An appreciation, far too late

Jack Gilbert ran the writer development workshop at Warner Brothers for a decade.  He taught screenwriting at Azusa Pacific and elsewhere.  He has kids writing on or running at least a hundred shows (hell, probably more like two hundred) since 1994.  Every night, you can turn on your television and watch something that one of Jack’s acolytes had a hand in.

He was there in the early days of our misbegotten mailing list, always around the edges, definitely two decades older than anyone else in the bunch but never coming across as old. We found out years later than his license plate was YODA1 – which made perfect sense.  He was quietly funny, understated yet evocative, and on the occasions when he said something, you paid attention because you knew it would be something worth listening to.

We had birthdays only a few days apart (well, and a couple decades) and a favorite movie in common, but I first came to his attention when there was some silly dispute on the mailing list that led to some misunderstanding and hurt feelings.  Jack took it upon himself to make nice on behalf of the list, and as I was in the same town as one of the aggrieved parties, he tapped me to act as his agent in the matter.  Which is how I found out that Emma’s Florist and Gifts was the go-to for Warner Music when congratulating new artists.  Later, he would come to DC every year to visit friends – and he was always good for a lunch full of catching up and an insider’s eye on the new television season.  Everyone in the DC crew made sure to post for that lunch whenever they were in town.

He died too young. 62, pneumonia that he waited on too long before going to the hospital.  His memorial service packed a church on Mulholland Drive, because even though I don’t know that I ever heard anything explicitly religious from him beyond the “God bless us every one” closing of his Christmas letter, he was a more effective advertisement for Christianity than any sermon or tract or lecture I ever saw in my life. And I can’t speak for everyone else, but I can say with some confidence that Jack Gilbert is what I want to be if I grow up.