WGA to honor Milch
'NYPD Blue' creator to receive Chayefsky nod
Milch, who began his TV writing career while still a lecturer in English lit at Yale, received an Emmy, a WGA award and a Humanitas Prize for his very first script, the third-season opening episode of "Hill Street Blues." Leaving academia, he spent five seasons with "Hill Street," winning two more WGA awards, a second Humanitas Prize and another Emmy.
With Steven Bochco, Milch created "NYPD Blue," winning the Emmy three times -- once as a producer and twice in conjunction with other writers. He and Bochco, along with Bill Clark and William M. Finkelstein, also created "Brooklyn South."
"Starting with his first script, David Milch raised the standards for television writing," Daniel Petrie Jr., president of the WGA West, said in a statement released Wednesday. "The shows he has written have brought a hard-hitting honesty to one-hour drama that has transformed that genre."
The Chayefsky prize is the WGA's highest award for TV writing. Previous winners include Richard Levinson, William Link, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, James L. Brooks and Allan Burns. Chayefsky wrote such classic TV fare as "Marty," later made into the Oscar-topping 1955 movie. He also won Oscars for writing "The Hospital" (1971) and "Network" (1976).
The 51st WGA awards presentation will take place simultaneously in Beverly Hills and New York.
