Glen Charles

In the half-hour solo portion of his interview, Glen Charles talks about his early years growing up near Las Vegas. He discusses the radio and television programs he enjoyed in his youth, his work in advertising, and how he started writing for television with his brother, Les Charles. 

In the three-hour joint portion of their interview, Glen and Les Charles talk about their television writing career. They discuss selling their first script (to M*A*S*H) and breaking into staff writing at MTM Productions, where they worked as writer-producers on Phyllis and the final season of The Bob Newhart Show. They recall other writing assignments on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Betty White Show, and detail working with the cast and crew of the hit series, Taxi. The pair talk about both writing and producing the ABC run of Taxi (the show would run a final season on NBC) and chronicle the creation of the series Cheers (with James Burrows). They outline their roles as producers and later executive producers of the show, discuss cast changes, and recall memorable episodes from the show's eleven-year run. Gary Rutkowski conducted the interviews on December 8, 2003 in Los Angeles, CA.