Lowell Ganz (born August 31, 1948 in New York, New York) is an American screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel. Ganz grew up in Queens, New York. He dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career writing for sitcoms, starting with The Odd Couple. From there, he moved on to writing for the beloved TV show Happy Days and created two of its spin-off series, Laverne and Shirley and Joanie Loves Chachi. In 1982, Ganz and Mandel teamed up with Happy Days actors Ron Howard--who wanted to start directing--and Henry Winkler--who wanted to move away from his image as the Fonz--to make their first film, a low-budget comedy called Night Shift, which was also actor Michael Keaton's first film. Ganz's second film outing, Splash, launched the careers of Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Ganz and Mandel went on to write several other films, four more of which have also had Howard at the directing helm, and one of which had Penny Marshall, who starred in Laverne and Shirley, as director. Four of their films have featured Billy Crystal, two have featured Tom Hanks, and two are about baseball. Ganz and Mandel are also widely-used as Hollywood script doctors, known for their reliability and fast turnaround time. Ganz lives in Los Angeles with his wife of more than 25 years. They have three children named Scott, Allie, and Simon.
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Selected screenwriting credits
- Robots (2005) - cameo as Mr.Gasket (voice)
- Fever Pitch (2005) - a re-make of the Nick Hornby book, but set in the US and about the Boston Red Sox
- Edtv (1999)
- Multiplicity (1996)
- Forget Paris (1995)
- Greedy (1994)
- Mr. Saturday Night (1992) - cameo as a writer
- A League of Their Own (1992)
- City Slickers (1991)
- Parenthood (1989) - cameo talking to Steve Martin in the opening scenes in the baseball park
- Spies Like Us (1985)
- Splash (1984) - Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, cameo as Stan the Tour Guide in the Statue of Liberty scenes
- Night Shift (1982)
Selected television credits
- Hiller and Diller - executive producer
- Joanie Loves Chachi - creator, writer, and producer
- Laverne and Shirley - co-creator, writer, and producer
- Happy Days - writer and supervising producer
- The Odd Couple - writer
TV Appearances
Ganz and Mandel were featured in The Dialogue interview series. In this 90 minute interview with producer Mike DeLuca, Ganz and Mandel discusses their 40 year partnership as it evolved from television to feature films.
Selected theatre credits
- Wrong Turn at Lungfish - Off-Broadway show, originally starring George C. Scott and Tony Danza
