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From Farm To Filmmaker:

In 'Must Love Dogs," Gary David Goldberg, creator of TV's "Spin City"
and "Brooklyn Bridge," conquers the big screen.

CURT SCHLEIER

Special to the Jewish News

G

ary David Goldberg is on the
phone talking about how
thrilled he is with his new
film, Must Love Dogs, which opens
nationwide tomorrow, July 29. There's
really nothing extraordinary about
that. All filmmakers speak lovingly of
their creations — especially a couple
of weeks before they open and are
reviewed.
What is remarkable about this con-
versation is that he's calling from his
home on a 300-acre farm in Vermont.
This is Gary David Goldberg, for gosh
sakes, of the Bensonhurst Goldbergs.
Gary David Goldberg, Lafayette High
School, class of 1962, who remembers
the exact day he played in the hal-
lowed halls of Madison Square Garden
(March 12, 1962) in the semifinals of
the city basketball championships.
Gary David Goldberg, the only Jew to
make the city's all-star team that year
(OK, if you want to nitpick, it was -
third team, but he's Jewish).
Gary David Goldberg, the scrappy
high-scoring shooting guard, is a city
kid. How he wound up in his little
corner of Vermont is more a story
about the state of the entertainment
business than it is about any innate
desire by Goldberg to raise hens, milk
cows and shuck corn.
Goldberg, of course, was the creative
force behind such series as Family Ties
and Spin City. In the process, he got
sick of the television business. Because
of vertical integration — networks and
studios all owned by the same compa-
nies — execs were making decisions
based on financial rather than creative
criteria. "There [was] no respect for
the material," he says.
He's not whining about it: "I don't
think anyone had as much fun as I
had, made the friends I did and had
the good fortune of it." But he felt it
was time to move on.

Getting Started

That good fortune gave him freedom.
He retired to this 300-acre farm, said
good-bye to his agent and spent a lot
of time each day walking his dogs.
One such walk took him past the local

bookstore, where
Claire Cook's novel
Must Love Dogs was a
recommended selec-
tion.
He bought it, read
it and felt the juices
start to flow.
Goldberg contacted
Cook about option-
ing the book, first
warning her that he
was now an outsider,
that he lacked great
ambition and would-
n't make the film in a
studio setting.
"I said to Claire
that she has to
understand that the
value of the rights are
diminished by the
fact that I'm the one
who owns them," he
explains. "But she
said, 'I've always
been a big fan of
yours going back to
;1 a Brooklyn guy
Gary David Goldbeig: Ti
Bob Newhart. I'd give
_Pont the sehoolya;d I need to
it to you for free.'
se e finllily (1;10-lei/cis on the set.''
Clearly she didn't
take the ICM course
in salesmanship.
the movie [he] wanted and be left
(ICM is a large talent agency that has
alone."
a reputation for striking hard bargains
on behalf of its clients.)
Real People
But, on the subject of reputations,
Goldberg's is one of the best in
Typical of Goldberg, one of his most
Hollywood. He's known for running
important considerations became that
congenial sets, and everyone who has
Horn not be hurt. So Gary agreed to
ever worked with him sings his praises. hold back a large swath of his fee to
So with a network of friends, it
pay for extras not in the budget.
seemed inevitable that something
For example, Warner wanted to
would happen.
shoot on location, in a real house. But
Goldberg's best friend is Warner
Goldberg needed a set. He argued that
Bros. honcho Alan Horn. The Horn
he was not that skilled a craftsman, as
and Goldberg families were sharing an
say, Steven Spielberg, who could work
intimate New Year's Eve dinner when
his cameras around obstacles;
Goldberg (he claims he was a little
Goldberg wanted the freedom to move
tipsy) began acting out the parts of his walls to get the right camera angle.
screenplay. Horn liked what he saw,
When Diane Lane and John Cusack
asked to see the screenplay and loved
signed on, Goldberg was off and run-
it.
ning. It wasn't quite as simple as that.
They settled on a $30 million budg- There were numerous rewrites, but the
et — about half the average for a
production went very well. The result:
Hollywood film and less than a third
a heart-warming and funny "chick
spent on other pictures opening today,
flick" that most guys will enjoy.
such as Stealth. It was a number big
FARM To FILMMAKER on page 42
enough that Goldberg could "make

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7/28
2005

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