Andrew Bergman Biography

The son of a New York Daily News columnist, director/writer Andrew Bergman attended Harper College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After receiving his doctorate in teaching in 1970, Bergman established his reputation as a "progressive" film historian / sociologist with his 1971 overview of 1930s films, We're In the Money. Bergman was hired as a "youth contact" p.r. man for United Artists; it was his job to clue the studio in as to what was "hot" amongst the young. Following his Broadway playwriting bow with Social Security, Bergman received his first screenwriting credit for Mel Brooks' blockbuster western parody Blazing Saddles (a later attempt by Bergman to write a genre spoof on his own, Rhapsody of Crime, died on the vine). After the success of his screenplay and story for 1979's The In-Laws, Bergman was given an opportunity to direct the Madison Avenue satire So Fine (1981). Forming his own production company with Michael Lobell, Bergman has written and/or directed such moneymakers as Fletch (1985), The Freshman (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas and It Could Happen to You (1994). Keeping Andrew Bergman "honest" have been such occasional non-hits as the 1991 soap-opera lampoon Soapdish and the weekly TV fiasco The Dictator (1992). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi