Bob Schiller

Bob Schiller (born November 8, 1918) is an American screenwriter, most notably for his longtime creative partnership with fellow producer/screenwriter Bob Weiskopf, and their collaborative writing and producing of episodes for numerous television series, which include, most notably, two popular CBS-TV series, I Love Lucy (1955–1957) and All in the Family (1977–1979). 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, when Weiskopf, who was also a comedywriter—had just relocated to Los Angeles from New York City, and his wife began searching for a school for their youngest son Kim, to attend; Schiller's first wife had recommended a school for Kim to his Weiskopf's wife, and also told her and that Schiller was looking for a partner. The two would collaborate for the first time in writing a single radio script for the Our Miss Brooks show, before delving into the new media of network television together, writing for such popular 1950's shows such as Make Room for Daddy, which stareed Danny Thomas, 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 1970's 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. During their long collaboration, The writing team of 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

The once divorced Schiller has been married to second wife, actress Sabrina Scharf (née Trentman) since May 25, 1966. They have 2 children. Schiller also has two children with his former wife, one of whom is director Tom Schiller.

References

External links

Bob Schiller at the Internet Movie Database