Walter E. Jacobson

Screenwriter, Author, Producer, Actor and Comedian

Agoura Hills, California

Member Since:
February 2012

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

Invites sent:
0

About Walter

I graduated from medical school and then I left medicine to embark on a career in journalism, screenwriting, stand-up comedy, satiric socio-political commentary and acting. After leaving medicine, I was the Editor and then Publisher of the "Tucson Review" - a weekly arts and entertainment newspaper in Tucson, Arizona for two years and then came to Los Angeles and was the Operations Manager at the "L.A. Weekly" for two years. I then worked at Warner Bros. for 10 years in their script processing department. During that time I took UCLA Extension Courses in screenwriting, film production and film financing. I wrote a number of screenplays, many of which were optioned but none were produced. I wrote an episode of "KIDS Inc." - a Disney show which was produced and aired. I coped with the frustration of being a screenwriter without any film credits by doing stand-up comedy and a weekly half-hour social and political satirical commentary show called "Poor Walter's Almanac" on cable access which was prior to YouTube and the Internet. It was basically "The Daily Show" before "The Daily Show." It ran for six years and was very successful in terms of having a large following of people including a number of celebrities. Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold were fans of the show and they brought me on the "Roseanne" show where I played the caffeinated character Walter on four episodes, for which I still receive residuals. Unfortunately, I was not able to parlay that into a career. With a wife and young daughter to support, being a struggling artist for possibly the rest of my life did not seem very feasible or satisfying, so I went back to medicine. I became a very successful board-certified psychiatrist in the Los Angeles area, which is my current day job. I published two books: "Forgive To Win!" and "Einstein's Cosmic Journey." And now I have decided to re-engage in the screenwriting process because I still love writing screenplays. I have completed two screenplays - "Hollywood Hospital" and "Einstein's Cosmic Journey" (adapted from the book), and am re-writing my screenplay "Broken Soldiers." I am actively seeking to get "Hollywood Hospital" into the hands of someone who appreciates its potential and at the same time I am looking into fundraising options to independently produce it.

Gender:
Male

Badges

Videos

Loglines

Broken Soldiers Action ⋄ Adventure War veterans who live in a psychiatric V.A. residential facility accept a top-secret military mission Unbeknownst to them, they are being set up as decoys so that an elite team can execute the real mission. When the elite team fails and the vets survive, it falls on them to get the job done. Think "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" meets "The Dirty Dozen."
Hollywood Hospital Comedy To save Hollywood Hospital from bankruptcy, the administrator turns the hospital into a production studio for medical reality shows, combining real patients with wise-cracking doctors and laugh tracks. As the success of M.D.TV skyrockets, patient care goes down the toilet in this offbeat, irreverent and satiric over the top comedy.
Einstein's Cosmic Journey Biography ⋄ Fantasy ⋄ Historical Einstein, 76, having failed to discover a Unified Field Theory, and filled with guilt and remorse over personal choices he's made in his life, invents a device which folds time and space, bringing him face to face with his 40 year old self, who, along with psychoanalyst Carl Jung and quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli, help him to resolve his conflicts and solve the mathematical puzzle that has been plaguing him for decades.

Credits

Roseanne (1991 - 1992)
Television by Matt Williams (Comedy and Drama) Actor 'Roseanne' is the story of a working class family struggling with life's essential problems: Marriage, Children, Money and Parents in Law. A classic sitcom, the story circles around the Connor family - a family of five (DJ, Darlene, Becky, Roseanne and Dan). The household's mother, Roseanne, is being accompanied in her quest to keep the family together by her sister Jackie and various friends over the years. Written by Alex Wrege