Sherwood Schwartz

Sherwood Charles Schwartz, November 14, 1916 – July 12, 2011 was an American television producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, and created the television series Gilligan's Island on CBS and The Brady Bunch on ABC. On March 7, 2008, Schwartz, at the time still active in his 90s, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal life

Schwartz was born in Passaic, New Jersey to a Jewish family.

In his 1988 book, Inside Gilligan's Island, Schwartz mentions he did not get along well with Red Skelton. In his early years as head writer, it was in his contract that Schwartz would not have to meet face-to-face with Skelton.

Life and career

Schwartz's entertainment career came "by accident." He relocated from New York to southern California to pursue a master of science degree in biology. In need of employment, he began writing jokes for Bob Hope's radio program, for which Schwartz's brother, Al Schwartz, worked. Schwartz recalled that Hope "liked my jokes, used them on his show and got big laughs. Then he asked me to join his writing staff. I was faced with a major decision — writing comedy or starving to death while I cured those diseases. I made a quick career change.

He went on to write for Ozzie Nelson's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and other radio shows. He was a writer on the Armed Forces Radio Network before he got his break in television. He went on to create and produce Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. He wrote the theme song for three of his shows: Gilligan's Island (co-wrote), It's About Time, and The Brady Bunch. Actresses Dawn Wells and Florence Henderson, who appeared in Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, respectively, accompanied Schwartz when he received his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

TV appearances

During the late 1990s and the 2000s, he made many appearances on TV talking about his series, on shows such as the CBS Evening News, 20/20, TV Land's Top Ten and A&E's Biography. He also took part in a "Creators" marathon on Nick at Nite in the late 1990s. He was also a guest at the 2004 TV Land Awards.

In 1988, Schwartz appeared on The Late Show with Ross Shafer for a Gilligan's Island reunion, along with all seven castaways from Gilligan's Island. This was the last time they were all together on television; actors Jim Backus, Alan Hale Jr., Natalie Schafer, and Bob Denver have since died, leaving only three surviving actors from the show.

Death

On July 12, 2011, Sherwood Schwartz died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes, surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Mildred Schwartz and their four children: Donald, Lloyd (the creator of The Munsters Today), Ross, and Hope (Mrs. Juber; reportedly named after Bob Hope).

Filmography

Schwartz produced a number of radio and TV shows during his career.

Series Years Job

The Bob Hope Show 1938–1942 Writer for Radio Version

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet 1940s Writer for Radio Version

The Alan Young Show 1940s Writer for Radio Version

I Married Joan 1952–1955 Writer

The Red Skelton Show 1956–1962 Writer

My Favorite Martian 1963 Script Supervisor

Gilligan's Island 1964–1967 Writer, Creator, Producer

It's About Time 1966–1967 Writer, Creator, Producer

The Brady Bunch 1969–1974 Writer, Creator, Producer

Dusty's Trail 1973–1974 Writer, Creator, Producer

Big John, Little John 1976 Producer

Harper Valley PTA 1981–1982 Writer, Producer

Together We Stand 1986–1987 Writer, Producer

Stage productions

On November 10, 2006, his play Rockers opened in Theater West in California. In 1990, he wrote Gilligan's Island: The Musical, still in production as of 2011. His son Lloyd, daughter Hope, and son-in-law Laurence Juber worked on the play as well.

Unsold pilots

He wrote and Executive Produced these two pilots

Scamps (1982) - Starring Bob Denver, Dreama Denver, and Joey Lawrence

The Invisible Woman (1983) - Starring Bob Denver, Alexa Hamilton, George Gobel, and Harvey Korman

Awards

Won the 1961 Emmy Award for his writing on The Red Skelton Show.

Was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his 2004 special "Still Brady After All These Years"

On March 7, 2008, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Brady Bunch

Brady Bunch was an American television sitcom starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis, which revolved around a large blended family. The show originally aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC and was subsequently syndicated internationally.

Plot summary

Mike Brady (Robert Reed), widowed architect with sons Greg (Barry Williams), Peter (Christopher Knight) and Bobby (Mike Lookinland), marries Carol Martin (née Tyler) (Florence Henderson), whose daughters are Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb) and Cindy (Susan Olsen). The wife and daughters take the Brady surname. Producer Schwartz wanted Carol to have been a divorcée but the network objected to this. A compromise was reached whereby no mention was made of the circumstances in which Carol's first marriage ended. The blended family, Mike's live-in housekeeper Alice (Ann B. Davis) and the boys' dog Tiger settle into a large, suburban, two-story house designed by Mike. Their specific location is not explicitly stated in the series, though numerous indications suggest they reside in Southern California.

The theme song penned by Schwartz quickly communicated to audiences that the Bradys were a blended family. In the first season this blending figured prominently in stories. These episodes chronicled the family learning to adjust to its new circumstances and become a unit, as well as typical childhood problems such as rivalries and family squabbles. Over time the episodes focused more on issues related to the kids growing up, such as dating, self-image, responsibility, and puberty.

From the second season the blending and its particular tensions were less intrinsic to stories but would sometimes be casually mentioned in dialogue, often as part of a joke. Two episodes from the third season, "Not So Rose Colored Glasses" and "Jan's Aunt Jenny", mention that Mike and Carol had been married for just three years. "Kelly's Kids" in the final season explicitly recalled Mike and Carol's adoptions ("Either way, you adopted three boys and you adopted three girls, right?") when their neighbors, the Kellys, adopted three boys of different races.

It was not the first series to show a "blended" family (two series which debuted in the 1950s, Make Room For Daddy and Bonanza, had stepsiblings and half-siblings respectively), but came at a time when divorce and remarriage in America was seeing a surge.

Contemporary issues were sometimes explored. Season two's "The Liberation of Marcia Brady" explored the equality of women, as Marcia sets out to prove a girl can do anything a boy can. The boys challenge the idea and coerce Peter into joining Marcia's club, the Sunflower Girls, to make a point.

[edit]Episodes

Main article: List of The Brady Bunch episodes

In 1971, due to the success of the Bradys' ABC Friday night companion show The Partridge Family (about a musical family), some episodes began to feature the Brady Kids as a singing group. Though only a handful of shows actually featured them singing and performing ("Dough-Re-Mi" in the third season, "Amateur Nite" in the fourth and "Adios, Johnny Bravo" in the fifth), the Brady Bunch began to release albums. Ironically enough the LP records featured background vocals sweetening by the same session vocalists who were on The Partridge Family platters. Though the kids never charted as high as the Partridges, the cast began touring the United States during the summer hiatus from the show, headlining as The Kids from the Brady Bunch. Only Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick stayed in the music business as adults. Christopher Knight readily admits he felt he could not sing and recalls having great anxiety about performing live on stage with the cast.

Season Ep # First Airdate Last Airdate

Season 1 25 September 26, 1969 March 20, 1970

Season 2 24 September 27, 1970 March 20, 1971

Season 3 23 September 17, 1971 March 10, 1972

Season 4 23 September 22, 1972 March 23, 1973

Season 5 22 September 14, 1973 March 8, 1974

Brady Bunch, Creator Sherwood Schwartz Dead at 94

If you’re a child of the ‘60s and ‘70s, it might interest you to know that Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of two of that era’s most memorable sit-coms, “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch,” died Tuesday. He was 94.

He died of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to his family, who was by his side when he died.

If you're of a certain age, you might be able to remember full episodes from either of those shows but you may not know that Schwartz was born not too far from here, in Passaic, New Jersey.

The father and son were working together on the upcoming Warner Bros. film adaptation of "Gilligan's Island" at the time of Schwartz's death, said Lloyd.

After an initial interest in medicine, Schwartz turned to show business, writing for "The Bob Hope Show" in 1939 with his brother, Al. Schwartz also wrote for comic greats Red Skelton and Milton Berle.

Once he turned to television, he worked on more than 700 shows, by his own count. In 1963, Schwartz created "Gilligan's Island" and then in 1969, "The Brady Bunch," two series that were dismissed by critics but beloved by viewers.

Schwartz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008, the same year he was named to the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Schwartz is survived by his wife of 69 years, Mildred, and four children, including Lloyd and another son, Ross, who wrote the independent film "Bottle Shock.