Jeremy Stevens

In his three-and-a-half-hour interview, Jeremy Stevens (1938-2020) talks about his early training and stage experience that included the off-Broadway revue The Fourth Wall and Broadway's The Sunshine Boys. He describes his entrance into television as a writer for a WNEW series hosted by Skitch Henderson that featured Valerie Harper and Richard Schaal in their early careers. He speaks about his work writing for the children's series The Electric Company and describes writing for the talk show satires Fernwood 2-Night and America 2-Night with his writing partner Tom Moore. He tells the story behind the famous "leisure suits cause cancer" bit and talks about his one-season stint as head writer on Saturday Night Live during the early 1980s. He then details serving as writer-producer for Everybody Loves Raymond's entire nine-year run. He discusses the atmosphere in the writers' room, recounts working with creator/executive producer Phil Rosenthal, and describes memorable episodes. Among the other projects he talks about are variety series Playboy After Dark, variety series The Richard Pryor Show, and the feature film Summer Rental. Gary Rutkowski conducted the interview on September 6, 2006 in Studio City, CA.