After his first screenplay became the movie St. Elmo’s Fire, Carl has written screenplays under contract for Paramount, Universal, Disney, Orion, Twentieth Century, and Columbia/Sony studios.

He has written television shows for NBC, Fox, and CBS, including multiple television pilots and served as a writer/producer on over 125 episodes of NBC’s popular Saved By the Bell franchise.   Among his credits there are the shows Saved By the Bell: The New Class, Hang Time, USA High, and Malibu, Ca on which he was co-creator and showrunner for 52 episodes.

Carl has produced multiple award winning documentaries including The Shot Felt Round The World about the development of the Salk polio vaccine which was broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel and the BBC, My Tale of Two Cities about coming home and the city of Pittsburgh reinventing itself for a new age, and Burden of Genius about Dr. Tom Starzl’s pioneering work as the father of organ transplantation which will air on PBS in 2021.

Carl served as co-executive producer of Starz TV’s 10 part docu-series The Chair which followed two directors making different films from the same script.  The series with Zach Quinto and Chris Moore which won the 2015 TV Critic’s Award for Best Reality Program.  Kurlander was also a participant and creative consultant to one of the first “reality TV shows” on Fox TV 3000 Miles, 21 Days, 10 Cents hosted by Bruce Jenner in which three teams worked their away across country on a dime.   While the other teams involved a beauty queen and a debutante, Carl ended up going working his way across country with his mother.

Since moving back to Pittsburgh, Kurlander has tried to live up to Fred Rogers’ belief that media at its best can “make good attractive.”  He has been involved in numerous projects and program through his non-profit work.  Some of the work he has been involved with include the short Pittsburgh: Hollywood’s Best Kept Secret and Mid-Atlantic Emmy nominated Pittsburgh Entertainment Summit; a fundraising video for citizen artist Vanessa German, Love Front Porch which led to her establishing the Art House; and the community teaching film The Rehabilitation of the Hill, a feature film in which University of Pittsburgh students and community members from Pittsburgh’s Hill District worked alongside film professionals.  Carl also helped create and oversaw the teen-produced television series The Reel Teens: Pittsburgh which aired on Fox Pittsburgh and did special episodes visiting Google, exploring Pittsburgh’s growing entertainment industry, and one addressing the stigma of mental health among teens which won a regional Emmy.  He also developed multiple youth and media programs through the non-profit Steeltown Entertainment Project he co-founded to work with high schools students around Southwestern Pennsylvania and a “Take a Shot At Changing the World” viral video contest which began with students making videos about the importance of vaccines and subsequently encouraged students to make videos from subjects important to their lives including social justice, the environment, hunger, and violence.