, 2022
Obnoxious book about horrible failed Hollywood writer Kevin Hartigan, but it’s mistakenly written as a tribute to the terrible guy instead of author Garner focusing on his own successful 1989s and 1990s TV career.
There is nothing redemptive about Hartigan or this book. It uses a fake structure of Garber cleaning out old memories of his dead friend, telling hard-to-believe stories of the many flops the two created together. They both are total losers and the poorly-written book is not worth wasting your time on.
However It did reinforce that Hollywood creatives are sick, immoral, unethical jerks who will lie about everything to get a job. No wonder most television is so bad if these two are considered successful in the industry!
Garber should be ashamed of this trash; instead he puts Hartigan up for comedy sainthood but there’s nothing funny about it. Why isn’t this instead about great family shows Garber went on to do like Saved By the Bell’s initial season with Haley Mills? Now that would have been worth reading.
There is nothing redemptive about Hartigan or this book. It uses a fake structure of Garber cleaning out old memories of his dead friend, telling hard-to-believe stories of the many flops the two created together. They both are total losers and the poorly-written book is not worth wasting your time on.
However It did reinforce that Hollywood creatives are sick, immoral, unethical jerks who will lie about everything to get a job. No wonder most television is so bad if these two are considered successful in the industry!
Garber should be ashamed of this trash; instead he puts Hartigan up for comedy sainthood but there’s nothing funny about it. Why isn’t this instead about great family shows Garber went on to do like Saved By the Bell’s initial season with Haley Mills? Now that would have been worth reading.
June 15, 2013
Hollywood Huckster
A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions
written by David Garber
A BOOK REVIEW
I had the privilege of reading David Garber's new book; Hollywood Huckster, A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions. Non fiction.
I took my time. Reading each chapter.
All thirty-three. Each chapter basically a synopsis of the writers platform, for a new television show being promoted with some big wig at one of the huge Hollywood studios.
Analyzing it, letting it sink in. Dreaming. Moving on to the next chapter. Dreaming again, analyzing it, letting it sink in. Dreaming some more.
HOLLYWOOD HUCKSTER
A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions
A writers dream. Or a writer's nightmare?
The late seventies. The place Hollywood. Drugs, Sex, Rock & Roll keywords of the day.
Two writers, pair up to make a comedy writing team. The author, David Garber and Kevin Hartigan.
One of my dreams as a young man. Run away to Hollywood and become a writer for television. Become a Rob Petrie, a head writer, a success, make tons and tons of money.
But like most dreams they fade away...
Then comes along a book to awaken those sleepy memories. Hollywood Huckster. Hob-knobbing with the likes of Bill Cosby, Aaron Spelling, Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, the list goes on and on...
Writing for television shows like; Mash, Magnum PI, The Bill Cosby Show, Sanford and Son's...
I couldn't possibly name them all. David's list of credits are impeccably endless.
My dreams have been shattered, as I read one interview after another. The devious deals being made, the back stabbing, the trickery.
I never realized how competitive a Hollywood writer has to be. The weak do not survive, in this celluloid jungle.
Where no one is safe, a replacement at the door? The pressure. I wouldn't have survived. It takes a special breed, one like Kevin Hartigan and David Garber. David the straight man, the typist, Kevin the jokester, who never typed a page in his life. Opposites! A team.
Easy light reading, you'll like Dave's congenial personality, he invites you into his writing life, almost like being there, a friend.
But most important, it's entertaining and funny! An uplifting story. A story of life's struggles and plateaus.
I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
I'd give it two thumbs up or five stars.
Destined for the best sellers table.
Michael Estey
A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions
written by David Garber
A BOOK REVIEW
I had the privilege of reading David Garber's new book; Hollywood Huckster, A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions. Non fiction.
I took my time. Reading each chapter.
All thirty-three. Each chapter basically a synopsis of the writers platform, for a new television show being promoted with some big wig at one of the huge Hollywood studios.
Analyzing it, letting it sink in. Dreaming. Moving on to the next chapter. Dreaming again, analyzing it, letting it sink in. Dreaming some more.
HOLLYWOOD HUCKSTER
A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions
A writers dream. Or a writer's nightmare?
The late seventies. The place Hollywood. Drugs, Sex, Rock & Roll keywords of the day.
Two writers, pair up to make a comedy writing team. The author, David Garber and Kevin Hartigan.
One of my dreams as a young man. Run away to Hollywood and become a writer for television. Become a Rob Petrie, a head writer, a success, make tons and tons of money.
But like most dreams they fade away...
Then comes along a book to awaken those sleepy memories. Hollywood Huckster. Hob-knobbing with the likes of Bill Cosby, Aaron Spelling, Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, the list goes on and on...
Writing for television shows like; Mash, Magnum PI, The Bill Cosby Show, Sanford and Son's...
I couldn't possibly name them all. David's list of credits are impeccably endless.
My dreams have been shattered, as I read one interview after another. The devious deals being made, the back stabbing, the trickery.
I never realized how competitive a Hollywood writer has to be. The weak do not survive, in this celluloid jungle.
Where no one is safe, a replacement at the door? The pressure. I wouldn't have survived. It takes a special breed, one like Kevin Hartigan and David Garber. David the straight man, the typist, Kevin the jokester, who never typed a page in his life. Opposites! A team.
Easy light reading, you'll like Dave's congenial personality, he invites you into his writing life, almost like being there, a friend.
But most important, it's entertaining and funny! An uplifting story. A story of life's struggles and plateaus.
I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
I'd give it two thumbs up or five stars.
Destined for the best sellers table.
Michael Estey
May 28, 2013
Everyone needs a good book and here it is! The book is ALL TRUE and no names have been protected (Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Charlies Angels, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Alan Alda, Redd Fox, Aaron Spelling, Claudette Colbert (Oscar winner for Best Leading Actress), Senator Ted Kennedy, and there's shows like MASH, Love Boat, Charlie's Angels, Sanford and Son, Welcome Back Kotter). It will inspire the huckster in you.
August 12, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews