Kenneth Levine (/lɪˈvaɪn/ is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and author. Levine has worked on a number of television series, including ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. T ...

'', ''

Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...

'' (for which he shared Outstanding Comedy Series honors at the

35th Primetime Emmy Awards The 35th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on September 25, 1983. The ceremony was broadcast on NBC, from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, California. It is remembered for the vulgar language during the ceremony, much of it from Joan River ...

), ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...

'', ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...

'', ''

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...

'', ''

Everybody Loves Raymond ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American sitcom television series created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch an ...

'', '' Becker'' and '' Dharma and Greg''. Along with his writing partner David Isaacs, he created the series '' Almost Perfect''. Levine was also the co-writer of the feature films ''

Volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

'' and '' Mannequin Two: On the Move''. Levine has also been a radio and TV

play-by-play commentator In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

for

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

games, having worked with the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

(1991),

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion ...

(1992–94, 2011-2012), and

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

(1995–96). From 2008 to 2010, he co-hosted the KABC ''Dodger Talk'' radio call-in program after every

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

game, as well as the station's weekly ''Sunday Night Sports Final'' program. During his second stint with the Mariners, he returned to help fill in for the deceased

Dave Niehaus David Arnold Niehaus (February 19, 1935 – November 10, 2010) was an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for the American League's Seattle Mariners from their inaugural season in until his death after the 2010 season ...

Other work

For several years in the 1970s, Levine was a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobil ...

using the air name "Beaver Cleaver" on several West Coast Top 40 radio stations including KYA San Francisco,

KFMB-FM KFBG (100.7 FM, "100.7 Big FM") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to San Diego, California and broadcasts an adult hits format. The station is owned by Local Media San Diego. It shares studios with LMSD's other stations in the ...

San Diego, and

KTNQ KTNQ (1020 AM) is a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, with a Spanish News/ Talk format. It is owned by TelevisaUnivision. From its original licensing on March 13, 1925 until 1955 it was called KFVD. The station has studios on ...

, KIQQ and KHTZ Los Angeles. Levine has written several books on television, travel and growing up in the 1960s. From 2005 to 2022 he ran the blo
By Ken Levine
which was rated one of The Best 25 Blogs of 2011 by

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...

. While Levine's blog spans many of his personal interests (including sports), a core focus of the content is about TV shows, writing for TV, and questions and answers about the various shows where Levine was part of the writing team. A 2014 blog post paying tribute to playwright

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...

led to Levine providing on-camera introductions to 17 movies written by Simon on the

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

cable television channel on Friday nights in January 2015.

Comments about Roseanne Barr

In what the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' called an epic "Blog Fight!", Levine responded to an assertion in ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...

'' by Roseanne Barr that her sitcom ''

Roseanne ''Roseanne'' is an American sitcom television series created by Matt Williams and Roseanne Barr which aired on ABC from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, and briefly revived from March 27, 2018, to May 22, 2018. The show stars Barr as Rosea ...

'' was doomed due to sexism and her lack of creative control. Levine said "...Roseanne is a monster. No amount of spinning on her part is going to change that. No amount of 'woe is me', 'no one understands me', 'I'm the only one who cares' laments are going to change the fact that she treated people like shit. Routinely. Constantly. Knowingly." Barr responded with an obscenity-laced rejoinder which included this challenge: "I am pretty sure that women who have worked for you in the past (if indeed there were ANY) worked in a hostile work environment. Let me know, women writers out there—how were you treated on Ken Levine’s staff?" Levine posted an answer from '' Almost Perfect'' co-creator

Robin Schiff Robin Schiff is a Hollywood writer-producer, best known for the movie ''Romy and Michele's High School Reunion'' starring Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino. Schiff was a member of the comedy troupe The Groundlings. She does an interview series once a y ...

: "There are many sexist guys in the business, but Ken Levine is not one of them. The most sexist thing he ever did was blather on about baseball with the other men in the room despite the fact that I was visibly bored. Hardly grounds for a lynching." But Schiff did offer, "I totally agree with Roseanne that there is rampant sexism in the industry. A couple of weeks ago, the WGAw released its executive summary finding that (in addition to dismal stats for ethnically diverse or older writers), women comprise only 28% of working writers. We still make less money than men. All you have to do is look at the writers onstage accepting Emmys for late night talk shows and sitcoms to see that women comedy writers are on the endangered list."

Podcast

In 2017, Levine launched a weekly

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

, ''Hollywood & Levine'', covering subjects similar to his blog, along with occasional interviews.

''The Simpsons'' episodes

* "

Dancin' Homer "Dancin' Homer" is the fifth episode of the second season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 8, 1990. In the episode, Homer becomes the Springfield I ...

" (season two) * " Saturdays of Thunder" (season three)

''MAS*H'' episodes

* " Out of Sight, Out of Mind" (season five) * " The Most Unforgettable Characters" (season five)
* " Post Op" (season five) * " The M*A*S*H Olympics" (season six) * " The Merchant of Korea" (season six) * " Patient 4077" (season six) * " Dr. Winchester and Mr. Hyde" (season six) * " Peace on Us" (season seven) * " Our Finest Hour" (season seven) * " The Billfold Syndrome" (season seven) * " None Like it Hot" (season seven) * " They Call the Wind Korea" (season seven) * " Point of View" (season seven) * " A Night at Rosie's" (season seven) * " Ain't Love Grand" (season seven) * " Good-Bye Radar: Part 1" (season eight) * " Good-Bye Radar: Part 2" (season eight)

Awards and nominations

* 1979 - Nominated:

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series: ''M*A*S*H'': "Point of View" (with David Isaacs)Ken Levine Awards and Nominations at th
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
/ref> * 1979 - Nominated:

Humanitas Prize for 30 Minute Network or Syndicated Television {{unreferenced, date=March 2013 The Humanitas Prize for 30 Minute Network or Syndicated Television is an award presented to the best written 30-minute network or syndicated television program. The winners are indicated in bold. 1975 (1st) *''Good ...

: ''M*A*S*H'': "Point of View" (with David Isaacs) * 1979 - Nominated:

Writers Guild of America Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility ...

for Episodic Comedy: ''M*A*S*H'': "Point of View" (with David Isaacs)Ken Levine library holdings a
Writers Guild Foundation
/ref> * 1980 - Nominated:

for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: ''M*A*S*H'': " Good Bye, Radar, Part II" (with David Isaacs) * 1980 - Nominated:

for Episodic Comedy: ''M*A*S*H'': " Good Bye, Radar, Part I and Part II" (with David Isaacs) * 1983 - Won:

for Outstanding Comedy Series: ''

'' (with

James Burrows James Edward Burrows (born December 30, 1940), sometimes known as Jim "Jimmy" Burrows, is an American television director who has been working in television since the 1970s.Stated in interview on '' Inside the Actors Studio'' Burrows has dire ...

Glen and Les Charles Glen Gerald Charles (born February 18, 1943) and Les Charles (born March 25, 1948) are American screenwriters and television producers, best known for ''Taxi'' and ''Cheers''. Early life and careers The Charles brothers attended University of ...

and David Isaacs) * 1983 - Nominated:

for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: ''

'': " The Boys In The Bar" (with David Isaacs) * 1983 - Nominated:

for Episodic Comedy: ''Open All Night'': "Terry Runs Away" (with David Isaacs) * 1984 - Won:

for Episodic Comedy: ''

'': " The Boys In The Bar" (with David Isaacs) (Tied with

for the ''

'' pilot, "

Give Me a Ring Sometime "Give Me a Ring Sometime" is the first episode of the American situation comedy ''Cheers''. Written by Glen and Les Charles and directed by James Burrows, the episode first aired September 30, 1982, on NBC. The pilot episode introduces the char ...

") * 1988 - Nominated:

for Episodic Comedy: ''

'': "Never Love a Goalie - Part I" (with David Isaacs) * 1990 - Nominated:

for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: ''

'': "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice" (with David Isaacs) * 1990 - Nominated:

for Episodic Comedy: ''

'': "Jumping Jerks" (with David Isaacs) * 1992 - Won:

for Episodic Comedy: ''

'': "Rat Girl" (with David Isaacs) * 1994 - Nominated:

for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Comedy Series: ''

'': "The Show Where Lilith Comes Back" (with David Isaacs)

Books

* ''It's Gone...No, Wait A Minute...'', a diary of his season broadcasting with the Baltimore Orioles (1991), released in 1993. * ''Where the Hell Am I?: Trips I Have Survived,'', a 2011 collection of travelogues he had originally started writing for friends and family. * ''The Me Generation... By Me (Growing Up in the '60s),'' a 2012 memoir * ''Must Kill TV'', a 2013 satirical novel

Plays

* ''The ‘60s Project'' (2006 musical, conceived by co-writer Janet Brenner) * ''Upfronts & Personal'' (2007) * ''A or B?'' (2014) * ''Going... Going... Gone!'' (2016) * ''Our Time'' (2017) *Fifteen Seconds (2018

References

External links

*
Ken Levine's blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Ken 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American bloggers American male bloggers American male non-fiction writers American male screenwriters American male television writers American podcasters American radio DJs American sports radio personalities American television directors American television writers Baltimore Orioles announcers Emmy Award winners Living people Major League Baseball broadcasters San Diego Padres announcers Screenwriters from California Seattle Mariners announcers Television producers from California Writers from Los Angeles Year of birth missing (living people)

Other work

Comments about Roseanne Barr

Podcast

''The Simpsons'' episodes

''M*A*S*H'' episodes

Awards and nominations

Books

Plays

References

External links

''MAS*H'' episodes