With his tender, funny memoir of four decades in the business, Alan Zweibel traces the history of American comedy Alan Zweibel started his comedy career selling jokes for seven dollars apiece to the last of the Borscht Belt standups. Then one night, despite bombing on stage, he caught the attention of Lorne Michaels and became one of the first writers at Saturday Night Live, where he penned classic material for Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and all of the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players. From SNL, he went on to have a hand in a series of landmark shows-from It's Garry Shandling's Show to Curb Your Enthusiasm. In Laugh Lines, Zweibel takes readers through his 40-year career in the comedy-writing business and charts the story of American comedy over the decades. From when the Catskills were a breeding ground for talented comedians, through the era of vanguard New York City comedy clubs that spawned a new wave of original voices, Zweibel covers comedy variety television, prestige cable, the Broadway stage, and the streaming world today. He weaves together his own stories and interviews with his friends and collaborators, including Billy Crystal, Larry David, Martin Short, Dave Barry, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, John Mulaney, and Steve Martin. Laugh Lines is a warmhearted cultural memoir of American comedy.

For use in schools and libraries only. In a letter to his children, a father recounts memories of the role Steve, the tree in their front yard, has played in their lives.

"Dear Kids, A long time ago, when you were little, Mom and I took you to where we wanted to build a house. . . . I remember there was one tree, however, that the three of you couldn't stop staring at. . . ."

After the family spares him from the builders, Steve the tree quickly works his way into their lives. He holds their underwear when the dryer breaks down, he's there when Adam and Lindsay get their first crushes, and he's the centerpiece at their outdoor family parties. With a surprising lack of anthropomorphizing, this is a uniquely poignant celebration of fatherhood, families, love, and change.

All 16 episodes from the first season of the 1980s American sitcom. Offering a surreal depiction of the daily life of a young comedian, the series follows a larger-than-life version of Garry as he repeatedly fails to form a lasting relationship with a woman, interacts with his eccentric apartment block neighbours and runs a comedy show out of his living room. Episodes are: 'The Day Garry Moved In', 'Grant Gets Broken', 'Garry Throws a Surprise Party', 'Foul Ball', 'The Graduate', 'It's Garry's Shandling's Problem, But It's Jo-Jo's Show', 'Garry Met a Girl Named Maria', 'Grant's Date', 'Pete Has an Affair', 'Fate', 'The Morning After', 'Sarah', 'Laffie', 'Dial L for Laundry', 'Dinner With Garry' and 'Force Boxman'.

In a series of funny, tender, and touching dialogues, former Saturday Night Live writer Zweibel recalls his buddy-and-almost-lover friendship with SNL actress Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer. Zweibel claims he "merely scribbled the dialogues playing in my head," and, indeed, these recreated conversations have a neurotic, sarcastic, and vulnerable air of aunthenticity. The actress and writer become fast friends on the SNL set and segue into personal revelation.

The script to the touching and funny play by Alan Zweibel about his relationship with famed comiedienne Gilda Radner.

Philip Horkman is a happy man, the owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop, and on Sundays a referee for a local kids' soccer league. Jeffrey Peckerman is the proud and loving father of a star athlete in the girls' ten-and-under soccer league, and he's not exactly happy with the ref.
The two of them are about to collide in a swiftly escalating series of events that will send them running for their lives, pursued by the police, soldiers, subversives, bears, revolutionaries, pirates, and a black ops team that "does not" exist. Where all that takes them you can't even begin to guess, but the literary journey there is a masterpiece of inspiration, chaos, and unadulterated, well, lunacy. And they might even learn a lesson or two along the way.

Shulman, a chubby, middle-aged stationery-store owner from New Jersey, has always claimed that he's been gaining and losing the same thirty-five pounds since junior high-and that if you added all of that discarded weight together, he had lost an entire person. Another Shulman. A Shulman he never really cared for. A Shulman he'd always tried to lose by dieting and exercising. A Shulman he'd cover by wearing extra-large shirts in an attempt to hide his existence.
This has been just a joke until, at a crossroads marked by overwhelming marital and business stress, he actually encounters this Other Shulman-an incredibly successful man who's made life and career choices that Shulman has spurned.
At first, the Other Shulman is but a mere nuisance, a source of frustration brought about by mistaken identity. But as time goes by, his actions become increasingly destructive and threaten to sabotage all aspects of Shulman's existence.
The struggle between the two Shulmans comes to a head while Shulman is running in the New York City Marathon. And it is during the course of this race, as he runs through the old neighborhoods where his life took shape, that this ordinarily passive family man examines all the choices he's made and realizes that in order for him to get his life back on track he must confront and overcome his haunting demons as presented in the form of this angry doppelganger, this Other Shulman.
In 26.2 chapters, one for each mile of the marathon, The Other Shulman is a hilarious and affecting tale of identity and aspiration from one of America's best-known comic writers.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Dear Mr. Franklin,

First of all, let me just say that this Assignment is Stupid. You are Dead. Why am I writing a letter to Some dead guy I've never even met?

This is the start to a most unlikely pen pal relationship between thirteen-year-old Franklin Isaac Saturday (Ike) and Benjamin Franklin. Before the fateful extra credit assignment that started it all, Ike's life was pretty normal. He was avoiding the popularity contests of middle school, crushing hard on Clare Wanzandae and trying not roll his eyes at his stepfather, Dirk-the-Jerk's, lame jokes.

But all that changes when, in a successful effort to make Claire Wanzandae laugh, Ike mails his homework assignment to Ben Franklin and he writes back. Soon, things go awry. After Ike has an embarrassing moment of epic proportions in front of Claire involving a playground, non-alcoholic beer, and a lot of kettle corn, Ike decides he needs to find a way to win Claire back. With some help from his new friend, B-Freezy, can Ike get the girl and make his mark in history?