In 1937, Sheldon moved to
Hollywood, where he reviewed scripts and collaborated on a number of
B movies. His other stage plays include
Alice in Arms,
The King of New York,
The Judge, and
Roman Candle. Only
Roman Candle has been published as a book. The play
Gomes was performed only in London and not on Broadway.
Film Sheldon's success on Broadway brought him back to Hollywood, where his first assignment was
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, which earned him the
Academy Award for
Best Original Screenplay in 1947. He was one of the writers on the screenplay for the 1948
musical film Easter Parade and sole writer for the 1950 musical film
Annie Get Your Gun, both of which featured the songs of
Irving Berlin. Some of his other writing credits include
South of Panama;
Gambling Daughters;
Dangerous Lady;
Borrowed Hero;
Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case;
Fly-by-Night; ''
She's in the Army; Nancy Goes to Rio; Three Guys Named Mike; No questions asked; Rich, Young and Pretty; Just This Once; Remains to be Seen; Dream Wife (directed as well); You're Never Too Young; The Birds and the Bees; Anything Goes; Pardners
; The Buster Keaton Story (directed as well); All in a Night's Work; and Billy Rose's Jumbo''.
Television When television became the new popular medium, Sheldon decided to try his hand in it. "I suppose I needed money," he remembered. "I met
Patty Duke one day at lunch. So I produced
The Patty Duke Show, and I did something nobody else in TV ever did. For seven years, I wrote almost every single episode of the series." Following the show's success, Sheldon had signed an agreement with
Screen Gems to handle the development of various television series. In 1965, Sheldon created, produced, and wrote
I Dream of Jeannie starring
Barbara Eden and
Larry Hagman. He wrote all but two dozen scripts in five years, sometimes using three pseudonyms (Mark Rowane, Allan Devon, and Christopher Golato), while simultaneously writing scripts for
The Patty Duke Show. He later said that he did this because he felt his name was appearing too often in the credits as creator, producer, copyright owner, and writer of these series. Production for
I Dream of Jeannie ended in 1970 after five seasons. "During the last year of
I Dream of Jeannie, I decided to try a novel," he said in 1982. "Each morning from 9 until noon, I had a secretary at the studio take all calls. I mean every single call. I wrote each morning — or rather, dictated — and then I faced the TV business." In 1979, Sheldon created and wrote for the series
Hart to Hart starring
Robert Wagner and
Stefanie Powers. The show aired on
ABC and ran for five seasons.
Novels In 1969, Sheldon wrote his first novel,
The Naked Face, which earned him a nomination for the
Edgar Allan Poe Award from the
Mystery Writers of America in the category of Best First Novel. His next novel,
The Other Side of Midnight, climbed to number one on
The New York Times Best Seller list, as did several ensuing novels, a number of which were also made into motion pictures or TV miniseries. His novels often featured determined women who persevere in a tough world run by hostile men. The novels contained suspense and devices to keep the reader turning the page: ==Personal life==