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Marc Cushman
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SATURN AWARD WINNER ~
THE SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
2014
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Marc Cushman is an author and Los Angeles based screenwriter and director. He was born in San Diego, but grew up on the road with a traveling father, making pit stops in San Francisco, Hawaii, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington, before finally landing in Los Angeles. Five years spent living on a dairy farm outside Tillamook, Oregon, fostered a knack for entertaining himself through writing. He has since entertained himself - and worked - in television and film for 30 years.
Marc’s first exposure to Star Trek came in the fifth grade, when all of his classmates begged their teacher to skip homework so they could all watch Star Trek that night. He finally saw Star Trek for the first time on June 15, 1967 with the episode “The Devil in the Dark.” His family’s TV reception was spotty at best, but over the course of the summer of 1967, Marc was able to fully see Star Trek episodes. It changed his life; his destiny was set.
Marc moved to Los Angeles in 1982 to pursue a career as a television writer. One of his first jobs at a small production company was to write a one-hour special on the phenomenon of Star Trek. At the time, the original Star Trek series was still playing in syndication nightly, conventions had become big business and two Star Trek movies had been box office hits. So, Marc made a call and he was off to interview Gene Roddenberry. At first terrified, Marc found Gene to be warm, gracious and generous. He gave Marc full-access to storage rooms, scripts, etc. And though this show never happened, it provided Marc with the beginning of a great friendship with Gene Roddenberry and the hope that someday he’d be able to do justice to the original Star Trek series.
His television writing assignments include scripts for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, and Diagnosis: Murder. His feature film credits include Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney, The Magic of Christmas, and In The Eyes Of A Killer. As a writer/producer, Marc created and served as show-runner for two television series: the cult comedy Channel K and its spin-off, the original Bachelor Pad.
Directing credits include the award winning comedy-documentary Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney, An Evening With The Golddiggers, The Story Of O: Untold Pleasures, and a pair of recent TV pilots. There have also been numerous instructional films, music videos, and infomercials. This experience has enabled Marc to appreciate writing within the constraints of shooting schedules and budgets. Marc shares his knowledge as a teacher of screen writing at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California. Marc also served as President of the Los Angeles based Alameda Writers Group for five terms, spanning 15 years of the AWG's history.
Marc is the author of I Spy: A History Of The Groundbreaking Television Series (McFarland & Co., 2007), and the definitive examination of the making of the original Star Trek series, with his three-volume set, These Are The Voyages, TOS. In 2016, Cushman's book series Irwin Allen's Lost in Space: The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series was released by Jacobs Brown Press. The Irwin Allen's Lost in Space three book series whisks you back in time to the Irwin Allen production offices, writers’ conferences, and sound stages for the making of this iconic series.
Marc’s first exposure to Star Trek came in the fifth grade, when all of his classmates begged their teacher to skip homework so they could all watch Star Trek that night. He finally saw Star Trek for the first time on June 15, 1967 with the episode “The Devil in the Dark.” His family’s TV reception was spotty at best, but over the course of the summer of 1967, Marc was able to fully see Star Trek episodes. It changed his life; his destiny was set.
Marc moved to Los Angeles in 1982 to pursue a career as a television writer. One of his first jobs at a small production company was to write a one-hour special on the phenomenon of Star Trek. At the time, the original Star Trek series was still playing in syndication nightly, conventions had become big business and two Star Trek movies had been box office hits. So, Marc made a call and he was off to interview Gene Roddenberry. At first terrified, Marc found Gene to be warm, gracious and generous. He gave Marc full-access to storage rooms, scripts, etc. And though this show never happened, it provided Marc with the beginning of a great friendship with Gene Roddenberry and the hope that someday he’d be able to do justice to the original Star Trek series.
His television writing assignments include scripts for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, and Diagnosis: Murder. His feature film credits include Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney, The Magic of Christmas, and In The Eyes Of A Killer. As a writer/producer, Marc created and served as show-runner for two television series: the cult comedy Channel K and its spin-off, the original Bachelor Pad.
Directing credits include the award winning comedy-documentary Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney, An Evening With The Golddiggers, The Story Of O: Untold Pleasures, and a pair of recent TV pilots. There have also been numerous instructional films, music videos, and infomercials. This experience has enabled Marc to appreciate writing within the constraints of shooting schedules and budgets. Marc shares his knowledge as a teacher of screen writing at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California. Marc also served as President of the Los Angeles based Alameda Writers Group for five terms, spanning 15 years of the AWG's history.
Marc is the author of I Spy: A History Of The Groundbreaking Television Series (McFarland & Co., 2007), and the definitive examination of the making of the original Star Trek series, with his three-volume set, These Are The Voyages, TOS. In 2016, Cushman's book series Irwin Allen's Lost in Space: The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series was released by Jacobs Brown Press. The Irwin Allen's Lost in Space three book series whisks you back in time to the Irwin Allen production offices, writers’ conferences, and sound stages for the making of this iconic series.
