Sherwood Schwartz.....................

[Richard Cranium]

..........won't be down for breakfast.


Thanks for the memories Mr. Schwartz! 


Sherwood Schwartz, who created "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," two of the most affectionately ridiculed and enduring television sitcoms of the 1960s and '70s, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Hope Juber.

Mr. Schwartz weathered painfully dismissive reviews to see his shows prosper and live on for decades in syndication. Many critics suggested that they were successful because they ran counter to the tumultuous times in which they appeared: the era of the Vietnam War and sweeping social change.

Give or take a month or so, the original network run of "The Brady Bunch" coincided with two major upheavals in American society. The show, about a squeaky-clean blended family in California, began in 1969, shortly after Woodstock, and ended in 1974, soon after President Richard M. Nixon's resignation following the Watergate scandal.

Mr. Schwartz's work may have been seen as lighthearted entertainment, but some scholars of popular culture took it very seriously. David Marc and Robert J. Thompson, authors of "Prime Time, Prime Movers," in which they advance an auteur theory of television, considered Mr. Schwartz an innovator who made a "surgical strike into the national psyche."

Describing the advent of "Gilligan's Island," which told the story of seven very different castaways stranded on a desert island, they wrote, "Schwartz was pioneering a dramatic matrix built upon the emerging cultural concept of the 'support group': a collection of demographically diverse characters thrown together by circumstance and forced to become an ersatz 'family' in order to survive."

Mr. Schwartz, in a 1996 interview, said that he had always planned the series as a social statement, the message being, "It's one world, and we all have to learn to live with each other."

Once or twice a year, he added, he received word of an academic paper whose author claimed to have uncovered the "real meaning" of the series, also stating that its creator probably had no idea what he was really saying.

Not so. Mr. Schwartz remembered describing the idea of "Gilligan's Island" to William S. Paley, then chairman of CBS, as a microcosm. Mr. Paley, he recalled, blanched and said, "Oh, God, I thought it was a comedy show," to which Mr. Schwartz quickly responded, "But it's a funny microcosm!"

Mr. Schwartz was also largely responsible for his shows' theme songs, which spelled out the premises in detail. "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," which Mr. Schwartz wrote with George Wyle, told the story of those castaways and how they ended up on that island. It began:

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,

A tale of a fateful trip

That started from this tropic port

Aboard this tiny ship.

The "Brady Bunch" theme, which Mr. Schwartz wrote by himself, told the story of a woman with three daughters and a man with three sons who met and married. Viewers who swore they had never been fans of either show somehow knew the lyrics, or at least couldn't help associating phrases like a "three-hour tour" or "the youngest one in curls" with the two series.

Sherwood Charles Schwartz was born in Passaic, N.J., on Nov. 4, 1916. He grew up in Brooklyn and was a premed student at New York University. After receiving his bachelor's degree, he moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California, but the master's he earned in biological sciences was never put to use.

In 1938, while waiting for acceptance to medical school, he asked his brother Albert, who worked on Bob Hope's radio show, if he could try writing a few jokes. Soon there were two Schwartzes on Hope's payroll.

After World War II, during which Sherwood Schwartz wrote for Armed Forces Radio, he became a writer for "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," which was then on the radio. He made the transition to television in the 1950s with the sitcom "I Married Joan" and "The Red Skelton Show," for which he became head writer. In 1961 he shared an Emmy Award with his brother, Skelton and two other writers for the show.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Schwartz is survived by his wife, Mildred; three sons, Lloyd, a television producer, Donald and Ross; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

"Gilligan's Island" began broadcasting in September 1964, with a cast that included Bob Denver as Gilligan, a bumbling first mate; Alan Hale Jr. as the skipper of the shipwrecked boat; and Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III, a millionaire, who managed to practice elitism while living in a hut. Guest stars turned up as British butterfly collectors, misguided aviators or headhunters in grass skirts, sometimes raising hope for the castaways' rescue. But they were always left behind, even when the series ended in 1967.

The castaways finally did leave the island in a 1978 reunion special, "Rescue From Gilligan's Island." There were other specials; then, in 2004, the show was the inspiration for a reality series, "The Real Gilligan's Island," starring contestants whose real-life identities (millionaire, skipper and so on) matched those of the characters. As early as 1995 and as recently as this year, there was talk of a "Gilligan's Island" feature film.

"The Brady Bunch" had its premiere in September 1969. It starred Florence Henderson and Robert Reed as clean-cut newlyweds with children whose most serious problems were usually on the level of sibling rivalry or a student council election.

