A former staff writer on the signature comedy series of TV's infancy, "Your Show of Shows" (NBC, 1950-54), Neil Simon went on to establish himself as one of Broadway's most prolific and consistently successful hit-makers. For close to thirty-five years, a Simon play or musical opened each season on Broadway with many of his biggest successes adapted to film, including "Barefoot in the Park" (1967) "The Odd Couple" (1968), "The Sunshine Boys" (1975) and "California Suite" (1978), receiving Oscar nominations for the latter three. He also earned notice for adapting a Bruce Jay Friedman story as
