[1][2][3] Gabler graduated from Lane Tech High School in Chicago, Illinois, class of 1967, and was inducted into the National Honor Society.

He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Michigan and holds advanced degrees in both film and American culture.

He is the author of seven books: An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (1989), Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity (1994), Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality (1998); Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (2006); Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power (2016); Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour 1932–1975 (2020); and Against the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Rise of Conservatism, 1976–2009 (2022).

There ought to be movies for teenagers and there ought to be Police Academys – so long as they're well-made and I certainly won't begrudge anyone that – and there ought to be Tender Mercies and there ought to be Indiana Joneses.

[7] As of September 2011, Gabler is a Research Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Public Policy and Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.