The show lasted five seasons and, in a way, refused to die. After reruns proved enormously popular, there were three attempts at spinoff series (none lasted longer than half a season); a stage show, "The Real Live Brady Bunch," in which original episodes of the series were re-enacted; and "The Brady Bunch Movie," which had two sequels.

In interviews Mr. Schwartz talked about having intercepted a script for the first movie in which the Brady children used four-letter words. He told Paramount that he would personally campaign against the film if the language remained.

So when the first film, set in the 1990s, opened, the obliviously wholesome Bradys appeared to be living in a time warp, still dressing, talking and behaving as if it were the early '70s. Apparently Mr. Schwartz had his way.

[Back N Black]

 

[PocketThunder]

watching gilligans island and the brady bunch was a staple in my house growing up, right behind the Dukes ofcourse.

[Old Moparz]

watching gilligans island and the brady bunch was a staple in my house growing up, right behind the Dukes ofcourse.

Gilligan's Island was a great show, even though it seemed "dumb" most of the time. I even found it on a cable channel so my daughter could get to see it & she likes it, too. My sister was a Brady Bunch fan, but I hated it. There was a short lived TV show in the 70's called "Dusty's Trail" with Bob Denver & Forest Tucker of F-Troop that was very similar to Gilligan's Island & if I recall was also a Sherwood Shwartz creation. Took place in the old west & based on a group of passengers in stage coach that was lost on a trail. Bob Denver & Forest Tucker drove the lost coach & each week they tried to get back to civilization.

And while on the Gilligan subject, anyone ever see the movie, "Back to the Beach" that was an updated version of the goofy beach movies of the 60's? I watched it to see the Stevie Ray Vaughan & Dicky Dale as the bar band playing Pipeline. Bob Denver had a small part & played a bartender dressed as Gilligan. It was the best & funniest scene in the movie, where Frankie Avalon is getting drunk & complaining to Gilligan about women & tells him he has no idea what it's like to be around women you can't have. Alan Hale Jr. also has a cameo.

Best line in the flick was from Gilligan:
"I knew a guy who could build a nuclear reactor out of coconuts but couldn't fix a two-foot hole in a boat."

RIP SS

[stripedelete]

Best line in the flick was from Gilligan:
"I knew a guy who could build a nuclear reactor out of coconuts but couldn't fix a two-foot hole in a boat."

RIP SS

That's funny!

How about an architect (Mike Brady) designing a 3 bedroom house for eight people?   (even back-in-the-day that was a little tight)

[Brock Samson]

Gilligan's was Must See, but i never saw a single B.B. I wonder if what we like when were 7 is different then what we like when we're 15?..  
Great post Bob. I remember the Dusty's Trail though it's pretty vague... But then I'm old enough to have watched Dobie Gillis...   http://www.veoh.com/watch/v6587447QtdQGMAb   
What's fer breakfast?..  

[GordonGriggs]

I will miss him too. I when I was a teenager I used to watch "Gilligans Island" just to see Mary Ann . I also watched "The Brady Bunch" just so I could drool over Jan. Yeah, I know Marcia was more popular. But I could relate more to Jan's personality back then.

[TruckDriver]

watching gilligans island and the brady bunch was a staple in my house growing up, right behind the Dukes ofcourse.

[b5blue]

So long "Little Buddy", R.I.P.     

[Tilar]

Wow, he did a lot of good old shows... RIP.


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

[doctor4766]

Yeah we also grew up on the other side of the world watching Gilligan and the Brady Bunch. Great shows both of them.
My 12 yo son likes the BB reruns that are currently playing here (yet again)
One thing I notice now with that show though is that there were never any references to the "other" biological parents of the kids, and never any remorseful referrals by Mike or Carol to their ex-spouses.
Wholesome fun I guess, but avoided the reality of marriage splits.

RIP SS

[Ponch ®]

Yeah we also grew up on the other side of the world watching Gilligan and the Brady Bunch. Great shows both of them.
My 12 yo son likes the BB reruns that are currently playing here (yet again)
One thing I notice now with that show though is that there were never any references to the "other" biological parents of the kids, and never any remorseful referrals by Mike or Carol to their ex-spouses.
Wholesome fun I guess, but avoided the reality of marriage splits.

RIP SS

from Wikipedia:

"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."

its funny how petty all of that seems now...like showing couples sleeping in separate beds.