Bochco was not exactly born to success. From his childhood he was shadowed by financial worries, because his father, concert violinist Rudolph Bochco, "didn't have a knack for making money," the producer told Paula Span in Esquire. The family "held onto its ... apartment and never went without shoes, food, or a Steinway," Span reported, "but he could not provide them with financial stability." As Bochco's mother told Span, "One year was great, the next year was lousy." Rudolph urged his son toward a practical career, perhaps in engineering, but Bochco was more interested in sports, girls, and singing than studying. "My adviser informed me that I was not college material," he recalled in a 1988 Rolling Stone article by Mark Christensen. Despite that judgment, Bochco managed to win a scholarship to New York University.
When Bochco transferred to Carnegie Institute of Technology, the idea of a writing career began to take root. "I'd always written stuff," Bochco told Christensen. "And even in high school, teachers had told me I was talented, encouraged me. Now, all of a sudden, I was surrounded by people with whom I shared common interests." A summer internship got his foot in the door at Universal Studios, and when he graduated he landed a full-time job there.
This is a free page. This page contains 187 words. This
biography contains 5,580 words (approx. 19 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Steven Bochco Access Pass.
