David Moessinger obit

David Moessinger(1930-2018)

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David Moessinger was born on May 6, 1930 in Bethlehem, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Quincy, M.E. (1976), Simon & Simon (1981) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). He was married to Jeri Taylor and Midge Ware. He died on October 26, 2018.

Father, with Midge Ware, of actress Amy Moessinger.

Stepfather of Alexander Enberg, Andrew Enberg and Jennifer Enberg.

Former stepfather of Leslie Batanides and Jason Batanides.

David Moessinger was born in Bethlehem, New York, on May 6, 1930.  Originally the family surname was Möessinger, but “when David joined the marines, he did not have the courage to tell his drill sergeant that his name was pronounced ‘merr-singer,’ so it became MOH-singer.”  His three years in the Marine Corps came after an undergraduate degree from DePauw University, in Indiana.  Said Taylor, “He drove across the country after he got out of the Marine Corps, and wanted to become a director, and found you don’t just become a director.  So he went to USC, and took some classes, and he took a writing class just because that was one thing they offered.”  Mechanically, writing didn’t come easily.  Moessinger was dyslexic and never learned to type; he wrote his scripts by hand on yellow legal pads and, like many writers, found it vital to shut out every distraction.  “He wrote a spec script,” Taylor continued.  “It was one of the half-hour anthology things, I think.  And submitted it, and they bought it.  That was his first sale.  And so he began to think of himself as a writer, instead of a director.”

It was a promising start, but a fitful one.  Internet sources suggest that those spec sales were to Chevron Hall of Stars, a forgotten Four Star half-hour that died after thirteen episodes. Moessinger’s only other known credit during the fifties was Daddy-O (1958), a cheap juvenile delinquency picture starring musician Dick Contino, the Elvis of the accordion.  Decades later David and Jeri watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 lampoon it.  “It’s absolutely hilarious,” Taylor said, “and not one he was terribly proud of.”

Moessinger took jobs as a motel manager and a parole officer.  “He did whatever he could to keep himself alive and still be able to pursue his writing,” Taylor said.  After his big break came, in 1963, on the new color NBC anthology Kraft Suspense Theatre, columnist Hank Grant noted that Moessinger had been “mowing lawns” at the Bel Air Hotel only a year earlier, “to keep from starving.”  It sounds like rags-to-riches corn, but Taylor confirmed it.  “It’s very true.  He was a gardener.  He knew nothing about gardening!  I mean, this was just absurd.  Someone would say ‘prune the marigolds’ and he would have to say, ‘what’s a marigold?’  He told me the story that one time he was clipping a hedge or something, and he looked into the dining room and there was Rod Serling, having lunch.  And he just had that feeling of that’s the man I want to be, and here I am clipping a hedge, and I will probably never ever be a writer like that.  But that’s also the reason we got married in the Bel Air Hotel.  It was like he came full circle from what he had aspired to be to what he ultimately became.”

Moessinger’s fortunes likely turned around when Ashley-Steiner, the most important agency for television writers and directors at the time, signed him as a client in 1962. His first produced television script following a seven-year drought, a Combat about a court-martial for cowardice that makes good use of the platoon’s morally ambiguous everyman Kirby, aired in April 1963.  To Kraft, he sold a thematically related script, “The Long Lost Life of Edward Smalley,” a convoluted but substantive exploration of legal ethics and World War II trauma and guilt. It was produced as well as directed by Robert Altman, a prodigious but truculent talent, who may deserve some credit for discovering Moessinger.  (The credited producer of “Hill 256” was Gene Levitt, but Altman immediately preceded Levitt on Combat, and might have read or even bought Moessinger’s script.)  Altman put Moessinger to work on a more significant Kraft entry, “Once Upon a Savage Night.”  This documentary-styled but lurid study of a spree killer, more anticipatory perhaps of Bonnie and Clyde than of any of Altman’s own subsequent features, was shot in color and on location, with an eye toward expansion for theatrical release, in a version entitled Nightmare in Chicago.  It also marked the end of the brief writer-director collaboration, perhaps because Altman blew up his relationship with Kraft (“bland as its cheese,” he famously told Variety), but also because Moessinger found him “difficult.”  He “had a very contentious relationship with Altman,” Taylor explained.  “They made efforts at working together and it was not a good fit.”  And Moessinger got along with everybody; it’s why, Taylor thought, he succeeded later on as a showrunner.

