The Man Behind The Pen

ONE GREAT, BIG CAREER

After earning a BFA in acting, and an MFA in directing, 25-year-old Matt Williams, thought fame and fortune would soon follow.  It didn’t.  “Every morning I showered, shaved, put on slacks, a shirt, and a tie, and sat at the wobbly table we’d found discarded on the sidewalk to mail out my headshots and resumes to agencies and casting directors.  Nothing.  No one responded,” he says.  “I didn’t receive a single message for a year.”  When some interviews finally materialized, Matt was told his Hoosier accent was “awful…there is no way.”  Despondent, Matt felt like he’d already bottomed out at 26-years-old.  “I was a hick, an ignorant working-class redneck from a blue-collar family.”  After a few days of self-pity, it occurred to Matt to ask God for help: “I am lost.  I don’t know what to do.  My marriage is dying.  I have no career.  I am a ‘hillbilly cousin.’  Can I ever earn a living in this industry?  Was this all a mistake?”  He then sensed a voice from deep inside, “I will prosper you in ways you can’t even imagine.”  Buoyed, Matt sought coaching to eliminate his southern Indiana twang, and soon landed a commercial for hair pomade.  More commercials followed.  A few years later, Matt was cast as “Dr. Ben Martin” on CBN’s soap opera, Another Life.  During that three-year stint Matt kept asking himself, “Why am I down here?  I sensed it was for something more than acting.”  While working on the show, he expressed interest in learning about cameras, lighting, and scene design, and was mentored by the executive producer, Linwood Boomer.  Matt even rewrote scripts which he thought needed help.  “Without realizing it, I learned to write for television, and Linwood Boomer had taught me every aspect of multicam production.”  Matt also landed acting roles in stage productions in the early 80’s, and directed and wrote plays.    

Those plays got the attention of the executive producers of a new TV show in 1984, and Matt was hired as a writer for The Cosby Show.  “It was my entrée into television, where I learned the business and was surrounded by good people.”  He also learned from Bill Cosby not to write jokes, per se, but to write so that the characters could think and behave funny.  When Cosby ended in 1988, Matt created a show based on his own family (minus the acerbic yelling), and Roseanne became a huge hit.  A few years later, Matt and his partners wrote another show pilot, called Home Improvement, with the goal of creating a show to celebrate the American family, one to which viewers would want to belong.  While Matt was looking to cast the show, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, insisted he meet with a new comic talent named Tim Allen.  Matt had no interest.  “Comedians may trigger laughter, but they tend to be psychological train wrecks.  Every comedian I knew had a tributary of rage running through their soul.”   Katzenberg persisted, and finally, Matt reluctantly agreed to a meeting.  “Five minutes into the lunch, Tim and I started trading stories about our Midwestern upbringings families, and wives.  Our experiences were similar, our sense of humor was the same, and we mirrored each other.  As we finished lunch, I heard my spirit voice say, Do this.”  In retrospect, Matt calls his involvement on

that series one of the greatest experiences of his life.  “Home Improvement premiered in the top ten and remained there all eight seasons.  Spirit knew.”

A FEW GLIMPSES

• Matt grew up in the 1950s, in Evansville, Indiana.  He says his greatest joy in life was making his mother cry – from laughter, as he did with his spot-on imitation of his “Aunt Mouse,” her nickname.  “Mom doubled over laughing, struggling to catch her breath.  I wanted that moment to last forever.  To me, her laughter was her love.  It doesn’t take a boatload of psychotherapists to figure out why I ended up working in television as a comedy writer,” Matt reminisces.  The family was Lutheran, and Matt attended Lutheran schools in Evansville. “Throughout most of my childhood I sensed that God loved me, like my mother did, but he was occasionally distant and detached, like my mother was.  But I thought if I prayed hard enough, I might get God’s attention.”      
• Before coming to Virginia Beach to work on Another Life, Matt was skeptical of what CBN employees might be like.  “Were they cultish?  Did they have Dawn of the Dead eyes?  Did they carry a Bible and a shotgun, insisting I claim Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior?  When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised.  For the most part, everyone at CBN was congenial and good natured; they were genuinely nice folks.  They patted me on the back and said, ‘Praise the Lord!’  Or waved as I pulled out of the parking lot and shouted, ‘God bless you!’  I enjoyed working there.” 
• Finding an old Coleman camping lantern in his basement recently, Matt was reminded of the many reasons he hates to camp!  Nonetheless he cleaned the old girl up, and found she still shone brightly.  “And that got me thinking: if we are like lanterns, with light living inside us, then sin is anything that dirties the glass and dims the light: greed, rage, theft, murder, infidelity, and cruelty, anything that hurts another, smudges the glass and imprisons the radiance.  I believe prayer, supplication, praise, and deep silence help keep the glass clean so our inner light shines forth.  And especially now, our dark world needs light to survive.  I am too old and cranky to go camping anymore, but I keep that Coleman lantern on a shelf in my study.  When dark thoughts cloud my consciousness, when anger or negativity, fear or doubt creep in and start to dim my spirit, I look at the lantern.  It’s a reminder to keep the glass clean and the flame alive.” 

THE GOAL

     Matt says he had two goals in writing his book:

1. To encourage people to look around and find glimpses of God - everywhere!  He remembers feeling beaten down many times in his life, and how his perspective changed dramatically when he looked for, and called out to God.
2. He says the whole book can be summed up in two words:  BE KIND.  To that end, he subtitles the very first of his sixty essays with a quote by American-British author, Henry James: “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; the third is to be kind.” 

Matt is giving all proceeds from Glimpses to four children’s non-profits close to his heart: Love Does, Many Hopes, Hearts United with Haiti, and Save the Children. 

For more information on Matt Williams click the Link!

CREDITS

Author, Glimpses (Forefront, 2024) / Co-Creator and Executive Producer, Home Improvement 1991-1999 / Creator and Executive Producer, Roseanne, 1988 / Writer and Producer, The Cosby Show, 1984-1988 / Creator and Writer, A Different World, 1987 / Director, Where the Heart Is, 2000 / Producer, What Women Want, 2000 / Producer, Writer, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, 1991 / Peabody Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television Writing; Humanitas Award, 1986; nominated for six PrimeTime Emmy Awards / Played Dr. Ben Martin in CBN’s soap opera, Another Life, 1981-1984 / BFA, University of Evansville, MFA, University of New Orleans / Married to Angelina Fiordellisi, two grown children / Has sheep, miniature horses, turkeys, and a darllng black lab named Nova