SHAPIRO, ESTHER JUNE

SHAPIRO, ESTHER JUNE (1934– ), U.S. producer and screenwriter. A Brooklyn native, Shapiro began her entertainment   career writing for television. One of her first jobs was writing a 1966 episode of The Iron Horse. She also wrote for Love of Life (1969–70) and was executive story consultant for Love Story in 1973–74. Shapiro married Richard Shapiro, also a producer and screenwriter, in 1960. In 1975, the pair wrote the screenplay for the NBC movie Sarah T.: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic. Two years later, they produced and wrote the ABC movie Intimate Strangers (1977). The same year, they wrote for the CBS television movie Minstrel Man. In 1981, the two collaborated as the creators of Dynasty, a prime time soap opera, which the couple also wrote for until 1989. In 1983–84, the Shapiros worked as cocreators and executive producers of Emerald Point. Shapiro also wrote for the show. In 1985, the pair created Dynasty II: The Colbys, a spin-off of the original series, for which Shapiro also wrote. Shapiro was an executive producer for the ABC television movies The Three Kings and Cracked Up in 1987. The next year, she became executive producer of the television show HeartBeat (1988), which she also wrote. The following year, the couple wrote and were executive producers for the NBC television series When We Were Young. In 1991 the pair returned as writers for the television movie Dynasty: The Reunion. Other television movies the couple worked on are Blood Ties (1991), The Colony (1996), Living the Life (2000), and The Motel (2005). (Susannah Howland (2nd ed.)