The Sy Salkowitz Papers are organized in three parts. Part 1 contains materials organized by archives staff in 1973; its materials date 1956-1972 and concern both Salkowitz' television work and to a lesser extent his work in motion pictures. Part 2 contains additional materials organized in 1974; these papers date 1972-1974 and document Salkowitz' activities as a television writer. Part 3 contains additional materials organized in 1984; these date 1961-1982 and reflect Salkowitz' transition from writer to production company executive. Part 3 also includes a small group of miscellaneous materials, primarily financial in nature.
In PART 1, the Television material mainly includes various drafts of scripts but also present are notes, outlines, and copies of original stories. This material is arranged alphabetically by series title. Thereunder, episodes of a series are arranged by production number when known; when episodes are incomplete or unnumbered, they are filed alphabetically by title at the end of the series. Some scripts have annotations by Salkowitz with information about their evolution of importance to his career.
The motion picture material consists of various drafts of scripts, notes, and correspondence. This material is divided into two categories: Motion Picture - Produced and Motion Picture - Unproduced . Within each category, material is arranged chronologically.
In PART 2, the materials are divided into Television - Produced and Television - Unproduced . Both categories include notes, story synopses, scripts, and personal retrospectives. In these retrospectives Salkowitz recalls the development of each script, and details his impressions of the people with whom he worked, gives a general overview of a writer's creative problems with networks and producers, and describes the effects of the 1973 Writers Guild strike. The Produced category documents series such as Born Free, Chopper One, Hawkins, Ironside, Nakia, Police Story, The Rookies, and The Six Million Man. Included are several notes from author Joseph Wambaugh in which he critiques Police Story scripts for their technical accuracy and plausibility. The files are alphabetical by series title and by production number within each series.
The Unproduced category contains unaired episodes of Chopper One and Ironside.
PART 3 also is divided into Television - Produced and Television - Unproduced and is primarily scripts. Included in lesser quantity are story outlines, presentations, notes and research materials, synopses, treatments, correspondence, budgets, shooting schedules, and other production materials. Salkowitz wrote only for Today's FBI and for a number of series which were not produced. The remainder of the scripts include those submitted to or commissioned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Viacom Productions, several by Sy Salkowitz Productions, Inc., and others. Television specials also are represented in this part. Among the series most well represented are Husbands, Wives and Lovers, James at 15 (James at 16), M*A*S*H, The Paper Chase, The Swiss Family Robinson, Today's FBI, and Yound Dan'l Boone.
Two boxes of other, more general papers are filed in a Miscellaneous category at the end.
