Preston Wood

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Birthday: Mar 15, 1923

Birthplace: Haverford, Pennsylvania, USA

Despite the fact that Preston Wood wrote for many Emmy-winning series, he was never personally nominated for his classic scripts for these programs. While he began his career penning radio dramas, Wood was at the right place and time to become one of the pioneer writers of television during what has been called the "golden age" of prime-time drama. In the 1940s, Wood got his start in broadcasting at the University of Florida and took various professional jobs before World War II. After the war, he relocated to New York City and worked on radio's "Kraft Music Hall" and a slew of programs before moving into a behind-the-scenes role as an account executive. In '58, however, Wood was hired to develop programs for NBC and by '61, when he eased back into writing for television with a script for the Western series " Outlaws." Over the following years, he wrote episodes of "Rawhide," "The Virginian," "Daniel Boone," and "Slattery's People," starring Richard Crenna. But his biggest credit of the early '60s was on the Western hit"Bonanza," which directly led to his work on the mid-'60s shows "Gunsmoke," "The Addams Family," and "Dragnet 1967." During the '70s, Wood contributed to the TV classics "Hawaii Five-O," "Emergency!," "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams," and "Little House on the Prairie," among others. In the 1980s, Wood wrote for the Emmy Award-winning series "Quincy M.E.," starring Jack Klugman, before retiring to Florida to write novels.