Jeff Freilich

Jeff Freilich
[[File:|200px]]
Role:	Producer, Writer, Director
BSG Universe:	Galactica 1980
Date of Birth:
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month! ,
Nationality:	USA
[ Official Site]
IMDb profile

Jeff Freilich is an American television writer, producer, and director who worked on Galactica 1980. Born in New York City, Freilich has had a prolific career spanning over 40 years in episodic television, cable motion pictures, and feature films, having participated in the production of more than 500 hours of television. He is best known for his work as executive producer and showrunner of USA Network's Burn Notice, as well as his producing work on Halt and Catch Fire, Grace and Frankie, Falcon Crest, and Special Unit 2.

Early Life and Education

Freilich graduated in fine arts from New York City's prestigious High School of Music and Art. He later earned a degree in psychology from Antioch College. Subsequently, Freilich attended the University of Southern California School of Medicine.

Reflecting on his educational path, Freilich explained that he was driven by two motivations: a need to express himself creatively through words, pictures, or music, and a desire to make people happy and improve the world in his own way. While attending the High School of Music and Art, he became fascinated by great paintings at New York's museums, wanting to learn more about art while simultaneously studying science to prepare for a medical career.

At Antioch College during the Vietnam War, Freilich became involved in the anti-war movement and civil rights demonstrations, growing more interested in how people behaved with one another, leading him to concentrate in psychology while studying the sciences necessary for medical school. During this time, he wrote and directed three student films, realizing that film is an art form incorporating both images and narrative story, and that he preferred working collaboratively with others rather than alone.

After moving to Los Angeles to attend USC School of Medicine, Freilich quickly realized that medicine was more restrictive and demanding than he wanted, and that continuing would make him a good doctor but never happy because his passion for creative expression would be suppressed. He chose to leave medical school and attend the American Film Institute as a producer.

In a 2008 interview, Freilich revealed he had been in medicine years ago but did not like being a doctor, which led him to become a writer instead. He explained that after his experience in medicine, he never wanted to do anything again that he wasn't having a good time doing, which guided his career choices thereafter. He noted that his background in medicine, where things were life and death, gave him a perspective on filmmaking: if you can't have a good time doing it, it shows on screen.

Freilich's parents were initially shocked when he decided to leave medical school, as they wanted their son's future to be secure, but to their credit, they supported him in pursuing a more uncertain career as a writer and filmmaker. His father's only concern was that he would become happy in what he did for a living, and when Freilich told him he was content, it made his father proud.

Early Career

Roger Corman and New World Pictures

At the American Film Institute, Freilich produced "Devil's Bargain," directed by Tim Hunter, his closest friend from high school. His experience on Hunter's movie got him interested in pursuing a career in film, and because it was difficult to get a job as a producer or director without a portfolio, he chose to write, as a writer's ideas on paper speak for themselves and cannot be taken away.

He began his professional career working under Roger Corman at New World Pictures, where he rewrote screenplays alongside partner Tim Hunter for Corman's New World Pictures and Sam Arkoff's AIP.

In a 2008 interview, Freilich recalled his time with Corman fondly, describing how he worked alongside directors Joe Dante, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Francis Coppola, Tim Hunter, Johnny Axelrod, Jonathan Kaplan, and Paul Bartel. He remembered that they got $25 a week and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but someone gave them a chance to make their movie. Freilich recounted a memorable story about being paid $500 with Tim Hunter to write a script, and Joe Dante and Alan Arkush getting $500 to direct it, but when they added stock footage from Death Race 2000, Corman deducted the cost from their checks, reducing their payment to $350 each because "stock footage costs money."

Universal Television and First Emmy Nomination

Freilich's first writing job in television was on a series called Doctor's Hospital, in which George Peppard played a neurosurgeon at Los Angeles County Hospital. He had been writing original motion picture screenplays but had little luck selling them to studios, and needed money to help pay off loans from medical school, so it seemed natural to sell stories to a medical television show.

Two years later, Freilich was offered the opportunity to write a script for Baretta, and when his script was well received, Universal offered him a job writing on the staff of Baretta, where his responsibilities included rewriting other writers' scripts. At Universal, Freilich's work as Executive Story Consultant on Baretta and Quincy and as writer/producer of The Incredible Hulk earned him his first Emmy nomination.

Galactica 1980

For Galactica 1980, Freilich wrote and produced the episode "Spaceball" alongside Frank Lupo and series creator Glen A. Larson. The episode, directed by Barry Crane, first aired on ABC on Sunday, March 30, 1980.

Lorimar/Warner Bros. Era

Creating Television Series

In his 13-year tenure at Lorimar/Warner Bros., Freilich created three network television series and served as writer/director/Executive Producer on Falcon Crest, Dark Justice, Better Days, Freddy's Nightmares, and several other episodic comedies and dramas.

