Lee Sheldon Papers

Title: Lee Sheldon Papers

Dates: 1975-2015

Collection Number: WGF-MS-147

Creator/Collector: Sheldon, Lee

Extent: 14 linear feet

Repository: Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Abstract: The Lee Sheldon Papers consist of screenplay & teleplay drafts, pitches, treatments and correspondence related to Sheldon’s produced and unproduced film and TV projects. The collection also includes numerous video game development and design documents written by Sheldon, including scripts, outlines, and correspondence.

Language of Material: English

The collection is open for research by appointment.

The responsibility to secure copyright and publication permission rests with the researcher.

[Identification of item]. Lee Sheldon Papers. Collection Number: WGF-MS-147. Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Donated by Lee Sheldon on 8/4/2023

Charles Lee Sheldon is a screenwriter, video game writer/designer, and educator, with a career spanning more than 40 years. Originally from Ohio, he graduated from Boston University in 1972 and California Institute of the Arts in 1974. He worked as a screenwriter from the mid-1970s through the 1980s on dramatic television shows such as Charlie’s Angels, Blacke’s Magic, Tucker’s Witch, Cagney & Lacey, The Hardy Boy Mysteries, Probe, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Snoops. From 1983-1984, Sheldon was the head writer for the long-running soap opera, The Edge of Night, during its final season. Sheldon began writing for computer games in the early 1990s. At Sanctuary Woods, he co-designed, wrote and directed PC games including Ripley’s Believe It or Not: The Riddle of Master Lu (1995). For SouthPeak Games, he designed and wrote PC games Temujin and Dark Side of the Moon and the browser-based ARG The Light Files. Later, he was head writer for Uru: Ages Beyond MYST for Cyan, designed and wrote games based on Agatha Christie novels for Dreamcatcher Interactive, and worked on massively multiplayer games and social media games. He also has over a dozen serious and educational game credits in addition to commercial titles. Sheldon began his teaching career in video game writing and design as an assistant professor for the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University from 2006-2010. Then he became an associate professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he also acted as co-director of the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program 2010-2015. There he created the first full Writing for Games program in the United States. He is a retired professor of practice in game writing in the Interactive Media and Game Development Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. In his academic work, Sheldon authored many articles, presented talks on game development, participated in grants, and is the author of multiple game design books: Character Development And Storytelling For Games (2013), The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game (CRC Press, 2020) and The Multiplayer Classroom: Game Plans (CRC Press, 2021). He is active in professional organizations including the Mystery Writers of America, The Writers Guild of America, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and the International Game Developers Association.

The Lee Sheldon Papers are divided into three series. The screenwriting papers comprise a mixture of film and television projects and contain drafts, outlines and pitches for projects that span across Sheldon’s entire career in Hollywood, from the mid-1970s and into the early 2000s. Series 1: Television contains Sheldon’s produced television episodes from series such as Asimov’s Probe, Charlie’s Angels, Blacke’s Magic, California Fever, The Clue Club, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Eight is Enough, Father Murphy, Greatest American Hero, Hardy Boys, Nero Wolfe, Quincy, Simon and Simon, Snoops, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tucker’s Witch and Walking Tall. Many titles are represented with drafts, outlines and correspondence. Of note, there is material from The Perkins Family, a children’s program produced by PBS affiliate GBH in Boston, adapted from a similar program in the United Kingdom called “No Adults Allowed.” Sheldon provided scenarios and storylines for the child cast members to follow and these breakdowns and other papers are included. The soap opera Edge of Night is extensively represented from 1983-1984 with long-term story arcs, episode synopses, about 100 full scripts, and beat-by-beat outlines of most of the 400 episodes produced with Sheldon as head writer. Unmade television projects include individual episodes and outlines for Beach Patrol, The Clue Club, Columbo, The Devlin Connection, Eight is Enough, Fame, Nero Wolfe, Quincy and Rosetti and Ryan. Unproduced television originals include pilots for Father Dowling, Gideon Oliver, a revival Return to Room 222, an adventure fantasy show titled Otherworld (developed for Atari), and a disaster TV movie titled The Pleasure Dome. Series 2: Film and Other Works contains Sheldon’s feature film screenplay drafts, a few stage plays, and ideas and treatments for unrealized TV and film projects. Of particular note is a collection of letters and memos with producer Nelle Nugent. Nugent and Sheldon spent close to two years 1985-1987 trying to get a film studio interested in an adaptation of the novel “The Tall Dark Man” by Anne Chamberlain. There are also letters between Nugent and Sheldon trying to revive the classic CBS anthology series Suspense in 1988. Series 3: Games comprises of an assortment of video game scripts and design documents for many of the games that Sheldon wrote throughout the 1990s and 2000s. For Sanctuary Woods: Shelley Duvall's Tales Of Digby the Dog, Once Upon a Forest, Ripley's Believe It Or Not: The Riddle of Master Lu and an unreleased sequel about the Tunguska event, Sideshow and a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea adventure game. For SouthPeak Interactive: The Light Files internet-based game and its unmade sequel, and Dark Side of the Moon. For Dreamcatcher Interactive: Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun and an unreleased ABC Murders. Uru: Ages Beyond Myst for Cyan, Suburbia 2 for MegaZebra, and Londontown, which was produced with students, faculty and staff at Indiana University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Unreleased games in the collection include Star Trek: Infinite Space MMO browser game for Gameforge, Amnesia Moon based on the Jonathan Lethem novel, Gryphon Tapestry, an MMO for Imaginaria, and The Truth, an applied game MMO about drug abuse. The writing and design documents in this series include scripts for playthroughs and cut scenes, story scenarios, maps, narrative outlines, character sketches and descriptions, timelines, and some pitches and business development papers.