Posted on 06/08/2011 4:10:45 PM PDT by Borges
Producer, writer and director Leonard Stern, who created with Jackie Gleason the iconic TV series "The Honeymooners" as well as almost two dozen other series and 12 films and was also a leader of the Producers Guild of America, died Tuesday, June 7, in Los Angeles. He was 88.
Stern, who also partnered with Roger Price and Larry Sloan in the Price/Stern/Sloan literary publishing company, authored several books, including "Dear Attila the Hun" and "A Martian Wouldn't Say That!" Jay Leno has regularly dipped into the latter, a collection of memos from TV executives that they wish they hadn't written, on "The Tonight Show." The firm was launched with the popular Mad Libs, the word game created by Stern and Price and published since 1958.
Stern quickly grew to become one of the busiest creative forces in television, writing a season of "The Phil Silvers Show" (aka "Sergeant Bilko") and drawing a shared Emmy in the process, followed by 150 episodes as head writer of "The Steve Allen Show," for which he was also Emmy nommed. He also produced "Get Smart" for five years, earning an Emmy nomination for best comedy series and winning one, together with Buck Henry, for comedy writing.
Stern created "I'm Dickens, He's Fenster"; "He and She," drawing another shared Emmy nom; and "The Governor and J.J."
But he didn't always work in comedy, spending time in the detective genre as well. Stern wrote, directed and produced seven years of NBC's "McMillan and Wife," starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James, and also worked on the network's "The Snoop Sisters," with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick, and "Lanigan's Rabbi," with Art Carney.
A native of New York City, Stern received a degree from the NYU School of Journalism.
His first screenplays were for 1950's "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" and the Abbott and Costello vehicle "Lost in Alaska." Other movie credits include the screenplays for "Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town"; "The Jazz Singer," starring Danny Thomas; and "Three for the Money," starring Jack Lemmon and Betty Grable. He co-wrote and directed 1979's "Just You and Me, Kid," starring George Burns, and 1992's "Missing Pieces," with Eric Idle and Robert Wuhl. For 20th Century Fox, he wrote the original script for "Target" (1985), starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon.
Stern's work in television won him two Emmy Awards, three Writers Guild of America Awards and a Peabody Award, as well as numerous Emmy nominations.
In l996, after Price/Stern/Sloan was sold to Putnam, Stern formed Tallfellow Inc., which sought to create a "story salon" for writers. The company aimed to be a virtual alternative story department for producers, directors, studios and independent filmmakers. His first project for Tallfellow was "Pledge of Allegiance" with Paramount Pictures.
In recent years, Stern served in the dual capacity as president and chairman of the Producers Guild of America and member of the steering committee and chair of the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors. In 1993, the caucus named him member of the year, and he received the Distinguished Service Award for outstanding lifetime achievement. In 1992, he received the Charles FitzSimons Honorary Lifetime Member Award from the Producers Guild.
Stern is survived by his wife, actress Gloria Stroock; a son and a daughter; two grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
Funeral Services and interment will be Friday at 2 p.m. at Mt. Sinai, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Hollywood Hills.
Donations may be made to the Writers Guild of America Foundation.
First show to make spousal abuse funny.
That was a hell of a career. I loved Get Smart as a kid.
Bang-Zoom!!!
There are unconfirmed reports he suffered from Arterial Monachromia, a rare disease that mainly affects boxers.
“To the moon, Alice, to the moon!”
>> Not funny here. My dad occasionally knocked my mom around; he was glued to the TV when the Honeymooners came on.
May the creator of this vile series spend eternity in the burning dumps of Gehenna.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe that the cartoon ‘The Flintstones’ was based on the Honeymooners.
Are you being sarcastic? Ralph never actually hit her. The show was based on Gleason’s childhood where lots of men behaved that way.
It was a rip off that Gleason considered suing about. It’s only fitting since The Honeymooners bore a number of simmilarities to a 1940s radio show called ‘The Bickersons’ with Don Ameche and Frances Langford being the couple.
Not familiar with the radio show, but in the case of 'The Flintstones', it does seem like an outright rip job.
No, I’m not being sarcastic. The underlying precursor to violence was enough.
Except that Alice was never scared of Ralph. She knows she could have taken him in a fight.
You’re right. When Ralph would rant and rave and shake his fist and shout “to the moon,” Alice didn’t bat an eyelash. She KNEW he wouldn’t hit her. Lucy Ricardo, on the other hand, would cower in fear and repeat “yes, sir, yes, sir,” when Ricky got real mad. If any 1950s TV housewife ever got hit, I think it was Lucy.
Mom was never scared of dad, either. She had the scars and stitches to prove it.
I think Ricky spanked her once but I doubt he was ever abusive outside of the hilarious cuban sterotype.
I’m reading Ben Shapiro’s Primetime Propaganda. This guy was a big disgusting lib.
Where in his work did that come out? The Honeymooners? Get Smart?
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