Prolific Emmy-Winning Writer-Producer Sam Denoff Passes
In addition to winning two Emmys for The Dick Van Dyke Show, he co-created the popular comedy That Girl.
Sam Denoff, a Primetime Emmy-winning writer and co-creator of the comedy series That Girl, died July 8, 2011, at his home in Brentwood, California. He was 83.
According to news reports, he had Alzheimer’s disease.
Denoff won his two Emmys for writing The Dick Van Dyke Show. He was nominated two other times, once for The Dick Van Dyke Show and another for variety special The Julie Andrews Show.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 1, 1928, he began his career in radio, at the New York station WNEW. He earned his first television credit on an episode of Your Show of Shows, and later moved to Los Angeles, where his career blossomed.
Early credits included The Steve Allen Show, McHale’s Navy and The Andy Williams Show. Then, with writing partner Bill Persky, he was hired on The Dick Van Dyke Show, which led to a collaboration on That Girl, which starred Marlo Thomas as a young woman living in New York City.
Other series he created include The Funny Side, Big Eddie, On Our Own, Turnabout and The Lucie Arnaz Show. He also wrote numerous specials for such performers as Bill Cosby, Dick Van Dyke and Orson Welles.
Additional credits included Lotsa Luck, Harry and the Hendersons and It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, and he worked for many years as a consultant for the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.
In later years, Denoff devoted time to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation’s Archive of American Television as both interviewer and interviewee. The TV luminaries he interviewed were Sheldon Leonard, Art Linkletter, Jerry Lewis, Hal Kanter and Charles Cappleman.
Denoff’s own Archive interview took place on March 9, 2000. During the four-hour interview, conducted in Brentwood by Bill Freiberger, Denoff detailed his work in radio at WNEW and his move to Los Angeles to work in television, starting with The Steve Allen Show.
He talked about working on series such as The Andy Williams Show before landing a job with partner Bill Persky on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Denoff then discussed his work as a writer and producer on this classic sitcom, in which he co-wrote such classic episodes as “Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth.”
Denoff went on to detail the production of the landmark series That Girl, starring Marlo Thomas, which he and Persky co-created and co-produced, as well as the series Good Morning World. He talked about other series he created, including The Funny Side, Big Eddie, On Our Own, Turnabout and The Lucie Arnaz Show.
He also described specials he worked on, including: The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special, The Bill Cosby Special, Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman Mary Tyler Moore and Hallmark Hall of Fame: The Man Who Came to Dinner, with Orson Welles. Denoff also discussed writing for The Annual American Comedy Awards and working as a consultant for the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.
The interview may be viewed online here.