Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Charles Schwartzwas an American television producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, and created the television series Gilligan's Island on CBS and The Brady Bunch on ABC. On March 7, 2008, Schwartz, at the time still active in his 90s, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, Schwartz was also inducted into the Television Hall of Fame...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Producer
Date of Birth14 November 1916
CityPassaic, NJ
CountryUnited States of America
You can tell a good actor if he's listening to the other people in the scene. When you looked at Bob, you could see the wheels going around in his head.
She looks terrific. She takes advantage of her celebrity to ask for things a normal girl wouldn't ask for. She's playing to win.
'Rescue From Gilligan's Island' was the first of the so-called reunion shows on the networks, getting a 54 share. With numbers like that, everybody else started to have reunion shows.
I think writers have become hypnotised by the number of jokes on the page at the expense of character.
I was creator and executive producer of 'The Brady Bunch' on TV. The stage version was done by others, but it was a repeat of the old scripts. The 'Gilligan' musical is a completely original work with all seven characters and 18 original songs.
Gilligan's Island ... I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications.
He was, first of all, a good friend of mine; he wasn't just an actor who worked on my show,
He was a great actor, ... People think it's easy to fall down and get hit in the head with a coconut. And, every time, he'd find a different way to do that.
He was a complex man. He was not a guy who just slipped on banana peels. He knew most people thought of him as a funny guy who could do funny things. But he was really an intellectual at heart.
When you say the name Gilligan, you know who that is. If a show is good, if it's written well, you should be able to erase the names of the characters saying the lines and still be able to know who said it. If you can't do that, the show will fail.
I honestly think I could sit down and write a show tonight that the critics would love, and I know it would be canceled within four weeks. I know what the critics love. We write and produce for people, not for critics.
I own all the characters I created, thanks to the Writers Guild, so nobody can do anything without me. The way it works is: If the copyright owners instigate a project, like the movie, then I get a fee as creator. If I instigate a project, like the musical, I pay a percentage to the copyright owners.
I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications.
If you study both 'Gilligan' and 'Brady,' you will see they are based on a similar philosophy: that it's possible for different kinds of people to learn to live together, either in a family or stuck on an island with no escape.