William Rabkin

William Rabkin is an American television producer, television writer and author.

William Rabkin
Born	Berkeley, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Washington, UCLA
Occupation(s)	Television producer television writer and author
Years active	1987–present

Early life

Rabkin grew up in Berkeley, CA, where his father was a Classics professor. He graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, then received his MFA in screenwriting from UCLA, where he wrote for the Daily Bruin student newspaper.^[1][2]

Career

He has written for a number of notable television series namely Spenser: For Hire, Murphy's Law, Hunter, Baywatch, Diagnosis Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories, Monk and many other series.

Nearly all of his television work has been collaborations with fellow writer and producer Lee Goldberg, whom he met when they were both UCLA students working on Daily Bruin. They first teamed up as writers on the unmade, feature film adaptation of Goldberg's novel .357 Vigilante, beginning a professional partnership that lasted for twenty years.^[3]

Rabkin is also the author of a number of tie-in companion novels for the Psych television series,^[4] as well as the reference books Successful Television Writing (2003) (which he co-authored with Goldberg), Beginning Television Writing, (2010),^[5] and Writing the Pilot (2011).

Teaching

He teaches screenwriting as part of the faculty at UC Riverside's Low-Residency Graduate Creative Writing Program in Palm Desert, California.^[6] and is assistant director of the MFA program at Long Island University^[7]

Personal life

His father was Norman Rabkin (1930-2012),^[8] the Shakespearean scholar best known for his work Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning.^[9][10]

Bibliography

Ella Clah: The Pilot Script (with Lee Goldberg, Aimee Thurlo & David Thurlo) (2013) The Dead Man Series Face of Evil (with Lee Goldberg) (2011) Ring of Knives (with Lee Goldberg and James Daniels) (2011) Hell in Heaven (with Lee Goldberg) (2011) The Dead Woman (with Lee Goldberg and David McAfee) (2011) The Blood Mesa (with Lee Goldberg and James Reasoner) (2011) Kill Them All (with Lee Goldberg and Harry Shannon) (2011) Beast Within (with Lee Goldberg and James Daniels) (2011) Fire & Ice (with Lee Goldberg and Jude Hardin) (2012) Carnival of Death (with Lee Goldberg and Bill Crider) (2012) Freaks Must Die (with Lee Goldberg and Joel Goldman) (2012) Slaves to Evil (with Lee Goldberg and Lisa Klink) (2012) The Midnight Special (with Lee Goldberg and Phoef Sutton) (2012) The Death Match (with Lee Goldberg and Christa Faust) (2012) The Black Death (with Lee Goldberg and Aric Davis) (2012) The Killing Floor (with Lee Goldberg and David Tully) (2012) Colder Than Hell (with Lee Goldberg and Anthony Neil Smith) (Jan 2013) Evil to Burn (with Lee Goldberg and Lisa Klink) (March 2013) Streets of Blood (with Lee Goldberg and Barry Napier) (June 2013) Crucible of Fire (with Lee Goldberg and Mel Odom) (2013) The Dark Need (with Lee Goldberg and Stant Litore) (2013) The Rising Dead (with Lee Goldberg and Stella Green) (2014) Reborn (with Lee Goldberg, Kate Danley, Phoef Sutton, and Lisa Klink) (2014)

Psych Tie-Ins A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read (2008) Mind Over Magic (2009) The Call of the Mild (2010) A Fatal Frame of Mind (2010) Mind-Altering Murder (2011) Non-fiction Science Fiction Film-Making in the 1980s (1994) – co-written with Lee Goldberg, Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier Dreamweavers: Fantasy Film-Making in the 1980s (1994) – co-written with Lee Goldberg, Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier Successful Television Writing (2003) – co-written with Lee Goldberg Writing the Pilot (2011) Writing the Pilot: Creating the Series (2017)

Filmography

Year	Title	Role/Job	# of Episodes Written/ Notes
1987–1988	Spenser For Hire	Writer	3 episodes, including the unsold spin-off pilot "Play It Again, Sammy"
1988	The Highwayman	Writer	1 episode, "Haunted Highway"
1988–1989	Murphy's Law	Staff Writer	5 episodes, ABC TV series starring George Segal based on the "Trace" and "Digger" books by Warren Murphy
1989	Hunter	Writer, Story Editor	1 episode, "On Air"
1989–1990	Baywatch	Writer, Executive Story Editor	4 episodes, including the final NBC episode, entitled "The End," before the series went into first-run syndication
1990–1991	She-Wolf of London	Writer, Supervising Producer	11 episodes
1991–1992	Likely Suspects	Writer, Supervising Producer	5 episodes, including "Smells Like Teen Spirit," an Edgar Award Finalist for Best Teleplay
1993–1994	Cobra	Writer, Supervising Producer	7 episodes
1994–1995	Diagnosis: Murder	Writer	6 episodes
1995	The Cosby Mysteries	Writer, Supervising Producer	2 episodes
1995	Sliders	Writer	1 episodes, “Prince of Wails”
1995	Deadly Games	Writer	2 episodes, "The Boss" and "The Car Mechanic"
1995	Stick With Me, Kid	Writer, Supervising producer	3 episodes
1995	SeaQuest DSV	Writer, Supervising producer	3 episodes
1995	The Greatest Shows You Never Saw	Writer, producer	CBS TV Special
1995–1996	Flipper	Writer	2 episodes
1996–1998	Diagnosis: Murder	Writer, Supervising Producer, Executive Producer	26 episodes
1999	Martial Law	Writer, executive producer	3 episodes
2001–2002	A Nero Wolfe Mystery	Writer	6 episodes, including "Prisoners Base," an Edgar Award Finalist for Best Teleplay
2002	The Nightmare Room	Writer	1 episode, “My Name is Evil”
2003	She Spies	Writer	1 Episode, "Crossed Out"
2003–2005	1-800-Missing aka Missing	Writer / Supervising Producer	8 episodes
2003–2006	Monk	Writer	3 episodes “Mr. Monk Can’t See a Thing”, “Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather,” “Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico”
2004	The Best TV Shows That Never Were	Writer, executive producer	ABC TV Special
2007	Psych	Writer	1 episode, “Forget Me Not”
2010–2012	The Glades	Writer	3 episodes
2020	Dream Raider	Writer	8 episodes, HBO Max series