George Yanok

George Yanok was an American screenwriter, television producer, actor, artist and jazz drummer.

He began his career in 1969, writing on Hee Haw, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and The Jimmie Rodgers Show.

Yanok produced the 1977 NBC situation comedy The Kallikaks. He won two Primetime Emmy Awards and four nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy, Variety or Music and Outstandng Comedy Series between 1973 and 1976.

One of the original writers on the CBS show Hee Haw, Yanok also wrote and/or produced for such other shows as Welcome Back, Kotter, Sanford & Son, The Bob Newhart Show, Too Close for Comfort, The Stockard Channing Show and the Bewitched spinoff, Tabitha.

Yanok was nominated for Emmys for his work on The Lily Tomlin Show and Lily, both of which aired on CBS in 1973, and for 1975's The Lily Tomlin Special, for ABC. He won for the last two, sharing the honor with Jane Wagner.

Yanok received another Emmy writing nomination in 1976 for Welcome Back, Kotter. During his career, he shared credits with many other well-known writers, including Richard Pryor, Lorne Michaels, Herb Sargent and Christopher Guest.

In the 1990s, Yanok moved from Los Angeles to Nashville to write, direct and produce Prime Time Country for The Nashville Network.

He also did research for Judge Judy, taught TV writing at Watkins College of Art in Nashville, developed a private consulting and teaching practice, and had a novel, Romeo in Shubert Alley, published in 2017.

Yanok died April 29, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 83