After freelancing articles to the then-young "Village Voice" while at Columbia, he worked as a reporter for the "Times-Picayune" and as news editor of WWL Radio in New Orleans (1959-1961). He joined Mike Wallace as a writer-producer in New York for one year (1961-62) then moved to Los Angeles where he was a talent coordinator and writer-producer for Steve Allen (1962-1964). He also wrote and produced television programs for Mort Sahl, ABC-TV and Universal Studios (1964-1966; 1971). He wrote his first books during this period, an as-told-to autobiography of a health faddist, "Bare Feet and Good Things to Eat" (1965), and an astrological spoof, "You Were Born on a Rotten Day" (1969).