Mike Reiss '81 (Writer & Director)

By Steven Hanna GSA '01, '08

“The basic thing is,” laughs Mike Reiss '81 by way of introduction, “I hated Harvard. You couldn’t find someone with a lower opinion of that place than me. I hate the place, and I hate the education that I got there, and the one thing I like and that I owe my entire career to is, obviously, the Harvard Lampoon. And you’d think I could at least thank Harvard for the Harvard Lampoon. That would seem natural. Except that Harvard hated the Lampoon, and could not have been more antagonistic to it at the time. I can’t thank the Lampoon enough, but I have really nothing good to say about Harvard. I admire their selection process, and I felt everybody I met there was quite remarkable, but I think they manage to round up many, many brilliant people and then do absolutely nothing with them or for them.”

Carlton Cuse '81 (Writer & Executive Producer, LOST)

By Steven Hanna GSA '01, '08

“There weren’t very many people from Harvard who were part of the entertainment business when I first came out here,” recalls TV writer/producer Carlton Cuse ’81 of his post-graduation journey west. “But the connections that existed were sort of vital at the very beginning of my career, and definitely my first boss was delighted to have a Harvard guy getting his coffee and buying organic dog food for his Akita.”