Falcon Crest

Freilich's involvement with Falcon Crest came unexpectedly in 1985 when his three-year-old son had chickenpox and Freilich became sick as well. While home in bed, he received a call from Lee Rich, the president of Lorimar, who told him that Earl Hamner was leaving Falcon Crest and that Rich wanted Freilich to take over, explaining the show was dropping in the ratings and was in jeopardy of being cancelled, saying it needed "a goose." Freilich told Rich he had never seen the show and wouldn't know where to begin, but within an hour, a deliveryman arrived with a huge box of videotapes.

When Freilich put the last episode of season 5 in his machine and fell asleep during the opening credits due to medication, Rich called back and said "See what I mean? The show is dull!" Rich promised Freilich he could make whatever changes he wanted, hire or fire anybody he pleased, that Rich would protect him from CBS, and that he could spend whatever it took to get the series back on its feet. Freilich made many changes and turned Falcon Crest into a show he would want to watch.

Partnership with Norman Jewison and Film Work

In his nine-year association with Paramount Pictures, Freilich worked in partnership with Norman Jewison on the Emmy- and Cable Ace Award-winning Picture Windows for Showtime.

Freilich also produced films for directors Bob Rafelson, Jonathan Kaplan, Tim Hunter, John Boorman, Lynne Littman, and Tony Bill. He formed a partnership with Michael Douglas, Peter Bogdanovich, and Zack Norman to develop motion pictures based on the works of Cornell Woolrich and Damon Runyon.

Rescuers: Stories of Courage

Freilich produced Rescuers: Stories of Courage with Barbra Streisand, creating six films about Christians who did selfless acts of courage during World War II, during the Holocaust, to save the lives of Jews. The films took place in France, Belgium, Holland, Hungary, and Germany.

The project began with Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom, who for decades had passionately urged Jews to remember the rescuers as well as the gas chambers. Two of his congregants, Malka Drucker and Gay Block, put up thousands of their own dollars in the late 1980s to interview and photograph 50 rescuers in eight countries, meeting peasants and noblemen, priests and atheists, men and women who had stolen food for their Jewish wards, forged passports, and carried chamber pots from attics.

Although 20 publishers initially rejected the book, remarking that the world had heard enough about the Holocaust and questioning who wanted to look at pictures of old people, the tome was eventually a success. Drucker's agent brother-in-law made sure it crossed the desk of fellow Valley Beth Shalom congregant Jerry Offsay on his first day as the new president of programming for Showtime, and an enthusiastic Offsay soon sent the book to Barbra Streisand and her producing partner, Cis Corman, who said there was no way they could not do the project, as they were in awe of the rescuers.

Freilich explained that he and Streisand both wanted to die knowing they'd made at least one thing that had some kind of weight to it, that wasn't just pure entertainment. For this work, Freilich won numerous Christian awards despite being Jewish, and received an award from the Archbishop of New York at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where he delivered a speech that "silenced the crowd." He noted that Robert Duvall, who won the award for feature films that year for The Apostle, came up and hugged him after his speech.

Freilich urged the art department to comb Europe for period props, including actual forged passports, Nazi uniforms, wartime German vehicles, a 1930s French bicycle, and a Hungarian iron from 1935. Their efforts were so successful that once, while shooting in small-town Canada, an elderly Auschwitz survivor who had not read the newspaper ads warning about the shoot was overcome by the sight of Nazis and cowering Jews in the streets, and Freilich found him crying, unable to stand and leaning against the wall. When Freilich apologized and explained about the movies, the survivor wanly smiled and thanked him.

The experience stayed with Freilich, who summed up that "Rescuers" was the first time he had done something meaningful in TV.

Regarding working with Streisand, Freilich recalled that Peter Bogdanovich advised him not to send her a movie until it was finished because "she will give you notes until you die." Following this advice, Freilich would hire directors, shoot and cut the picture, deliver it, and then send Streisand a copy, always receiving back a really nice note of approval.

Fox Films

Freilich produced three films for Twentieth Century Fox: Bachelor Party: The Last Temptation (also known as Bachelor Party 2), Wrong Turn: Dead End (also known as Wrong Turn 2), and Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia. He also produced one film for Universal: Beethoven's Christmas Adventure.

Freilich recalled producing Behind Enemy Lines 3, directed by Tim Matheson, which was shot in Puerto Rico with most of the same crew from Frogmen 14 years earlier.

Return to Television: Burn Notice

Leaving Television and Return

Freilich's last experience in episodic television before Burn Notice was in 1994 when he was executive producer and partners with producer Arnold Kopelson making the movie Frogmen with O.J. Simpson in Puerto Rico. The experience was thoroughly unpleasant because everything in the movie became evidence in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, with the film being confiscated.

This negative experience, combined with changes in the television industry that made him uncomfortable, led Freilich to leave episodic television for 14 years. He explained that television in the mid-1990s began to change in a way that was uncomfortable for him, as the autonomy he had previously enjoyed—where he could say no to any network or studio note, cast anybody he wanted, and hire any director or writer—was disappearing as studios and networks were handed over from individuals to corporations.

