Lowell Ganz

Lowell Ganz (born August 31, 1948 in New York, New York) is an American screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel.

Ganz grew up in Queens, New York. He dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career writing for sitcoms, starting with "The Odd Couple". From there, he moved on to writing for the beloved TV show "Happy Days" and created two of its spin-off series, "Laverne and Shirley" and "Joanie Loves Chachi".

In 1982, Ganz and Mandel teamed up with "Happy Days" actors Ron Howard--who wanted to start directing--and Henry Winkler--who wanted to move away from his image as the Fonz--to make their first film, a low-budget comedy called "Night Shift", which was also actor Michael Keaton's first film. Ganz's second film outing, "Splash", launched the careers of Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Ganz and Mandel went on to write several other films, four more of which have also had Howard at the directing helm, and one of which had Penny Marshall, who starred in "Laverne and Shirley", as director. Four of their films have featured Billy Crystal, two have featured Tom Hanks, and two are about baseball. Ganz and Mandel are also widely-used as Hollywood script doctors, known for their reliability and fast turnaround time.

Ganz lives in Los Angeles with his wife of more than 25 years. They have three children named Scott, Allie, and Simon.

Screenwriting credits (in collaboration with Babaloo Mandel)

*"Night Shift" (1982)
*"Splash" (with Bruce Jay Friedman) (1984) *
*"Spies Like Us" (with Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase) (1985)
*"Gung Ho" (1986)
*"Vibes" (1988) (with Deborah Blum)
*"Parenthood" (1989)
*"City Slickers" (1991)
*"A League Of Their Own" (1992)
*"Mr. Saturday Night" (with Billy Crystal) (1992)
*"Greedy" (1994)
*"" (with Billy Crystal) (1994)
*"Forget Paris" (with Billy Crystal) (1995)
*"Multiplicity" (with Chris Miller) (1996)
*"Father's Day" (1997)
*"EdTV" (1999)
*"Where The Heart Is" (2000)
*"Fever Pitch" (2005)
*"Robots" (2005)

* Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay (1984)

Unproduced

*"Pinsky"

Acting Cameos

*"Splash" (Statue Of Liberty Tour Guide)
*"Parenthood" (Ballpark Vendor/Amalgam)
*"Mr. Saturday Night" (Writer)
*"Robots" (Voice of Mr.Gasket)

Television Credits (with Babaloo Mandel)

*"The Odd Couple" (1970-1975)
*"Happy Days" (also Supervising Producer) (1974-1984)
*"Laverne and Shirley" (also Co-Creator and Producer) (1976-1983)
*"America 2100" (1979)
*"Angie" (1979) (Director Only)
*"Joanie Loves Chachi" (also Co-Creator and Producer) (1982-1983)
*"The New Odd Couple" (1982-1983)
*"Amazing Stories" (1986)
*"Channel 99" (1988)
*"Knight And Daye" (1989)
*"Hiller and Diller" (also Executive Producer) (1997)

TV Appearances

Ganz and Mandel were featured in The Dialogue interview series. In this 90 minute interview with producer Mike DeLuca, Ganz and Mandel discusses their 40 year partnership as it evolved from television to feature films.

Theatre Credits

*"Wrong Turn at Lungfish" (with Garry Marshall) - Off-Broadway show, originally starring George C. Scott and Tony Danza

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0304665/ IMDb entry for Lowell Ganz]
* [http://www.thedialogueseries.com/bio_ganzmandel.shtml The Dialogue: Learn from the Masters Interview]