Jim Thurman

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Jim Thurman
Born James George Thurman
March 15, 1935(1935-03-15)
Flag of the United States Dallas, Texas, United States
Died April 14, 2007 (aged 72)
Flag of the United States Sheffield, Massachusetts, United States
Other name(s) James Thurman
Jimmie Thurman
Jimmy Thurman
Jamie Thurman
Years active 1960-2007
Spouse(s) Patricia

James George Thurman (March 15, 1935 - April 14, 2007), was an Emmy-winning American writer, actor, photographer, director, cartoonist, and producer. He is best known for the writings of TV gags for the likes of Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, and Dean Martin. Thurman is also known as the Teeny Little Super Guy.

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[edit] Career

Born in Dallas, Texas but raised in Vicksburg, Michigan, Thurman received a degree from the University of Michigan. He began his career as a copywriter at various advertising agencies in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Later he moved to Los Angeles with his writing partners Gene Moss, and brother Dave Thurman where he formed his own boutique advertising agency, Creative Advertising Stuff.

He also worked as a photographer with work displayed at the 1964 World's Fair and he contributed cartoons to Hugh Hefner for Playboy and The New Yorker. Soon after this period, Moss and the Thurman brothers had scripted all 156 installments of the 1965 cartoon series Roger Ramjet as well as the puppet comedy series Shrimpenstein, where Thurman voiced the title character for satirical children's television program.

In 1967 Thurman teamed up with Carol Burnett to began writing gags for The Carol Burnett Show, scripting running gags and writing whole scenes.

Thurman then later played Dunce sidekick to Digby Dropout, in The Man from Alphabet in 1969. Thurman scripted both street and Muppet scenes on Sesame Street. He produced many animated sketches on Sesame Street beginning with the show's debut in 1969 and continuing until 2007.

In 1972 Thurman teamed up with Bob Newhart to began writing gags for The Bob Newhart Show, scripting both therapy and regular scenes. One year later in 1973 Thurman did the voice of Christopher Clumsy for various Cliff Roberts characters as well as Jake the Snake for Sesame Street. In 1982 Thurman teamed up with Paul Fierlinger to create, write, and voice Teeny Little Super Guy (also for Sesame Street).

He also wrote sketches for Jim Henson's The Muppet Show in the fourth season[1]. Thurman subsequently worked on most of CTW's other series, as a staff writer and cartoon voiceover on The Electric Company and 3-2-1 Contact, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and as head writer/producer for Square One TV; on the later series, he provided the voice of Mr. Glitch and scripted the Mathnet segments, as well as Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade Thurman co-created the Math Talk package with Dave Connell, as senior producer. Thurman also wrote the The Muppet Movie and Muppet Babies. In recent years Jim continued to write, do voice work, and also wrote a weekly column for his local paper. Thurman also wrote and voiced several animated sexual education specials for Buzzco Associates, Inc. In 2006, he wrote wraparound material and voiced Bob for the Old School Volume 1 DVD. Thurman is survived by his wife, Patricia; two sons; a daughter; four grandchildren; and a sister.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television Work

[edit] References

  1. ^ Muppet Wiki article

[edit] External links