Uncover the Untold Secrets of Screenwriting with Jack Epps in This Exclusive Go Into The Story Interview
Scott: How did you segue into writing TV? Some of your early credits are episodes on TV series “Hawaii Five‑0” and “Kojak.” How did that happen?
Jack: I had a friend, Anderson House, who I met at Michigan State. Andy was from Southern California, so, when I came out to Los Angeles, I looked him up. We became fast friends, and we still are to this day. Andy’s father knew Phil Leacock, the executive producer of “Hawaii Five‑0” and said aid, “If we write a treatment, my dad can get it to the show.”
I think they were in the fifth season, which is when shows are hungry for ideas. Andy and I wrote a treatment, and we basically put every “Hawaii Five‑0” cliché we could think of in the treatment. His father got it to Phil Leacock. Leacock got it to the story editor, and within a day, the story editor called us and said, “You really know our show.” They bought the idea and I wrote a spec script just to practice, and they called again and said, “Hey, you don’t happen to have a script?” I said, “Yes, we do!” and got it got produced. Got to join the Writer’s Guild and was officially a writer.
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