Michael Russnow

Michael got his start by fearlessly calling Earl Hamner Jr., creator and narrator of The Waltons and urged him to give him and his then-partner Tony Kayden a shot. It was a true Hollywood story, as the series was about a wannabe writer, and Michael and Tony were hired to pen three episodes.

After writing for The Streets of San Francisco (1972) and Little House on the Prairie (1974), Michael and Tony went their separate ways. Michael continued an eclectic career, branching into comedy with classics such as Barney Miller (1974) and Family Ties (1982). Read more... into the soap arena, working on Dynasty (1981), Knots Landing (1979), and Santa Barbara (1984).

Michael has also been working abroad, mostly in Europe, writing screenplay stories and TV Formats. In 2005, he co-wrote a TV pilot, "In Ewigkeit. Amen?" with German series star Andreas Stenschke (Ulli Prozeski on Verbotene Liebe (1995) and Ben Merker on Die Anrheiner (1998)). He has also completed a novel, "Hollywood on the Danube," about his adventures writing a Hungarian soap opera in Budapest.

Russnow is working on film and TV concepts, as well as continuing to write screenplays in addition to professional script consulting through his company Ram Productions International.

He is also a contributing writer to the prestigious on-line publication The Huffington Post on subjects ranging from the Writers Guild strike to politics to movie reviews and anything that particularly strikes his fancy.