|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Author
|
Topic: Sherwood Schwartz 1916-2011
|
John Lasher
Master Film Handler
Posts: 493
From: Newark, DE
Registered: Aug 2001
|
posted 07-12-2011 01:29 PM
source
quote: Creator of 'Brady Bunch,' 'Gilligan's Island' dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sherwood Schwartz, writer-creator of two of the best-remembered TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," has died at age 94.
Great niece Robin Randall said Schwartz died at 4 a.m. Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was being treated for an intestinal infection and underwent several surgeries. His wife, Mildred, and children had been at his side.
Sherwood Schwartz and his brother, Al, started as a writing team in TV's famed 1950s "golden age," said Douglas Schwartz, the late Al Schwartz's son.
"They helped shape television in its early days," Douglas Schwartz said. "Sherwood is an American classic, creating 'Brady Bunch' and 'Gilligan's Island,' iconic shows that are still popular today. He continued to produce all the way up into his 90s."
Sherwood Schwartz was working on a big-screen version of "Gilligan's Island," his nephew said. Douglas Schwartz, who created the hit series "Baywatch," called his uncle a longtime mentor and caring "second father" who helped guide him successfully through show business.
Success was the hallmark of Sherwood Schwartz's own career. Neither "Gilligan" nor "Brady" pleased the critics, but both managed to reverberate in viewers' heads through the years as few such series did, lingering in the language and inspiring parodies, spinoffs and countless standup comedy jokes.
Schwartz had given up a career in medical science to write jokes for Bob Hope's radio show. He went on to write for other radio and TV shows, including "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet."
He dreamed up "Gilligan's Island" in 1964. It was a Robinson Crusoe story about seven disparate travelers who are marooned on a deserted Pacific Island after their small boat wrecks in a storm. The cast: Alan Hale Jr., as Skipper Jonas Grumby; Bob Denver, as his klutzy assistant Gilligan; Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer, the rich snobs Thurston and Lovey Howell; Tina Louise, the bosomy movie star Ginger Grant; Russell Johnson, egghead science professor Roy Hinkley Jr.; and Dawn Wells, sweet-natured farm girl Mary Ann Summers.
TV critics hooted at "Gilligan's Island" as gag-ridden corn. Audiences adored its far-out comedy. Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."
He argued that his sitcoms didn't rely on cheap laughs. "I think writers have become hypnotized by the number of jokes on the page at the expense of character," Schwartz said in a 2000 Associated Press interview.
"When you say the name Gilligan, you know who that is. If a show is good, if it's written well, you should be able to erase the names of the characters saying the lines and still be able to know who said it. If you can't do that, the show will fail."
"Gilligan's Island" lasted on CBS from 1964 to 1967, and it was revived in later seasons with three high-rated TV movies. A children's cartoon, "The New Adventures of Gilligan," appeared on ABC from 1974 to 1977, and in 2004, Schwartz had a hand in producing a TBS reality show called "The Real Gilligan's Island."
The name of the boat on "Gilligan's Island" — the S.S. Minnow — was a bit of TV inside humor: It was named for Newton Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s had become famous for proclaiming television "a vast wasteland."
Minow took the gibe in good humor, saying later that he had a friendly correspondence with Schwartz.
TV writers usually looked upon "The Brady Bunch" as a sugarcoated view of American family life.
The premise: a widow (Florence Henderson) with three daughters marries a widower (Robert Reed) with three sons. (Widowhood was a common plot point in TV series back then, since networks were leery of divorce.) During the 1970s when the nation was rocked by social turmoil, audiences seemed comforted by watching an attractive, well-scrubbed family engaged in trivial pursuits.
Schwartz claimed in 1995 that his creation had social significance because "it dealt with real emotional problems: the difficulty of being the middle girl; a boy being too short when he wants to be taller; going to the prom with zits on your face."
The series lasted from 1969 to 1974, but it had an amazing afterlife. It was followed by three one-season spinoffs: "The Brady Bunch Hour" (1977), "The Brady Brides" (1981) and "The Bradys" (1990). "The Brady Bunch Movie," with Shelley Long and Gary Cole as the parents, was a surprise box-office hit in 1995.
It was followed the next year by a less successful "A Very Brady Sequel."
Sherwood Schwartz was born in 1916 in Passaic, N.J., and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. His brother, already working for Hope, got him a job when Sherwood was still in college.
"Bob liked my jokes, used them on his show and got big laughs. Then he asked me to join his writing staff," Schwartz said during an appearance in March 2008, when he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "I was faced with a major decision — writing comedy or starving to death while I cured those diseases. I made a quick career change."
Besides his wife, Schwartz's survivors include sons Donald, Lloyd and Ross Schwartz, and daughter Hope Juber.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael Barry
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 584
From: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 07-14-2011 11:58 PM
Hi Frank,
I never watched Gilligan's Island, but grew up addicted to The Brady Bunch.