Moessinger’s Kraft scripts (there was a third, “A Cruel and Unusual Night,” a dialogue between a death row prisoner and the judge who sentenced him, flatly directed by Leslie H. Martinson but brilliantly written) drew a lot of attention, and his career was assured.  Insight, the Paulists’ videotaped religious anthology, bought some his scripts, as did Gene Levitt for Combat.  Moessinger also wrote for Run For Your Life, Big Valley, and The Wild Wild West in the sixties, sometimes in collaboration with E. Sarsfield (Ed) Waters, another talented writer who had also worked by himself on Insight and with Altman on Kraft.  Insight, a videotaped anthology drama willed into existence by a Catholic priest with aspirations to media moguldom, was limited by its conservative and scriptural prerequisites, but Moessinger’s contributions to the series between 1964 and 1978 trace his evolution as a writer and director.  “Incident on Danker Street,” about a review board inquiry into police brutality, is something of a watered-down edition of The Senator’s famous Kent State two-parter (“A Continual Roar of Musketry”) from the same year, but Moessinger’s climactic monologue clinches a humble, thoughtful performance by Beau Bridges as a young cop. “I don’t know what it is inside me,” he murmurs, stricken.  “There’s something violent in there.”  “The Party” and “I’m Going to Be Free” were talky but compelling entries about premarital sex and prison reform, respectively.  Moessinger excelled at assignments that permitted him to build conflict through long, gradually intensifying exchanges of dialogue.

The big screen beckoned, too, faster than for most fledgling episodic TV writers.  Director Russell Rouse hired Moessinger and Waters to adapt William Kunstler’s true crime book The Minister and the Choir Singer as a feature, and when that fell through Rouse moved the writers and the film’s intended star, Stephen Boyd, over to a less promising project, The Caper of the Golden Bulls.  In 1967 Moessinger sold an original screenplay, Pro, which became the Charlton Heston football movie Number One.

 

Director

Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote (1984)

Murder, She Wrote

7.2

TV Series

Director

1991–1992

2 episodes

 

Tom Bosley and Tracy Nelson in Fatal Confession: A Father Dowling Mystery (1987)

Father Dowling Mysteries

6.9

TV Series

Director

1991

1 episode

 

Carroll O'Connor in In the Heat of the Night (1988)

In the Heat of the Night

7.6

TV Series

Director

1989

1 episode

 

Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker in Simon & Simon (1981)

Simon & Simon

7.0

TV Series

Director

1987–1988

3 episodes

 

Quincy, M.E. (1976)

Quincy, M.E.

7.3

TV Series

Director

1977–1983

4 episodes

 

Donna Mills, Joan Van Ark, Michele Lee, Constance McCashin, John Pleshette, and Ted Shackelford in Knots Landing (1979)

Knots Landing

7.0

TV Series

Director

1980

1 episode

 

Gil Gerard and Erin Gray in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

6.9

TV Series

Director

1979

1 episode

 

Eight Is Enough (1977)

Eight Is Enough

6.6

TV Series

Director

1977–1979

2 episodes

 

Joey Aresco, Ilene Graff, and Harrison Page in Supertrain (1979)

Supertrain

4.5

TV Series

Director

1979

2 episodes

 

Insight (1960)

Insight

7.4

TV Series

Director

1978

1 episode

 

Kaz (1978)

Kaz

7.5

TV Series

Director

1978

1 episode

 

Man from Atlantis (1977)

Man from Atlantis

6.5

TV Series

Director

1977–1978

2 episodes

 

Richie Brockelman, Private Eye (1978)

Richie Brockelman, Private Eye

7.0

TV Series

Director

1978

1 episode

 

Angie Dickinson in Police Woman (1974)

Police Woman

6.6

TV Series

Director

1975–1978

6 episodes

 

Roddy McDowall, Carl Franklin, Ike Eisenmann, Jared Martin, and Katie Saylor in The Fantastic Journey (1977)

The Fantastic Journey

6.9

TV Series

Director

1977

1 episode

 

Serpico (1976)

Serpico

6.7

TV Series

Director

1976–1977

2 episodes

 

Jack Warden in Jigsaw John (1976)

Jigsaw John

6.8

TV Series

Director

1976

1 episode

 

Mobile Two

6.1

TV Movie

Director

1975

 

Apple's Way (1974)

Apple's Way

6.5

TV Series

Director

1974–1975

4 episodes

 

Bill Bixby in The Magician (1973)

The Magician

7.5

TV Series

Director

1974

1 episode

 

Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969)

Marcus Welby, M.D.

7.0

TV Series

Director

1972–1973

2 episodes

 

The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969)

The Bold Ones: The Lawyers

7.0

TV Series

Director

1972

1 episode

 

Writer

Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote (1984)

Murder, She Wrote

7.2

TV Series

written by

1991–1992

2 episodes

 

William Conrad and Joe Penny in Jake and the Fatman (1987)

Jake and the Fatman

6.4

TV Series

written by

1989–1990

2 episodes

 

Carroll O'Connor in In the Heat of the Night (1988)

In the Heat of the Night

7.6

TV Series

written by

1988–1989

3 episodes

 

Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker in Simon & Simon (1981)

Simon & Simon

7.0

TV Series

written byteleplaystory

1986–1988

4 episodes

 

Blue Thunder (1984)

Blue Thunder

6.1

TV Series

teleplay

1984

1 episode

 

Quincy, M.E. (1976)

Quincy, M.E.

