38th Writers Guild of America Awards

Award ceremony for writing of 1985

38th WGA Awards
Date	1986
Organized by	Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West
← 37th WGA Awards 39th →

The 38th Writers Guild of America Awards honored the best television, and film writers of 1985. Winners were announced in 1986.

Winners and nominees

Film

Winners are listed first highlighted in boldface.

Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screenplay

Witness, Written by Earl W. Wallace and William Kelley; Story by Earl W. Wallace, Pamela Wallace and William Kelley
- Back to the Future, Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale
- Cocoon, Written by Tom Benedek; Story by David Saperstein
- Mask, Written by Anna Hamilton Phelan
- The Purple Rose of Cairo, Written by Woody Allen

Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Prizzi's Honor, Screenplay by Richard Condon and Janet Roach; Based on the novel by Richard Condon
- Agnes of God, Screenplay by John Pielmeier; Based on his play
- The Color Purple, Screenplay by Menno Meyjes; Based on the novel by Alice Walker
- Out of Africa, Screenplay by Kurt Luedtke; Based on the book Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Story Teller by Judith Thurman and the book Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski
- The Trip to Bountiful, Screenplay by Horton Foote; Based on his play

Television

Episodic Comedy *"Pilot" – Moonlighting* (ABC) – Glenn Gordon Caron** (Tie with Steambath) *"Madison Avenue Madness" – Steambath* (Showtime) – David Pollock and Elias Davis** (Tie with Moonlighting) "Fairy Tales Can Come True" – Cheers (NBC) – Sam Simon "The Executive's Executioner" – Cheers (NBC) – Heide Perlman "Goodbye, Mr. Fish" – The Cosby Show (NBC) – Earl Pomerantz "The Uh-Oh Feeling" – Webster (ABC) – Steven Sunshine and Madeline Sunshine	Episodic Drama *"Unusual Occurrence" – Cagney & Lacey* (CBS) – Georgia Jeffries** "Brother's Keeper" – Miami Vice (NBC) – Anthony Yerkovich "Who Says It's Fair" – Cagney & Lacey (CBS) – Patricia Green "Child Witness" – Cagney & Lacey (CBS) – Deborah Arakelian "A Wind from the East" – Call to Glory (ABC) – Josef Anderson "Watt a Way to Go" – Hill Street Blues (NBC) – David Milch, Roger Director, Steven Bochco and Jeffrey Lewis "Sweet Dreams" – St. Elsewhere (NBC) – John Masius and Tom Fontana
Daytime Serials One Life to Live (ABC) – Peggy O'Shea, Sam Hall, S. Michael Schnessel, Lanie Bertram, Ethel Brez, Mel Brez, Barbara Morgenroth, Don Wallace, Peter Swet and Eugenie Hunt Guiding Light (CBS) – Pete T. Rich, Elaine Potwardoski, Emily Squires, John Kuntz, N. Gail Lawrence, Stephen Demorest, Christopher Whitesell, Megan McTavish, Trent Jones, Jeff Ryder, Addie Walsh and Robin Amos The Edge of Night (ABC) – Lee Sheldon, David Snell, Marty Ross and Eric Rubinton	Adapted Drama Anthology The Burning Bed (NBC) – Rose Leiman Goldemberg
Original/Adapted Comedy Anthology The Ratings Game (Showtime) – Michael Barrie and Jim Mulholland	Original Drama Anthology Do You Remember Love (CBS) – Vickie Patik Not My Kid (CBS) – Christopher Knopf and Beth Polson
Children's Show *"Booker" – WonderWorks* (PBS) – Charles Johnson, John Allman and Avon Kirkland** "Babies Having Babies" – CBS Schoolbreak Special (CBS) – Kathryn J. Montgomery and Jeffrey Auerbach "Fuzz Bucket" – Wonderful World of Disney (ABC) – Mick Garris "Time Flyer" – Wonderful World of Disney (ABC) – Mark Rosman

Special awards

Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement
Waldo Salt
Laurel Award for TV Writing Achievement
Richard Levinson, and William Link
Valentine Davies Award
Ronald Austin
Morgan Cox Award
Arthur E. Orloff

References

"Awards Winners". wga.org. Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
"Writers Guild of America, USA (1986)". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-07-06.

External links

WGA.org

v t e Writers Guild of America Awards
Film Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay Best Original Screenplay Best Documentary Screenplay
Television/ New Media Awards	Animation Comedy Series Comedy/Variety Talk Series Comedy/Variety Specials Comedy/Variety Sketch Series Daytime Serials Drama Series Episodic Comedy Episodic Drama Long Form – Adapted Long Form – Original Short Form New Media New Series Children's Script Documentary Script – Current Events Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events
Special Awards	Paul Selvin Award Valentine Davies Award Animation Writers Caucus Animation Writing Award Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement Laurel Award for TV Writing Achievement Evelyn F. Burkey Award
Former Awards	Musical Western American Scene Drama Comedy
Ceremonies	1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Years are of film release; ceremonies are held the following year

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