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Dan Wakefield Dies: Writer Who Created Controversial Series ‘James At 15’ And Resigned Over Network Interference Was 91
Dan Wakefield, a prolific author and journalist who made television history when he created and wrote the controversial late-1970s drama James at 15 only to resign when NBC executives bristled over an episode’s depiction of teenage sexuality, died yesterday at a hospice facility in Miami. He was 91, and had been in declining health in […]
Dan Wakefield, a prolific author and journalist who made television history when he created and wrote the controversial late-1970s drama James at 15 only to resign when NBC executives bristled over an episode’s depiction of teenage sexuality, died yesterday at a hospice facility in Miami. The 1979 divorce drama Starting Over starring Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen, written by James L. Brooks and directed by Alan J. Pakula, was based on Wakefield’s 1973 novel. Although the episode was considered groundbreaking at the time, Wakefield soon resigned from the show, saying he’d been pressured by NBC executives to tone down a direct reference to birth control, and to have James experience after-the-fact remorse.
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