Paddy Chayefsky, it has been said many times, is the Clifford Odets of the 1950's, and the differences between the two playwrights largely reflect a shift in popular attitudes since the 30's. Chayefsky's theatrical world is the same Bronx evoked by Odets twenty-five years ago, and his fundamental note, too, is the pathos of the lower middle classes. Like Odets, Chayefsky writes mostly about immigrants and their children, draws heavily on Jewish folk humor, and is more inventive at comed...

The first thing to be said of "Gideon" is that it has distinction and a haunting fascination…. Paddy Chayefsky's dramatization of the Old Testament story … combines bold imagination, intensity of searching contemplation of the relationship between God and man, and a delightful vein of humor. Its first act is completely successful. But I can't help feeling that, in the second half, Mr. Chayefsky courageously plunges in beyond his depth…. Mr. Chayefsky's...

The Passion of Joseph D (1964) well illustrates the problems of the television writer now dedicated to the theatre. The play deals with the Russian Revolution and the role played by Stalin…. Influenced by the expressionists, and Bertolt Brecht in particular, Chayefsky attempted a political burlesque comparable to those frequently seen in German nightclubs. The play is in the form of historical episodes, often unrelated; actors address the audience directly, and songs and comedy routines interrupt the...

Chayefsky is like a small, affable tornado…. His characters are famous for their loquacity and it's easy to see where they get it. Chayefsky began earning the respect of critics during the Fifties. At first, he wrote as a naturalist, mapping the folkways of lower middle class New Yorkers, cupping his ear to catch the unique flavor of their speech in Marty and in his play The Middle of the Night (1956). He later wrote slightly more avantgarde theater pieces, cultivating a mystical strain in The...

Mr. Chayefsky has written ["Middle of the Night"] in a minor key, deliberately holding down the emotion and laying emphasis on the homeliness of the material. Everyone is intentionally average—the manufacturer and his daughter and sister; the blonde and her mother, sister and impulsive husband. The reactions to a love affair between a middle-aged man and a girl who is younger than his daughter are average, and the dialogue is composed of average talk. Toward his material Mr. Chayefsky h...

Mr. Chayefsky is the first television dramatist whose work has been given the permanence of the printed book, and deservedly so…. [The six plays collected in "Television Plays"] indicate TV's coming of age and the development of a new literary form especially designed to meet its needs. These plays are hardly more than character vignettes, but drawn with such perception and honesty that, even in printed form, they are enormously effective and as readable as short stories. Mr. Cha...