BRENNERT, Alan (Michael)

(1954-)

   US tv producer and scriptwriter, and also author, essentially of fantasy and horror. His first genre publication was "Nostalgia Tripping" for Infinity Five (anth 1973) ed Robert HOSKINS. In his first novel, City of Masques (1978), actors scientifically programmed to become their roles run amok. Time and Chance (1990) is a kind of sf/horror tale in which two ALTERNATE WORLDS intersect, allowing two versions of the same person to switch roles: the consequences of the switch are depicted with acumen and passion. The title story of Her Pilgrim Soul and Other Stories (coll 1990) is also sf, and the title story of Ma Qui and Other Phantoms (coll 1991) won a 1992 NEBULA award for Best Short Story; but much of AB's genre work lies in media other than the written word.He is very active in tv, his sf/fantasy scripts including some for BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY (1979-81) and WONDER WOMAN (1978-9), and more recently 13 scripts for the second series of The TWILIGHT ZONE (1985-7). He is probably best known to the world at large as a writer for, and producer of, the top-rating tv series LA Law.AB has written occasionally for COMICS, mostly Batman, through the 1980s; his small but impressive body of work in this medium also makes much use of the PARALLEL-WORLDS concept. Some of these pieces appear in DC COMICS's The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (1989).

   JC/PN

   Other work: Kindred Spirits (1984), a juvenile.