Bob Schiller

For the financial analyist and writer (born 1946), see Robert Shiller.

Bob Schiller (born November 8, 1918) is an American screenwriter. He worked extensively with fellow producer/screenwriter Bob Weiskopf on numerous television shows in the United States, including I Love Lucy (1955–1957) and All in the Family (1977–1979) on the CBS network. For the latter series, he received an Emmy Award in 1978 as one of the writers of the episode "Cousin Liz".

Schiller, born in San Francisco, California, began writing for television in 1950. His credits include the 1955 CBS sitcom Professional Father, starring Stephen Dunne as a child psychologist and Barbara Billingsley as his wife. That same year, he wrote for two competing series, NBC's The Jimmy Durante Show and CBS's It's Always Jan, starring Janis Paige as a widowed single mother in New York City.^[1] During 1954–1955, Schiller was one of the writers for the CBS sitcom That's My Boy, starring Eddie Mayehoff and Gil Stratton. Schiller's producing credits include the CBS sitcoms The Good Guys and All's Fair.

Schiller also penned radio scripts for such classic shows as Duffy's Tavern, Abbott and Costello, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Mel Blanc Show, Sweeney and March, The Jimmy Durante Show, and December Bride, and then for TV stars such as Danny Thomas, Ed Wynn, Garry Moore, and Red Buttons.

Creative partnership with Bob Weiskopf

The creative partnership and friendship with Bob Weiskopf began in 1953. Weiskopf, also a comedy writer, had just relocated to Los Angeles from New York City. Schiller's first wife recommended a school to his Weiskopf's wife, and also mentioned that Schiller was looking for a partner. The two writers first collaborated on a radio script for the Our Miss Brooks show before delving into the new medium of network television. They wrote for popular 1950s shows such as Make Room for Daddy, The Bob Cummings Show, I Love Lucy, the TV adaptation of the popular radio series My Favorite Husband, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Ann Sothern Show (which they co-created), and Pete and Gladys.

Further success would continue into the 1960s and 1970s with such series as The Lucy Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Good Guys (where they were also co-producers), The Phyllis Diller Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Flip Wilson Show, Maude (which they also co-produced), All in the Family and its spinoff series, Archie Bunker's Place. Schiller and Weiskopf were honored with two Emmy Awards, a pair of Peabody Awards, a Golden Globe, and the Writers’ Guild of America's Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Achievement.^[2]

Personal and family life

Schiller's first wife, Joyce Harris, died in 1965. He has been married to second wife, actress Sabrina Scharf (née Trentman) since May 25, 1968. They have two children. Schiller also has two children with his first wife, one of whom is director Tom Schiller.

References

External links

• Bob Schiller at the Internet Movie Database
• Bob Schiller interview video at the Archive of American Television