Editing Neil Simon (section)

=== Television ===
[[File:Neil Simon NYWTS.jpg|thumb|Simon in 1966]]
Simon quit his job as a mailroom clerk in the [[Warner Brothers]] offices in [[Manhattan]] to write radio and television scripts with his brother [[Danny Simon]], under the tutelage of radio humorist [[Goodman Ace]], who ran a short-lived writing workshop for [[CBS]]. Their work for the radio series ''The [[Robert Q. Lewis]] Show''  led to other writing jobs. [[Max Liebman]] hired the duo for the writing team of his popular television comedy series ''[[Your Show of Shows]].''  The program received [[Emmy Award]] nominations for Best Variety Show in 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1954, and won in 1952 and 1953.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.emmys.com/shows/your-show-shows |title=Your Show of Shows |website=Television Academy |access-date=2019-12-31}}</ref> Simon later wrote scripts for ''[[The Phil Silvers Show]]'', for episodes broadcast during 1958 and 1959.

Simon later recalled the importance of these two writing jobs to his career: "Between the two of them, I spent five years and learned more about what I was eventually going to do than in any other previous experience."<ref name="Grobel" />{{rp|381}} "I knew when I walked into ''Your Show of Shows'', that this was the most talented group of writers that up until that time had ever been assembled together."<ref name="pbs">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/neil-simon/about-neil-simon/704/ |title=About Neil Simon |work=American Masters |publisher=PBS |date=November 3, 2000}}</ref>

Simon described a typical writing session:<ref>{{cite book |last=Grobel |first=Lawrence |chapter=Neil Simon |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oR40Fy74Z3sC&pg=PA381 |title=Endangered Species: Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0786751624 |pages=381–382}}</ref>

{{Blockquote |style=font-size: 100%; |text=There were about seven writers, plus Sid, [[Carl Reiner]], and [[Howard Morris|Howie Morris]]&nbsp;... Mel Brooks and maybe [[Woody Allen]] would write one of the other sketches&nbsp;... everyone would pitch in and rewrite, so we all had a part of it&nbsp;... It was probably the most enjoyable time I ever had in writing with other people.<ref name="Grobel" />{{rp|382}}}}

Simon incorporated some of these experiences into his play ''[[Laughter on the 23rd Floor]]'' (1993). A 2001 TV adaptation of the play won him two Emmy Award nominations.