Charlie Hauck

Charlie Hauck was an American television writer and producer.

In the early 1970s, Hauck was working in Pittsburgh as a news reporter and anchor. After reading some jokes he had written, Phyllis Diller encouraged Hauck to try his hand at show business, and Hauck moved to Los Angeles in 1974, where he found work writing for The Flip Wilson Special. He wrote a spec script for The Bob Newhart Show that got the attention of Maude writer Elliot Shoenman and writer/producer Bob Schiller. At the urging of executive producer Norman Lear, Hauck was hired to join the staff of the All in the Family spin-off. Hauck worked on Maude for three seasons, both as a producer and writer of nearly 20 episodes.

In 1979, Hauck co-created the ABC series The Associates, which earned him an Emmy nomination for outstanding writing in a comedy series, and which introduced American television audiences to Canadian actor/comedian Martin Short.

Hauck also wrote the pilot episode of The Two of Us, CBS’s long-running series that was subsequently retitled Valerie, Valerie’s Family, and The Hogan Family.

Hauck reunited with Shoenman in the 1990s, as an executive producer and writer on ABC’s sitcom Home Improvement. In 2000, he moved on to join the staff of NBC’s Frasier, for which he received his second Emmy nomination as one of the producers of an outstanding comedy series.

Hauck died November 14, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. He was 79.