Gary Dontzig

Gary Dontzig started his career as a minor actor in television shows like "Logan's Run," based on the 1976 sci-fi film starring Michael York, and later became an Emmy-award winning writer and producer on "Murphy Brown," about the misadventures of the eponymous news anchorwoman (Candice Bergen) and her co-workers at the fictional TV news show FYI. Dontzig enjoyed a stream of small but steady acting roles through the '80s, and by the end of the decade, he had transitioned to writing for shows like the massively popular "A Different World," the "Cosby Show" spin-off that followed a group of college students at a historically black university. During the course of his five-year association with the often-controversial "Murphy Brown," Dontzig wrote and produced over 25 episodes, including the Emmy-nominated "Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are," in which FYI producer Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud) fears he might be gay. After leaving the show in 1994, Dontzig served as a writer and producer on "Suddenly Susan," about the eccentric staff of a San Francisco magazine, (starring Brooke Shields as the title character) and on the misanthropic Ted Danson sitcom "Becker." Dontzig has also written several episodes of the popular Disney series "Hannah Montana," which launched the career of singer/actress Miley Cyrus.