Neal Justin: A time-out for the youth market

Minneapolis resident Matt Goldman may be the unlikeliest grownup to pen a kids' book and help produce an Emmy-nominated children's program.

The St. Louis Park High School graduate abandoned a stand-up comedy career to become the first writer whom Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David hired for "Seinfeld," then went on to produce or write for such adult fare as "Ellen," "Love & War," "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Gary Unmarried." So how do you explain two recent endeavors: the novel "Dingletrot" and "Wizards of Waverly Place," the red-hot Disney Channel sitcom that will compete against "iCarly" and "Hannah Montana" for best children's program at the Emmys?

"I left the half-hour format for a while to write a screenplay and I found it difficult to get back in," he said.

Goldman, 46, took a break from pitching a new sitcom to TV executives to take us on a tour of his charmed career:

'Seinfeld'

"I met Jerry when I opened for him at the Comedy Gallery in Minneapolis. He loved a play I co-wrote called 'Bunkbed Brothers,' and when he got the show, he asked me to come out and write.

"Other than him and Larry, I was the only writer that first year. We were so under the radar, we felt like we were putting on a play in our garage. Anything I've worked on that's succeeded has felt like that. For something to really break out, all the conventions can't be there. Those guys wanted to do a show about moments and language, and that was unheard of. Still is today. People say it was a show about nothing, but I think it was a show about selfishness. Those characters acted in their own self-interest and did things we think of, but don't do.

"It was frustrating at times. During that first season, Larry couldn't explain what he was doing or what he wanted. Jerry was the calm one. He would bring me to meetings with executives because Larry was too volatile. [NBC entertainment president] Warren Littlefield would give him notes and Jerry would say, very calmly, that he wasn't going to do any of those things and they could just cancel the show and he would go back to doing stand-up."

'Ellen'

"I was with that show for two years, the season before Ellen DeGeneres came out and the year she did. She had the writers up to her house the year before that pivotal season and told us she wanted her character to come out, but first Disney, Touchstone [the company that produced the show] and ABC had to approve it, which they did.

"We thought we would do it the fourth or fifth episode, during sweeps, but ABC and Disney kept delaying it. Then these leaks came out in the press and Touchstone accused the writers of doing it. Turns out, they were doing it. They wanted to test the waters politically. In the meantime, we had to make up episodes like 'Ellen Goes to Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp,' because Ellen said she would no longer date guys on the show.

"The show was hard enough to do. Ellen wanted to be like Lucy, where everything would be about her. Even Jackie Gleason and Seinfeld had other strong characters that got laughs. Ultimately, I was really proud of how that episode came out and that she could be honest about who she was, but it took its toll. The next season, none of the writers came back, including Ellen's brother."

'The New Adventures of Old Christine'

"Writing for Julia Louis-Dreyfus is great. She's a star who's not afraid to make her character look bad and make mistakes. It's better when you're writing for a character and not writing jokes. I know that I can have her ask for another glass of wine and it's going to get a huge laugh, because that's part of her character. 'Everybody Loves Raymond' was able to do that. If his wife asked him to take out the trash, you didn't have to write a joke about it. You just knew he would try to weasel out of it and that would be funny."

'Wizards of Waverly Place'

"It was really interesting to see the Disney machine up close. They have all these rules, like no one can get hit on the head and anyone on a bike has to wear a helmet, even if it's in a fantasy sequence. I was completely handcuffed. One thing I learned is that kids are starving for multi-camera sitcoms. They became out of fashion and uncool because of saturation in the '90s for adults, but kids love the feel of a live audience. I noticed that with my own kids. They watch reruns of 'Fresh Prince' and 'That 70s Show.'"

'Dingletrot'

"There's no magic in it of any kind. No time travel. There is, however, a fantasy aspect. It takes place in the future where everyone is a lot smaller and if you grow tall, it's the cause of great shame. The main character is 12, tall and learns that he has a twin brother, so he sets off to find him. So far, sales are slow. I was warned by people that it's different than television, where you have networks promoting what you did. Selling a book is a lot harder, but I'm getting great response from the kids who have read it."

njustin@startribune.com • 612-673-7431