ALBOM TO CREATE TV SERIES FOR CBS

By: David Noack "Tuesdays With Morrie" Author Tries TV





When TV executives first contacted Mitch Albom last year and asked whether he was interested in writing for TV, he replied that he doesn't watch it much. So much the better, they said.



Already a popular sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press, a regular on ESPN, host of his own nationally syndicated daily radio show, and accomplished author - have we mentioned "Tuesdays With Morrie"? - Albom is now heading for Hollywood.



He just agreed to create a new TV series for CBS, which is slated to air next fall, via Gary David Goldberg's UBU Productions and DreamWorks Television. Goldberg helped created "Spin City" and was a writer on "Lou Grant."



Albom, in an interview from Sydney, Australia, where he was covering the Olympics, told E&P that creating the pilot for the proposed series would test his writing abilities. "Anyone who has followed my column knows that I try to develop a good ear for dialog - and dialog is really the backbone of doing a script for television or the movies," he explained. "So I am going to see if I have any talent for it."



The proposed one-hour drama will focus on a young, idealistic reporter who returns to his family's newspaper. His grandfather is the publisher; the young reporter's father was a foreign correspondent who was killed in action. He has to choose between his principles as a journalist and his quest to succeed. And to add some love interest, his former college flame is a reporter at a competing TV station.



Albom was "flattered" by being offered the chance to write a TV series, for despite all the fame and riches, he still considers himself basically a print journalist. "I don't know how to 'go Hollywood.' I've been to Hollywood, and I've come back from Hollywood," he declared. "My home is in Detroit, and my heart is in writing journalism, and I have great employers at the Free Press. ... Because they've always been respectful of things that I wanted to do outside - that's the reason I've stayed there and don't go to other papers because they allow me to flex some creativity, while still fanning my love for journalism," said Albom.



Free Press Managing Editor Carole Leigh Hutton said she doesn't mind if the paper "bathes in the occasional bit of reflected glory from Mitch's many successes. I still check the best-sellers list every week to see how 'Tuesdays With Morrie' is doing, and I still get this little twinge of pride when I see it there. Because no matter what else Mitch is, he's a Free Press guy! He's an important voice here and one I'm truly delighted to be able to share with our readers."





David Noack is a frequent contributor to E&P.





Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.