[2][3] In the mid-1980s, Server set out to interview as many Golden Age Hollywood screenwriters as he could locate.

After talking to 23 all-but-forgotten writers about working inside the studio system during the 1930s and '40s, Server selected 12 of the interviews to be published as his first book, Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures.

Disgruntled with his contemporaries' tendency to emphasize the director's contributions to the filmmaking process, Server felt that "the time has come to shine a bit more light in the direction of the neglected screenwriter."

[4] Server's book on Ava Gardner, Love is Nothing (2006) was described as an "excellent biography" by Peter Bogdanovich.

[5] On March 20, 2019, Server joined George Noory on the Coast to Coast radio program to discuss his most recent book, Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin.