Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers are an English-born Canadian writing duo. Though both their families moved independently from England to the same town in Canada, They're not met until junior high in 1969, where they began collaborating almost immediately. The writing duo moved to Los Angeles in 1983 to continue their careers, and are members of WGA, WGC, SACD, SOCAN, ACCT, and ATAS.
Career
Nicholls and Vickers began writing music and comedy together while at Ridgeway Junior High School in Oshawa, Ontario. After high school they wrote for stage, radio, TV, syndicated cartoonists and stand-up comedians. From 1979 to 1982 they performed in Southern Ontario as Nobby Clegg and the Civilians, after having received airplay at Brampton alternative station CFNY-FM with home-recorded songs. The band found some success with the singles "Essay - Me Dad" and "I Wanna Be in Commercials," which were also included in the 1981 compilation Toronto Calling. Nicholls and Vickers later used the band's name for a character on the Showtime show Rude Awakening. In that series, the Nobby Clegg character was played by Roger Daltrey, best known as the lead singer of The Who. From 1986 to 1992 they helped write 770 hours of produced material for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, earning 4 Emmy nominations, and were the show's head writers from December 1989, until Carson's retirement on 22 May 1992. In 1997, the pair received a Genie nomination, Best Animated Series, for Ned's Newt. They also received a WGC nomination for the series in 1999. The title character was voiced by Harland Williams and was cited in several interviews as one of the favorite TV shows of legendary cartoonist Ed Gorey. In 2001, the two received a Gemini nomination for "Best Comedy Series" for their work developing, writing the pilot, and serving as Story Editors on John Callahan's Quads!. The duo were nominated for a Pulcinella Award, Best Animated Episode, at the 2003 Cartoons on the Bay Festival in Positano, Italy, for both and The World of Tosh. They were again nominated for the Pulcinella for Best Kids Series at the 2015 Festival, for Pumpkin Reports. In 2008, the pair were awarded a Gemini Award, Best Pre-School Series, for the animated series Will & Dewitt—having written the series bible, 28 episodes, and serving as Story Editors. Vickers is part of a music band called "Death of the Author Brigade"—which was formed through and continues to create songs via the internet. As a writing team, Vickers and Nicholls have over 1200 hours of produced television credits. They have also written and produced 38 television and radio pilot scripts. In 2019, Nicholls' full-length stage play had its world premiere at the Wyatt Theater Pavilion, UC Davis, California.
Valuable Lessons: How I Made Millions Writing For Over A Hundred Shows and Series—Andrew Nicholls' revealingly honest exposé about the entertainment industry and the life of a Television writer and show runner. The updated 2010 version is now available for download at Amazon :
MOJAVE! The Musical, had its first staged reading May 25, 2016, at UC Davis Theater Department, Davis, California
Since 2012, Andrew Nicholls has published short fiction in Black Clock, The Santa Monica Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Boiler Journal, New World Writing, Literature For Life, Kugelmass, The Sherman Oaks Review of Books, and elsewhere.
Darrell Vickers executive produced the first season and wrote 2 episodes for Hitting The Breaks
