Michael Bill Wagner | |
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| Born | (1947-09-30)September 30, 1947 Ohio |
| Died | April 23, 1992(1992-04-23) (aged 44) |
| Occupations | Television writer and producer |
| Years active | 1975–1992 |
Michael Bill Wagner[1] (September 30, 1947 – April 23, 1992) was an American television writer and producer who worked on several television shows between 1975 and 1992, and won anEmmy Award in 1982 for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for his work on the television showHill Street Blues. He co-created, produced and wrote several episodes for the one-season ABC seriesProbe.
Wagner was amilitary brat. He was born inOhio, but grew up on Air Force bases in New York, Illinois, Japan, Germany, Nebraska and Texas. He graduated in 1965 fromRandolph High School atRandolph Air Force Base, Texas.[citation needed] He attended theUniversity of Missouri and moved to California, holding various jobs inLos Angeles, while writing scripts and selling some of his paintings.
In 1975 he sold his first television script to CBS for the seriesThe Blue Knight, a crime drama based on theJoseph Wambaugh novel of the same name. He quickly became an established television writer, scripting episodes ofJigsaw John,The Six Million Dollar Man,Kojak,Man from Atlantis,Starsky & Hutch andThe Rockford Files, among others.
In 1982 a script he wrote for the TV crime drama seriesHill Street Blues, "The World According to Freedom," was aired and he was quickly hired as a regular staff writer for the series. His story introduced the character "Captain Freedom," a street vigilante dressed absurdly as a superhero. His follow-up episode, "Freedom's Last Stand," won him the 1982Emmy Award as co-writer for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series.[2] In fact, three of the scripts he co-wrote for that season were nominated in the same category.[2] Wagner went on to co-write 35 episodes of Hill Street Blues for the next two years, and began a long association withSteven Bochco and several of his projects.
Wagner was asked by ABC in 1987 to help develop a new science fiction series,Probe, a light-hearted series about a scientific crime fighter named Austin James.Isaac Asimov, the renowned science fiction writer, had created the basic idea of a young man who solved mysteries using scientific concepts, somewhat in the vein ofTom Swift orRick Brant. Wagner wrote the two-hour pilot TV movie, "Computer Logic," and became Executive Producer for the series, which lasted one season.Parker Stevenson, who played the lead character, stated in a later interview that he patterned his character after Wagner's mannerisms and physical behavior.[3]: 272 The series ran on Thursday nights in the Spring of 1988 during the same time slot as NBC'sThe Cosby Show, and with that competition could not attract a sufficient audience to get renewed for the following season.[3]: 272
The following TV season, Wagner wrote three scripts for theGene Roddenberry seriesStar Trek: The Next Generation,[3]: 430 and served briefly as Executive Producer for the series. He worked withSteven Bochco on Bochco'sHooperman, starringJohn Ritter. Wagner helped develop and write the Bochco animated seriesCapitol Critters, he also wrote and served as supervising producer for the NBC seriesMann & Machine in 1992.
In 1992, Wagner died from brain cancer inAgoura Hills, California.[citation needed]
WAGNER, MICHAEL BILL, television producer, writer; b. Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Sept. 30, 1947
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