Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick to Receive WGA Award

Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick have been tapped to receive the 2012 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television from the Writers Guild of America, West.

Recipients of the honor are recognized for lifetime achievement in outstanding television writing. The duo will receive the honor at the Writers Guild Awards' West Coast ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 19 at the Hollywood Palladium.

“Beginning in the 1980s, Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz were among a small group of writers who revolutionized the television drama. So much of what is on television today is a direct or indirect descendant of their seminal work, thirtysomething," WGAW president Christopher Keyser said. "So many writers of this generation were drawn to television because of what Marshall and Ed told us, in that show and then in show after show, it was possible to do – to write stories about real people, with honest and compelling emotional stakes, about what it feels like to be alive. All of us who have come after owe them a great debt of gratitude. We stand on the shoulders of giants."

The Emmy-winning partners, under their Bedford Falls Company banner, have co-created, executive produced and directed such television series as thirtysomething, Once and Again and My So-Called Life. The pair received the Humanitas Prize in 1983 for the Zwick-directed Special Bulletin.

Herskovitz and Zwick co-wrote Love and Other Drugs, which Zwick directed, and The Last Samurai, which Zwick also helmed. The two have also been nominated for three WGA Awards, winning two. The partners received their second Humanitas Prize for Once and Again.

Zwick's additional credits include Defiance, The Siege, Blood Diamond, Legends of the Fall, Courage Under Fire, Glory, About Last Night and Leaving Normal. The pair also produced I Am Sam, Traffic and Shakespeare in Love.