7.3

TV Series

writerteleplaystory

1977–1983

5 episodes

 

The Best Little Girl in the World (1981)

The Best Little Girl in the World

6.3

TV Movie

teleplay

1981

 

Angie Dickinson in Police Woman (1974)

Police Woman

6.6

TV Series

written byteleplay

1975–1978

5 episodes

 

Serpico (1976)

Serpico

6.7

TV Series

written by

1976

1 episode

 

Mobile Two

6.1

TV Movie

written by

1975

 

Robert Forster, David Birney, and Richard E. Kalk in Police Story (1973)

Police Story

7.5

TV Series

written by

1975

1 episode

 

Apple's Way (1974)

Apple's Way

6.5

TV Series

written by

1974

1 episode

 

Insight (1960)

Insight

7.4

TV Series

written by

1966–1974

8 episodes

 

Bill Bixby in The Magician (1973)

The Magician

7.5

TV Series

written by

1974

2 episodes

 

Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969)

Marcus Welby, M.D.

7.0

TV Series

writerteleplay bywritten by ...

1970–1973

6 episodes

 

Kung Fu (1972)

Kung Fu

7.6

TV Series

story (as Dave Moessinger)

1973

1 episode

 

Pete Duel and Ben Murphy in Alias Smith and Jones (1971)

Alias Smith and Jones

7.6

TV Series

teleplay by

1971–1972

2 episodes

 

George Peppard in Banacek (1972)

Banacek

7.6

TV Series

written by

1972

1 episode

 

The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969)

The Bold Ones: The Lawyers

7.0

TV Series

teleplay

1972

1 episode

 

William Conrad in Cannon (1971)

Cannon

6.8

TV Series

written byteleplay

1971

3 episodes

 

The Man and the City (1971)

The Man and the City

6.9

TV Series

written by

1971

1 episode

 

Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Peter Graves, Peter Lupus, and Greg Morris in Mission: Impossible (1966)

Mission: Impossible

7.9

TV Series

story byteleplay by

1970

1 episode

 

Charlton Heston, Bruce Dern, Diana Muldaur, and Jessica Walter in Number One (1969)

Number One

5.5

written by

1969

 

Robert Conrad and Ross Martin in The Wild Wild West (1965)

The Wild Wild West

8.1

TV Series

writer

1967–1968

2 episodes

 

Lee Majors, Barbara Stanwyck, Linda Evans, Peter Breck, and Richard Long in The Big Valley (1965)

The Big Valley

7.6

TV Series

written by

1968

1 episode

 

Stephen Boyd, Yvette Mimieux, and Giovanna Ralli in The Caper of the Golden Bulls (1967)

The Caper of the Golden Bulls

6.1

Writer

1967

 

Ben Gazzara in Run for Your Life (1965)

Run for Your Life

7.6

TV Series

Writer (as Paul David Moessinger)

1966

1 episode

 

Combat! (1962)

Combat!

8.4

TV Series

written by

1963–1965

3 episodes

 

Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963)

Kraft Suspense Theatre

7.7

TV Series

written byteleplaystory

1963–1964

3 episodes

 

Nightmare in Chicago (1964)

Nightmare in Chicago

6.3

TV Movie

teleplay

1964

 

Daddy-O (1958)

Daddy-O

2.8

story and screenplay

1958

 

Chevron Hall of Stars (1956)

Chevron Hall of Stars

6.9

TV Series

teleplay

1956

2 episodes

 

Producer

Chuck Norris in Walker, Texas Ranger (1993)

Walker, Texas Ranger

5.7

TV Series

executive producer

1993

2 episodes

 

Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote (1984)

Murder, She Wrote

7.2

TV Series

executive producer

1991–1992

22 episodes

 

William Conrad and Joe Penny in Jake and the Fatman (1987)

Jake and the Fatman

6.4

TV Series

executive producer

1989–1990

26 episodes

 

Carroll O'Connor in In the Heat of the Night (1988)

In the Heat of the Night

7.6

TV Series

executive producer

1988–1989

22 episodes

 

Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker in Simon & Simon (1981)

Simon & Simon

7.0

TV Series

supervising producer

1986–1988

38 episodes

 

Blue Thunder (1984)

Blue Thunder

6.1

TV Series

co-executive producerexecutive producer

1984

11 episodes

 

Quincy, M.E. (1976)

Quincy, M.E.

7.3

TV Series

executive producer

1980–1983

66 episodes

 

Mariette Hartley and Paula Prentiss in M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (1983)

M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers

6.0

TV Movie

executive producer

1983

 

Additional Crew

William Conrad in Cannon (1971)

Cannon

6.8

TV Series

story consultant

1971

10 episodes