Statewide Interactive
Originally aired November 24, 2000
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Lew Hunter:
Hollywood Comes Home

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Mike Tobias.

It seems out of place. A restored Victorian house in a small Nebraska community. But if you know Superior, you know there's lots of Victorian houses in town. It's something Superior is proud of. On the surface, Lew Hunter seems as out of place in rural Nebraska as his house. After all, he is a highly-successful TV and movie producer, writer, and teacher. 100% Hollywood frequently dropping names like --
[Lew Hunter] "Cybill Shepherd, Sinatra, Marty Sheen, Sammy Davis, Judy Garland, Dina Shore, Francis Coppola."
If you know Lew Hunter, you know that stereotype is far from reality.
[Hunter] "I really consider myself a son of the soil and I'm very thankful for that because I think I have a full life that other people that are pals of mine who live in Beverly Hills and Bel Air and the San Fernando Valley and New York probably don't have that -- I don't know if they're any better off or I'm better off than they are but to me, it's important."
Lew Hunter's life is about storytelling as a program executive, a college professor, and as a screenwriter banging out scripts on an ancient typewriter once owned by comic actor and writer Ernie Kovacs.
[Hunter] "Every nickel I've made as a writer has come from this typewriter."
So we will tell you the Lew Hunter story the way that he would write it here in his writer's shack or the way he would teach his screenwriting students to write it. In three acts starting at the beginning. Lew Hunter grew up as a young child on a farm outside of Guide Rock.
[Hunter] "No electricity, no gas. We did have running water."
He was raised in an environment full of the pers. The family read Shakespeare and listened to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio. His mom dressed him up in costumes and he would sing, march in parades, or give violin or trombone recitals.
[Hunter] "Causing people to smile, to think has always been part of my life when I was such a small boy."
Hunter later moved to Superior and graduated from high school at 15. He entered college at Nebraska Wesleyan and became active in theater. This grew into an interest in broadcasting. While a student in Lincoln and at Northwestern University in Chicago, he had jobs in local radio and TV. It was the 1950's, a time often described as the glory years of television. Living in Chicago, Hunter now faced a decision that would change his life.
[Hunter] "New York I thought would be really terrifying if Chicago made me pretty nervous. Oh, no, don't go to Los Angeles I was told. Don't go to Hollywood because people will stab you in the front there. So one fella said if you want to make it bad enough, go to Hollywood. He says, a little bit of doubt, stay in Chicago where it's safe and warm. One out of 38 people I listened to."
So it was off to L.A. Hunter quickly became a part of the growing world of network TV. He landed a job in the mailroom at NBC. Money was tight so for entertainment he went to network shows.
[Show Host] "And you?"
[Hunter] "Lew Hunter from Hollywood."
[Show Host] "And you're married?"
[Hunter] "Yes, I am."
It was an exciting time to be in television.
[Hunter] "I can remember sitting in my office -- at that time I was in music clearance and Terry came running in the office, one of my fellow workers, and he said, oh, you've got to come over to stage four, Dina's got this unbelievable 19-year-old child singing this…she's unbelievable. We took him at his word. We went over there and Dina Shore was having new faces. Every year she had new faces night. There was this 19-year-old child singing in slow contrapuntal to "Happy days are here again, brother can you spare a dime," and it was Barbra Streisand."
But Hunter wanted a bigger role in what people were watching. He landed programming jobs at ABC, NBC, and Disney. From behind the camera, he worked on shows like "Little House on the Prairie," "Batman," "Peyton Place," "Bewitched," and "Quincy." Hunter says much has changed since that time thanks mostly to the rapid growth of cable TV.
[Hunter] "We don't have that communal experience. We don't go in the next morning and say god, did you say -- I mean we the audience. I'm not talking about the programming people. Did you hear or see what was on Dina last night? Or did you see last night or Dina Shore touched Harry Belafonte's arm as she was concluding a song. That just erupted particularly the south and the station pulled out of the show. Or did you see what was on "Defenders" last night? They had this unbelievable show about euthanasia."
Hunter also started writing during this time. First, scripts for shows like "Bewitched," "Batman," and "Combat." Then TV movies. His breakthrough was "If Tomorrow Comes," a 1971 story of Japanese- Americans placed in relocation camps during World War II. It was one of the highest rated programs of the year.
[Scene from "Fallen Angel"] "I need that innocent but pouty look just like she had."
Ten years later though a tale of child pornography put him on the "A" list for screenwriters. "Fallen Angel" won a Writers' Gild award and earned an Emmy nomination. It was the highest-rated TV movie in 1981. The topic was considered edgy for commercial TV at the time so it took some work to get the movie on the air. Hunter says it was worth the effort. 17 young victims of child pornography sought help the day after seeing the show.
[Hunter] "The opportunity to do movies of this nature, to cause people to think about what they can do to help children begin in this world so they can become substantial citizens becomes more than giving back. To me, it becomes just part of one of the necessities that we should focus upon. And in the middle of the story --"
Success as a screenwriter gave Hunter the opportunity to help other writers. He joined the prestigious UCLA Department of Film and Television in 1979. In the two decades since, his students have penned blockbuster movies like "Forest Gump," "Jurassic Park," "Men in Black," and "Mission Impossible." Almost all of his students are making a living as film or TV writers.
[Hunter] "I don't take credit for what my students have done. I take great pleasure in being part of their process. And because the students -- I can probably, if I had to, name 100 students who are wonderful professional screenwriters today in both television and motion pictures.
"Something to the effect that it's the ultimate grace a man or woman can have if he could write with a hangover."
Hunter is well connected. A quick call and people like Oscar-winning director and writer Oliver Stone are speaking in Hunter's classroom. These visits are providing material for Hunter's second book, "Naked Screenwriting: 20 Academy Award Winning Screenwriters Bear Their Heart, Soul, Craft, and Secrets." His first book, "Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434," shares the secrets of his UCLA screenwriting course. Act three is usually the conclusion but Lew Hunter's career is far from over. He has moved back to his boyhood home in Superior.
[Hunter] "I can be a citizen of the world and be right here in Superior, Nebraska."
Although he is not teaching full-time at UCLA, he is hardly retired. He plans to use his second house in town to host workshops for professional writers and he continues to teach at UCLA and abroad at places like the Sorbonne in Paris.
[Hunter] "Ever since I have been a professional writer, I have always had a sanctuary or a womb if you will.
From the cozy confines of his backyard shack, he continues to write. He works under the watchful gaze of hundreds of other storytellers. Willa Cather, another southcentral Nebraskan, watches from above."
[Hunter] "She has that glint in her eye as if it's really not all that serious though it's right. It's going to be fine. You just sit there and think just a little bit longer and you will come up with something much better I'm sure. And so she's sort of my patron saint."
Hundreds of small storyteller figurines watch from the shelves surrounding the room. It's a collection from around the world, each with something to say and an audience to entertain and inform. When you get down to basics, Lew Hunter is one of them.
[Hunter] "I really want to shed some light in any stray corner of the world that I might be fortunate enough to touch, and using stories to do that is maybe the best way of all."
[Mike Tobias, reporting] "So is that?"
[Hunter] I'll take it. (laughing)... I like that image. I'm happy to do that. Finger in the air. Let me tell you a story about.

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .