Nonstop Laughs

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According to Gelbart, the Mutual Film Corp. not only suggested when Villa should and should not fight but also insisted he get some modern, better-looking artillery and supplied him with uniforms. "They were forgetting that people were getting killed," says Gelbart. "They were forgetting why they were there."

Gelbart is good at reminding us of things like that especially with productions like his 1989 political satire Mastergate, which spoofed the Iran-contra hearings with lines like "What did the President know, and does he have any idea that he knew it?"

For Gelbart, however, writing isn't just a way to be clever. It can also be a therapeutic release for the frustration he has felt in Hollywood. He began writing City of Angels while he was in the throes of working on Tootsie a project during which he was angered by "the constant meddling" with his script. He spun his ire into a tale of an abused screenwriter named Stine (Gelbart's alter ego). Poor Stine is plagued by a producer who boasts that he could trim 10 seconds from the Minute Waltz; he's also rewritten by nearly everybody else who crosses the stage.

And therein lies one of the keys to Gelbart's longevity in the business. Better to transfer the rage to his keyboard than to his duodenum, he observes. Still restive and passionate about the art he produces, he has no plans to walk away from his computer any time soon. "I'd only retire if I could be assured there is show business after death," says Gelbart. "Then I simply would think of retiring as a hiatus."