Bankrate: When you started writing for "Archie Bunker's Place," were you what you'd consider rich?

Andy Borowitz: Not when I started. I was on a special deal the Writers Guild had, an apprentice writer program, so I was actually making less than the guild minimum. I think I was making $700 a week. Although you have to keep in mind, in 1981 dollars for someone who was just out of college, it did seem like a good deal. But the scariest thing about it was that they had options on me every four weeks or so. The ax could have come down on me at any moment, without warning.

Bankrate: Considering how young you were when you started, did you know a lot about handling and investing money?

Andy Borowitz: I knew it was a good idea to get an IRA. Somebody told me that was a smart thing to do. But this shows how even if you're conservative, you can go astray, because I got an IRA, but from Lincoln Savings & Loan, which was part of the whole S&L disaster. Fortunately, I think I moved my IRA to something like Bank of America. I think I got out before that went up in flames.

Bankrate: At what point did you start to feel secure in your career?

Andy Borowitz: Maybe after a few years I felt like, for better or worse, I had a profession now, and maybe I could work at this for a long time if I wanted to. Actually, I would have to mark the time I felt secure by when I stopped taking out my LSAT practice book. I was about two or three years in when I realized I wouldn't have to go to law school.

Bankrate: How did you wind up developing "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"?

Andy Borowitz: I was under contract to NBC, which was trying to get into producing their own shows because they had been dependent on studios like Paramount for shows like "Cheers." The problem was, they were subject to all these terrible contract renegotiations with studios, because they didn't own the shows. Brandon Tartikoff, who was running NBC at the time, thought they could control their own destiny if they produced shows on their own. So he put me under contract with the thought that I could come up with something that NBC would own, and the first project from that deal was "Fresh Prince." It made him look like a genius. In retrospect, I think we all just got lucky.