gordon was born to a reform jewish family in queens, new york city and graduated from roslyn high school. after graduating from princeton with a major in creative writing in 1984, gordon came to los angeles with fellow filmmaker alex gansa to pursue a career in writing for television. both broke into the industry with single episodes of abc's "". their "spenser" work turned industry heads, and the pair joined the series "beauty and the beast" as staff writers, and were later named producers.