A special guest post by our pal and regular TPC contributor, David Garber:

A LITTLE INSANITY WITH THAT ORDER?

Just as in most Hollywood stories, especially the ones with the happy endings, there’s unexpected twists and turns along the way. And so it is with HOLLYWOOD HUCKSTER – A Memoir of Hysterical Proportions. Yesterday it became Amazon’s number one downloaded biography & memoir.

It started simply enough — an anniversary party where a young guest asked me how I got my start in the entertainment business. And I told him a few humorous anecdotes before we sat down to dinner.

Two days later this young fellow called me up and asked me if I have any other tales like those I had shared. “Of course,” I told him. “I was partnered with the Hollywood Huckster for 10 years.”

An hour later he called back and revealed that he was a junior agent at a large literary agency. He had shared my true and extraordinary tales with his boss. They discussed it and wanted me to write a tell-all book for them, and they would represent it.

And so came my next 10 months of labor– Reliving some amazing adventures of a man who didn’t know the line between genius and insanity.

It was the mid ’70s when he and I met. The pot-smoking, acid-dropping, counter-culture students of the turbulent ’60s were bringing their skewed comedy, irreverent attitudes and anti-establishment views to America via Hollywood. The lunatics started running the asylum. And one of them pushed the envelope more than anyone else of that era. He was Kevin Hartigan, the most infamous industry player you’ve never heard of… until now.

He stole air force fighter jets for joy rides. He brought two full-grown lions into a meeting at MGM to show them how to make pictures that really roared. He fed a tab of acid to a studio executive before she read his script, then watched her chase the letters as they flew around the room after lifting off her pages. He sent his scripts to be read in a box with 100 ping pong balls with the note: “Hopefully now you have enough balls to read my material.”

He achieved the success people only dream about, then lost it.

He attained the power people crave, then misused it.

And he had the money people fantasize about, then squandered it.

His is the quintessential Tinsel Town cautionary tale. And so now you know what lies ahead if you’re interest is piqued.

He’d be quoted as saying, “I’d give my left testicle, assuming the right one could function for both, if you’d drop by and pick up a copy.” I hope you’ll take him up on that offer.

Here’s the Amazon link.

Thanks Laffy and Paddy for your constant support during my toiling on this book, allowing me to vent and share my political thoughts with you and all of your wonderful readers. My essays for you are what kept me sane while thinking back to all the insanity I went through being partners with the Hollywood Huckster.

For the past 25 years, David Garber has been serving as the show runner and or writer on some of television’s biggest hits… Saved By The Bell, Power Rangers, 227, Bill Cosby Show and many other network series. His writing and producing have also netted David two very prestigious awards:the PRISM AWARD and the TV CRITICS AWARD – TV SPECIAL OF THE YEAR. Currently he’s authoring a short story series called “A Few Minutes With…”