Sherwood Schwartz

Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Schwartz was the creator and executive producer of The Brady Bunch.
Vital Information
Name:	Sherwood Schwartz
Birthname:	Sherwood Charles Schwartz
Born:	(1916-11-14)14 November 1916
Birthplace:	Passaic, New Jersey
Died:	12 July 2011(2011-07-12) (aged 94)
deathplace:	Los Angeles, California
Career Information
Occupation:	Television producer, director, screenwriter
Years active:	1938 to 2011
Family/Personal information
Known for:	also produced Gilligan's Island Harper Valley PTA (TV series)
Character/Series involvement
Series inolved with:	The Brady Bunch The Brady Brides A Very Brady Christmas
Job with series:	Co-creator of all above projects with son Lloyd J. Schwartz

Sherwood Charles Schwartz (14 November 1916 – 12 July 2011) was an 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 7 March 2008, Schwartz, at the time still active in his 90s, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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."

Sherwood went on to write for Ozzie Nelson's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and other radio shows. Schwartz 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.

Syndication turned his two major successes into TV institutions with cultural relevance. He made them icons, and as a result he became a television icon.

Schwartz receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2008)

TV Appearances

During the late 1990s and the 2000s, Sherwood 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 Network'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, Sherwood 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.

Personal Life

Schwartz was born in Passaic, New Jersey to a Jewish family. His parents were Herman and Rose Schwartz. He is a younger brother of Al Schwartz. He is the uncle of Douglas Schwartz, Bruce Schwartz and Judithe Randall. On 23 December 1941 he married his wife of 69 years Mildred which he considered his greatest accomplishment and together they had four children (three sons and one daughter) Donald who became an ophthalmologist, Lloyd (Lloyd J. Schwartz), Ross, who became an attorney and Hope. Sherwood's play, Rockers, a comedy-drama had a production at Theatre West in honor of his 90th birthday.

Pop Culture References

On a Robin Hood-themed episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, a character states that Sherwood Forest is a relative of Sherwood Schwartz. Also, a Roseanne episode was entirely devoted to Gilligan's Island and was titled "Sherwood Schwartz: A Loving Tribute". In Raising Hope, Sherwood is indirectly mentioned during the opening scene of the second season as someone who "started each day with a song that perfectly recapped what was going on." Then she points to an empty chair with a Gilligan-type sailor cap on it. During the episode, the main character, Jimmy, loses his memory and his doctor advises him that unlike a sitcom, memory can't be regained by hitting someone on the head again and uses an episode of Gilligan's Island to illustrate the point.

Death

On 12 July 2011, Sherwood Schwartz died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes. He was survived by his wife of nearly 70 years, Mildred Schwartz and their four children: Donald, Lloyd (the creator of The Munsters Today), Ross, and Hope (wife of Laurence Juber; reportedly named after Bob Hope). He is also survived by eight grandchildren: Juli, Jill, Jackie, Andy, Becky, Nico, Ilsey, and Elliot as well as four great-grandchildren: Rachel, Sarah, Evan and Aidan.

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 (TV series)	1981–1982	Writer, producer
Together We Stand	1986–1987	Writer, producer

Stage Productions

On 10 November 2006, his play Rockers opened in Theater West in California. In 1990, he wrote Gilligan's Island: The Musical, still in production as of 2015. His son Lloyd, daughter Hope, and son-in-law Laurence Juber worked on the play as well.

Unsold Pilots

He wrote and executive produced two unsold television 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 7 March 2008, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Actresses Dawn Wells and Florence Henderson, who appeared in Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, respectively, also Patrick Denver, son of Gilligan's Island star Bob Denver, and former Brady Bunch kids Christopher Knight and Susan Olsen accompanied Schwartz when he received his star.

  

  Susan Olsen, Christopher Knight, Sherwood Schwartz and Florence Henderson at Hollywood Walk of Fame 7 March 2008, where Schwartz recieved his star.

  
  

Quotes

It's one world, and we all have to learn to live with each other.

External Links

• Sherwood Schwartz in The Comedy Hall of Fame Archives
• An interview from 2011 with Sherwood Schwartz
• SherwoodSchwartz.com authorized Web site
• Biographic sketch of Sherwood Schwartz
• Signature of Sherwood Schwartz from Here on Gilligan's Isle
• Sherwood Schwartz interview at Archive of American Television – 17 September 1997