| Sherwood Schwartz  Born: 14-Nov-1916
Birthplace: Passaic, NJ
Died: 12-Jul-2011
Location of death: Los Angeles, CA
Cause of death: Infection
Remains: Buried, Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, CA
Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Film/TV Producer
Party Affiliation: Democratic Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch Sherwood Schwartz created the sitcoms Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, and co-wrote the unforgettable themes for both shows.
In the late 1930s and early 40s, he wrote gags for Bob Hope's stand-up act and radio show. He later wrote for The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet on the radio. On TV, he wrote for The Red Skelton Show, I Married Joan, and My Favorite Martian, before developing Gilligan's Island. Schwartz named the Skipper's ship the S.S. Minnow as a jab at then-FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow, who gave a famously blistering speech to the National Association of Broadcasters in 1961 in which he referred to television as "a vast wasteland".
During production of The Brady Bunch, Schwartz and actor Robert Reed feuded regularly. Reed alleged that he had been promised the show would deal with the serious issues facing remarried families, and he simmered for years at the show's slapstick scripts.
In the early 1970s, Schwartz filed suit against United Artists, the studio that had financed Gilligan's Island, over UA's accounting that claimed that the series had not yet broken even. The parties reached an un-announced settlement before the case came to court, but Gilligan's Island has been cited as the most rerun program of all time. It ran four seasons on CBS, and has aired in perpetual reruns ever since. In the early 1990s, when several theatrical troupes began staging campy live stage performances of old Brady Bunch episodes, Schwartz was a good sport about it -- he publicly urged the studio that owned the show, Paramount Pictures, to stop sending "cease and desist" letters.
After The Brady Bunch ended in 1974, most of Schwartz's projects were revivals, sequels, or "where are they now?" specials, including The Bradys soap opera of the 1990s and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. He died in 2011. Wife: Mildred Schwartz (m. 1941, until his death)
Daughter: Hope Juber (married to former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber)
Son: Lloyd Schwartz (writer-producer, Brady Bunch, b. 1947)
Son: Elroy Schwartz (writer-producer, Gilligan's Island)
Son: Ross Schwartz (background singer for Richard Marx)
High School: DeWitt Clinton High School, Bronx, NY
Bill Bradley for President
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Obama for America
Voters for Choice
Hollywood Walk of Fame (television)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Growing Up Brady (21-May-2000) · Himself
Author of books:
Inside Gilligan's Island: From Creation to Syndication (1988, nonfiction)
Brady, Brady, Brady: The Complete Story of The Brady Bunch as Told by the Father/Son Team Who Really Know (2010, media studies)
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