American screenwriter
Michael Bill Wagner
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Michael_Wagner.jpg/220px-Michael_Wagner.jpg) |
Born
| (
1947-09-30
)
September 30, 1947
Ohio
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Died
| April 23, 1992
(1992-04-23)
(aged 44)
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Occupation(s)
| Television writer and producer
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Years active
| 1975?1992
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Michael Bill Wagner
[1]
(September 30, 1947 ? April 23, 1992) was an American television writer and producer who worked on several television shows between 1975 and 1992, and won an
Emmy Award
in 1982 for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for his work on the television show
Hill Street Blues
. He co-created, produced and wrote several episodes for the one-season ABC series
Probe
.
Career
[
edit
]
Wagner was a
military brat
. He was born in
Ohio
, but grew up on Air Force bases in New York, Illinois, Japan, Germany, Nebraska and Texas. He graduated in 1965 from
Randolph High School
at
Randolph Air Force Base
, Texas.
[
citation needed
]
He attended the
University of Missouri
and moved to California, holding various jobs in
Los Angeles
, while writing scripts and selling some of his paintings.
In 1975 he sold his first television script to CBS for the series
The Blue Knight
, a crime drama based on the
Joseph Wambaugh
novel of the same name. He quickly became an established television writer, scripting episodes of
Jigsaw John
,
The Six Million Dollar Man
,
Kojak
,
Man from Atlantis
,
Starsky & Hutch
and
The Rockford Files
, among others.
In 1982 a script he wrote for the TV crime drama series
Hill Street Blues
, "The World According to Freedom," was aired and he was quickly hired as a regular staff writer for the series. His story introduced the character "Captain Freedom," a street vigilante dressed absurdly as a superhero. His follow-up episode, "Freedom's Last Stand," won him the 1982
Emmy Award
as co-writer for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series.
[2]
In fact, three of the scripts he co-wrote for that season were nominated in the same category.
[2]
Wagner went on to co-write 35 episodes of Hill Street Blues for the next two years, and began a long association with
Steven Bochco
and several of his projects.
Wagner was asked by ABC in 1987 to help develop a new science fiction series,
Probe
, a light-hearted series about a scientific crime fighter named Austin James.
Isaac Asimov
, the renowned science fiction writer, had created the basic idea of a young man who solved mysteries using scientific concepts, somewhat in the vein of
Tom Swift
or
Rick Brant
. Wagner wrote the two-hour pilot TV movie, "Computer Logic," and became Executive Producer for the series, which lasted one season.
Parker Stevenson
, who played the lead character, stated in a later interview that he patterned his character after Wagner's mannerisms and physical behavior.
[3]
: 272
The series ran on Thursday nights in the Spring of 1988 during the same time slot as NBC's
The Cosby Show
, and with that competition could not attract a sufficient audience to get renewed for the following season.
[3]
: 272
The following TV season, Wagner wrote three scripts for the
Gene Roddenberry
series
Star Trek: The Next Generation
,
[3]
: 430
and served briefly as Executive Producer for the series. He worked with
Steven Bochco
on Bochco's
Hooperman
, starring
John Ritter
. Wagner helped develop and write the Bochco animated series
Capitol Critters
, he also wrote and served as supervising producer for the NBC series
Mann & Machine
in 1992.
In 1992, Wagner died from brain cancer in
Agoura Hills, California
.
[
citation needed
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Marquis Who's Who (1989).
Who's who in Entertainment
. Marquis Who's Who.
ISBN
978-0-8379-1850-1
. Retrieved
29 September
2022
.
WAGNER, MICHAEL BILL, television producer, writer; b. Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Sept. 30, 1947
- ^
a
b
"Total Television" (1996) Alex McNeil, Penguin Books, p.1084.
- ^
a
b
c
"Science Fiction Television Series" (1996) Mark Phillips & Frank Garcia, McFarland & Co., Inc.
External links
[
edit
]
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