A Gift from the Culture
"A Gift from the Culture", published in 1987, is a short work of space opera, by the Scottish science fiction author Iain M. Banks. The story is an early venture into the "complex and unusual and very distant" setting of the Culture, which Banks would further develop through various of full length novels, stories, and his essay "A Few Notes on the Culture".
James L. Brooks
Failing to find another job at a news agency, he met producer Allan Burns at a party. Burns got him a job on "My Mother the Car" where he was hired to rewrite a script after pitching some story ideas. Brooks then went on to write episodes of "That Girl", "The Andy Griffith Show" and "My Three Sons" before Sheldon Leonard hired him as a story editor on "My Friend Tony". In 1969 he created for ABC the series "Room 222", which lasted until 1974. "Room 222" was the second series in American history to feature a black lead character, in this case high school teacher Pete Dixon played by Lloyd Haynes. The network felt the show was sensitive and so attempted to change the pilot story so that Dixon helped a white student rather than a black one, but Brooks prevented it. On the show Brooks worked with Gene Reynolds who taught him the importance of extensive and diligent research, which he conducted at Los Angeles High School for "Room 222", and he used the technique on his subsequent works. Brooks left "Room 222" as head writer after one year to work on other pilots and brought Burns in to produce the show.