I've talked about how Larry Gelbart was the Mozart of comedy writers. Remember in AMADEUS that Mozart used to write his music with no corrections or cross-outs? Larry used to write MASH scripts in longhand on legal pads. I once mentioned that I loved a particular episode he wrote called "The More I See You" and the next day he gave me a Xerox copy of his first draft. I noticed that there were hardly any changes. I said, "Wait. So you do your first draft longhand, then do a second longhand to clean it up?" He said, "No, just one draft."
When I write in longhand I have 24 hours to get it typed up. Between all the cross-outs, lines in the margin, arrows, and sloppy penmanship, after 24 hours Navajo Code Readers couldn't decipher my scripts.
But check out an example of Larry's first draft of "The More I See You." He was remarkable in so many ways.
from By Ken Levine
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