Steven Bochco Biography

Fast Facts

• Shared first writing credit with Rod Serling when he expanded Serling's A Slow Fade to Black, which aired in 1964 as part of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, into the 1967 theatrical release The Movie Maker, starring Rod Steiger
• When Columbo began as a series, he wrote the award-winning opening script ("Murder by the Book")
• The episode was directed by Steven Spielberg
• Cowrote the 1972 sci-fi movie Silent Running
• A career detour was Cop Rock, a cop-musical series that he cocreated and produced in 1990
• The ambitious, over-the-top show---in which cops burst into song while fighting crime---lasted only three months
• The man playing the violin on the TV logo for Steven Bochco Productions is in honor of his father, a concert violinist
• Published the novel Death by Hollywood in 2003
• Awards include the David Susskind Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, the Directors Guild of America Diversity Award in 1999 and the Humanitas Prize in 1999
• Son Jesse Bochco directed episodes of some of his shows, including Philly (2001-02) and Raising the Bar (2008-09)