Art Wallace

Art Wallace is a screenwriter who began work in television in the 1940s, on the anthology series Studio One. Over the years, Wallace wrote for Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (a very early sci-fi series produced by Mort Abrahams), Armstrong Circle Theatre, Hong Kong, Combat!, The Nurses (starring Zina Bethune), Star Trek, and many other shows. Wallace is best known for his work on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966-1971). Based on his 1957 episode of the teleplay anthology series Goodyear Playhouse called "The House", Wallace declined the job of producer of Dark Shadows but wrote the "bible" and first thirteen weeks' worth of episodes and wrote the next thirteen weeks of shows alternating with film writer Francis Swann. Wallace was also a story consultant for the soap opera All My Children.

In 1974, Wallace wrote the first two episodes of the Planet of the Apes TV series - "Escape from Tomorrow" and "The Gladiators". In writing the opening episode, Wallace created a premise which revised an earlier pilot episode script by Rod Serling. Wallace had initially been reluctant to be involved: “I thought it was a terrible idea to turn 'Apes' into a weekly series. But Herbert Hirschman convinced me that we could make provocative statements on our world and, when I wrote my episodes, I truly believed in the show.” "The early time slot forced Apes to become more of a children’s program, and the terror and mystery of the apes was ruined because they turned the gorillas into buffoons. Every week, the astronauts knocked them out with ridiculous judo chops and backflips."

External Links

• Art Wallace profile at Wikipedia
• Art Wallace profile at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

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