Alfred Döblin was a refugee writer in Hollywood during WW2. Known for his 1929 novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz (an underworld of prostitutes, criminals, addicts), he struggled to obtain script commissions in California.
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Alfred Döblin Goes Hollywood (1942)
Unlike fellow German émigrés such as Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Döblin struggled financially in Los Angeles. Living in a tiny bungalow in a modest section of Hollywood, the physician, psychiatrist, and novelist sought work in the movie business.
At his first meeting with a studio producer, Döblin pitches a gritty drama set in Hell's Kitchen, New York. The story follows two morphine addicts, two prostitutes, and one prostitute who is also a morphine addict as they drift through a maze of doomed romances, petty crimes, and mutual betrayals. Their lives intersect in flophouses, cheap cafés, and police stations, ending in disappointment for nearly everyone involved. The producer summarizes it as "Berlin Alexanderplatz meets Midnight Cowboy" and points out that America might be looking for something a little more contemporary and optimistic.
Several weeks later, Döblin returns with a revised idea. This time the action has been moved to Santa Monica, California. Two morphine addicts, two prostitutes, and one prostitute who is also a morphine addict spend their days wandering the beach, getting mixed up with carnival operators, amateur fortune tellers, and dubious real-estate schemes. A stolen jetski, a mistaken identity involving a lifeguard, and a disastrous attempt to start a beachfront nightclub straight out of Cabaret lead the group into a series of calamities. The producer stares at him and says, "Berlin Alexanderplatz meets...Gidget?"
Looking through Döblin's résumé, the producer notices that he is also a physician and psychiatrist.
"Medical stories always sell," the producer says. "Can you write a medical drama?"
Döblin eagerly agrees.
A few weeks later he returns with a new treatment.
The hero is a physician working in a Santa Monica emergency room. He lives in an apartment with two prostitutes and, unfortunately, he is also a morphine addict. To avoid eviction, he convinces his suspicious landlord that he is gay and merely sharing the apartment as a platonic arrangement. The doctor spends each episode trying to conceal his addiction, his roommates' occupations, his heterosexuality -- all while dodging a rotating collection of eccentric hospital patients that he carts home. By an astonishing coincidence, Döblin has independently invented the exact premise of the future television sitcom Three's Company thirty-five years ahead of schedule.
The producer finally brightens.
"This," he says, sliding the treatment into his briefcase to take home, "may actually have possibilities."
"We'll call you."
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Earlier remarks by me on Döblin here.