Freilich recalled a particularly frustrating experience when a network executive, after reading a pilot script Freilich had written, said "I don't know, I'm the only one who's read it," effectively abdicating responsibility for making a decision. This epitomized for him how "the inmates began to run the asylum" and why he didn't want to be part of that system anymore.

Discovering Burn Notice

Freilich's return to television came through his relationship with David Madden at Fox Television. After Freilich produced Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas with Christina Applegate for Fox based on a James Patterson book, Madden called him a few years later saying he had a pilot script he wanted Freilich to read. Freilich initially refused, but Madden persisted, saying he knew Freilich well and thought he would like it.

Freilich read the 100-page pilot script while in New York with his daughter looking for an apartment for her, and found himself ignoring his daughter as he became absorbed in the script. He loved the script, which was written by Matt Nix, someone he had never heard of before.

Partnership with Matt Nix

When Freilich met with Matt Nix, he instantly liked him and saw a little bit of himself 20 years earlier—a writer terrified that his work would be taken and turned into something completely different. Freilich, who had been teaching at the American Film Institute, found that working with Nix made him as excited as he was 25 or 30 years earlier when he started in the business.

Freilich and Nix made a pact: if Nix gave Freilich what he wanted (something they could shoot), Freilich would give Nix what he wanted (his show, without anybody meddling with it and turning it into something different). Initially, this pact was only for the pilot, as Freilich refused to commit to the series.

Miami Production

When the pilot was originally written, it was designed for Newark, New Jersey, but was changed in part by USA Network's influence to Miami to give it a better look and make it more inviting as viewers flipped the channels. Nix's conundrum was: "I want a guy to be trapped in an uncomfortable place. How do you ever make Miami an uncomfortable place to be trapped?" After being in Miami for two summers in a row shooting in extreme heat and humidity, Freilich joked they had found the answer.

Freilich emphasized that working on a cable television budget meant having no more than 60% of the budget of a standard prime time network television show, requiring more creativity in spending money. They couldn't afford to shoot in Los Angeles and come to Miami three times a year for beauty shots like other series did, so they had to dive into Miami with both feet.

Freilich came to Miami as an executive producer to set up the production and created what he called "a movie studio" in a building that was going to be torn down near the Miami Convention Center—the same venue where Jim Morrison had exposed himself on stage at a Doors concert years earlier. He noted with pride that while he said "let's do it," a bunch of other people actually did the work to turn the space into an ideal place to work.

Regarding the show's look, Freilich explained that Miami itself is a character of the show—its color, architecture, and people contribute to the lightness and crispness that audiences liked. He contrasted Burn Notice with Miami Vice, calling it "the anti-Miami Vice" because it's not about being flashy, but about a guy trying to get out of what seems to be a beautiful place—an irony that attracted Freilich to the show.

Producer Philosophy

Describing his role as producer, Freilich used a cocktail party metaphor: "A producer is the guy who throws the cocktail party. You want to invite a whole bunch of people who basically get along but there's a little conflict because conflict is good. Conflict keeps things interesting." He emphasized knowing everybody's name and job, and being able to do almost anybody's job (though not as well as they do it), which helps him understand how to solve problems when they arise.

Freilich stressed the importance of crew morale, wanting people to feel appreciated and supported rather than blamed when things go wrong. His philosophy was that if people can't have a good time doing the work, it shows on screen, and he wanted crew members to look forward to Monday mornings rather than dreading going back to work.

Freilich described himself as "a writers' director," saying he became the kind of producer he always wanted to have. He doesn't stand on set looking at his watch and making people nervous, instead focusing on spending money in the most creative ways possible—on things a writer would feel are most important, rather than where production executives think money should go.

Freilich served as executive producer on 32 episodes of Burn Notice from 2008 to 2010, co-executive producer on 11 episodes in 2007, and producer on 1 episode in 2007. He also directed 2 episodes of the series between 2008 and 2009.

Recent Work

After Burn Notice, Freilich produced the first two seasons of Grace and Frankie for Netflix and served as producer/director of AMC's Halt and Catch Fire for four seasons. He produced 40 episodes of Halt and Catch Fire between 2014 and 2017 and 26 episodes of Grace and Frankie between 2015 and 2016.

Teaching and Lectures

Freilich has served as a senior mentor at the American Film Institute, teaching the Advanced Producing Workshop. He has also lectured at NYU Tisch, Stanford, and UCLA.

Writer credits for Galactica 1980

• Season 1:
  • Spaceball (co-written with Frank Lupo and Glen A. Larson)

Notes

• Jeffy Frieley is an Encino Cougars player in the baseball game in "Spaceball", named after Freilich.
• Freilich is a character briefly mentioned in Galactica 1980 #2, although his name is incorrectly spelled "Frellich."

References