JUNE’S SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER: ED YEAGER
Creator and Former Executive Producer/Showrunner of Gary Unmarried

Ed Yeager recently left the critically acclaimed comedy, Gary Unmarried, the hit CBS show he created and on which he served as executive producer/showrunner, until last month. It is from this vantage point that Ed will be speaking at the next Hollywood Networking Breakfast on the topic, “The Pitfalls of being an Executive Producer/Showrunner . . . especially when you’re also the creator.”

Ed was born in the booming metropolis of Akron, Ohio. He went on to gradate from Ohio State University with a degree in something or another. After graduation, he stumbled into the Denver Comedy Works for a five-minute try out on open mike night. His act was completely moronic and he was immediately asked to become a regular. By this time, it was the golden age of stand up comedians. Ed traveled the country and shared the stage with the likes of Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Drew Carey and Ellen DeGeneres.

In 1988, Ed landed a job, writing on the revived Smother’s Brothers’ Comedy Hour, which led to being hired as The Smothers Brothers’ opening act. He would go on tour with The Righteous Brothers, Smokey Robinson and Ray Charles. It was around that time that Ed struck up a friendship with fellow comedienne, Roseanne Barr.

Roseanne went onto have her own show. Immediately Ed started pestering her for a job on the series. She finally gave in and hired him onto the staff in 1993. She loved Ed’s writing right until the time she fired him in 1995. Ed was able to use what he had learned and went on to write for many other hit sitcoms like, Grace Under Fire, Suddenly Susan, Dharma & Greg, and Still Standing.

After all that, Ed decided to write a spec script about a divorced guy trying to get back on his feet. The script, completed in October 2007, was immediately purchased by ABC Studios and sold to CBS. Gary Unmarried was born.

Shortly after the pilot was completed, Ed spoke to an executive who had some good news: a sound stage had been reserved for fall 2008 on the CBS Radford lot. Gary Unmarried had been picked up. From there the story has gotten more and more interesting. . . .