Dodge College’s Barry Blaustein reflects on veteran writing career

Screenwriting professor Barry Blaustein has served as a screenwriter for “Coming to America,” “Coming 2 America,” “The Mike Douglas Show,” “The Nutty Professor” and “Saturday Night Live.” Photo illustration by SAM ANDRUS, Photo Editor

Barry Blaustein, veteran screenwriter and professor at the Dodge College of Film at Media Arts

As a young boy, Barry Blaustein would cuddle up on the couch to watch “The Mike Douglas Show” with his grandmother for some bonding time. He’d laugh, feeling comforted and paying close attention to the rich conversations between host Mike Douglas and his talk show guests. 

In that moment, glued to a television screen with Douglas’ smiling face, Blaustein would’ve never guessed he’d become a screenwriter for that very show he and his grandmother watched while chowing down dinner.

Looking back nowadays, Blaustein has worked on numerous films in a screenwriting career that’s spanned 39 years. He’s written such films as “Coming to America,” “Coming 2 America,” and “The Nutty Professor,” among others, while spending time as a writer for “Saturday Night Live.” Yet through the ups and downs, Blaustein tried to carry with him that love of the film industry he had since he was a young boy, watching television with his grandmother. 

At the age of 24, Blaustein was working as a screenwriter for his beloved “The Mike Douglas Show,” but he had a desire to accomplish bigger goals. 

Blaustein submitted script material he had written for “The Mike Douglas Show” to Jean Doumanian, then-producer of “Saturday Night Live”, a show Blaustein grew to admire while watching from his college dorm room at New York University. Doumanian, however, had hesitations to hire him because his material was for an outdated talk show that mostly reached elderly audiences. Blaustein wrote up more material and resubmitted, but felt defeated. 

Three weeks later, out of the blue, Doumanian called Blaustein and offered him a writing job. He discovered the producer’s assistant had discovered his resubmitted material, liked it and sent it along to Doumanian.

As a screenwriter for “Saturday Night Live,” Blaustein developed a friendship with comedian and actor Eddie Murphy that has lasted 40 years. He wrote and co-wrote the scripts for classic Murphy characters such as “Buckwheat,” “Velvet Jones,” “Gumby” and “Mr. Robinson,” which enticed Murphy to approach him to write both “Coming to America” films, “The Nutty Professor” and “Boomerang.” With appreciation for Murphy and a glimpse into the lighthearted nature of their friendship, Blaustein joked that after his divorce, Murphy became his longest relationship. 

“When I got divorced about 10 to 12 years ago, he (Eddie) said ‘I’m going to get you through this,’” Blaustein said. “I told him ‘you’re my longest relationship’ and he said the same. I told him I was sorry for that and he said ‘we both could’ve done much worse.’”

Three decades after the initial release of 1988’s “Coming to America,” which received widespread critical acclaim, Murphy called up Blaustein in 2017 with an idea to write a second film. Blaustein told The Panther that “Coming to America” became a part of American culture, giving them belief that the creation of 2021’s “Coming 2 America” would receive the same, if not more, recognition. 

“It’s a movie that has lived on for 33 years,” Blaustein said of the original. “People still dress up as (Murphy’s) character for Halloween and people always quote the movie.”

But as he balanced writing the first draft of the “Coming 2 America” script in just six weeks during 2017, he was also teaching screenwriting classes at Chapman’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Blaustein found his love for educating students outweighed his passion for writing. 

“There was a student (in my class) who was struggling with her script, and I knew she had talent,” Blaustein said. “The same day they announced the filming of ‘Coming 2 America,’ that student handed in a version of her script where she finally got it ... I was more excited about that than I was about ‘Coming 2 America.’ I find teaching students really inspiring and I hope to make them better writers, because I know they make me a better writer.” 

When Blaustein looks back at his career, although proud of his work on “Coming to America” and “Coming 2 America,” Blaustein told The Panther his biggest accomplishment was his debut 199 directorial film “Beyond the Mat.” With a longtime love of wrestling, Blaustein had the chance to work with professional legends like Mick Foley, Terry Funk and Dwayne Johnson.

With the ebbs and flows of his career and the self-realizations he’s had along the way, Blaustein advised students and aspiring filmmakers that being resilient is a crucial trait to possess in the film industry. 

“You’re going to be knocked out a lot, so you’ve got to be able to get back up on your feet,” Blaustein said. “You have to do the work; there’s no shortcuts to it. You don’t have to know anybody. I didn’t know anybody. You just have to keep writing.”