The thing about The Brady Bunch is that I never thought of it as a comedy per se. It has laughs, but to me that was never the main focus of the show. What I enjoyed about it were the relatable characters. Alice the live-in maid was always excellent, and with six children there was always something going on to drive the story. Also, there were good life lessons (for children) in many episodes and the show had an innocent charm and lightheartedness to it that made it great for the whole family to watch.
You may never really become a fan by the sounds of things but if you do decide to give it another go you may enjoy it more if you don't think of it as 'funny'. Indeed, the jokes are very much not the strong point. The cuteness of the show is.
I confess I like it a bit too much, as when I last visited LA, I located the house they used for the exterior establishing shots and took a few photos from afar. OK, maybe I'm obsessed.
It certainly continues to carry appeal; at my video store, it is one of the few 'old'/non-current shows that consistently rents out. Just this week I rented out all five seasons not to a nostalgic mum wishing to share her childhood memories with her own children, but to a group of tweens who wanted to see it again. This goes to show that the show is still relatable even to today's kids. Even to today's kids. Listen to me, I sound like I'm forty years old. Anyway, that's pretty admirable considering how fickle they can be even with 'new' shows.
About laugh tracks: I agree with you that those are extremely annoying and unnecessary.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 07-15-2011 02:51 AM
OK, so maybe I am being a tad melodramatic about it. Maybe I should give it another try. I think the Brady Bunch of either of them would be the more tolerable; Gilligan's Island is just to damn silly for words. And I must say, it really is the laugh track that is like a quirt of jalapeño up my ass....it's what I find the most difficult to get past; is there ANYTHING that is more condescending? -- which is why I can't watch MOST sitcoms, even the highest rated ones like The Big Bang and Two & A Half Men. Even though T&HM can be laughing out loud funny, they lose me at the canned HAHAHAHA!
And really, I am not a grinch; I do get lighthearted and charming -- in fact, I am a fan of The Middle. Same kind of thing going for it -- a sweet family with very distinct and unique characters, each with their own foibles and idiosyncrasies, but with a warmth and affection between them that makes them quite endearing, AND no laugh track to screw it up. If it's funny and the directors respect you enough to let you laugh on your own, then you don't need to be told when you are supposed to laugh, just like movies that are comedies -- would ANYONE EVER accept a laugh track in a movie? And I can tell you, if there were a laugh track on The Middle, it would be off my TV screen in about 90 seconds.
I'll give The Brady Bunch another try just cause you guys can't be that far off the mark!
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 07-15-2011 05:57 PM
Hear, hear, Mark!
Anselm, let me tell you a little secret about "filmed before a live audience." I was sound designer for the house sound for an HBO production "Table Settings" with Robert Klein and Stockard Channing. Three performances were filmed, each with a full theatre audience (about 500 patrons). It was a funny enough show and the audiences did seem to have a good time.
When it aired after about 5 months of post-production tweaking, the entire crew watched it projected in the same theatre. Thing is, we all knew the lines and the points where the joke got laughs so weren't we all surprised when the laughs were MUCH bigger than they were in the live performances and even more obnoxious, there were laughs in places NO ONE laughed during the actual show.
So there you have it -- LIES! The fact that they make a point to tell you before a show that the performance is filmed before a live audience is purposely deceptive; they want to give you the impression that you must be listening to THAT audience; well, yes, but not ONLY them....you are also listening to the same canned phony laugh track, audience or not. It's ALL LIES I tell you!
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 07-15-2011 11:18 PM
Frank, our whole society, in fact nearly everything from politics to relationships is ALL dependent on lies to some extent. Might as well get used to it.
Go download George Carlin's piece "American Bullshit" and see how much truth there is in it. Here's an excerpt: (Caution: Explicit language)
quote: Most people seem indoctrinated to believe that bullshit only comes from certain places, certain sources: advertising, politics, salesmen. Not true. Bullshit is everywhere. Bullshit is rampant. Parents are full of shit, teachers are full of shit, clergymen are full of shit, and law enforcement people are full of shit.
This entire country is completely full of shit and always has been. From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution to The Star-Spangled Banner, it’s really nothing more than one big, steaming pile of red, white and blue, All-American bullshit.
Because think of how we started – think of that. This country was founded by a group of slave-owners who told us all men are created equal. Oh, yeah. All men, except for Indians and niggers and women, right? (Always like to use that authentic American language.)
This was a small group of unelected, white male, land-holding slave-owners who also suggested their class be the only one allowed to vote. Now that is what’s known as being stunningly and embarrassingly full of shit.
And I think Americans really show their ignorance when they say they want their politicians to be honest. What are these fucking cretins talking about? If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse. No one would know what to do.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|