This one's for Hoback.
JOE
CONNELLY, 85
TV pioneer co-created `Leave It to Beaver'
Los Angeles Times
February 15, 2003 |
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Joe
Connelly, a prolific pioneer
television writer-producer who co-created
the classic situation comedy
"Leave It to Beaver,"
died Thursday. He was 85.
His name is professionally
inseparable from his longtime writing and producing partner, Bob
Mosher. Together, they served as writer-producers on a spate
of television shows, which they created or developed, including "The
Munsters," "Tammy"
and "Blondie."
"Leave It to Beaver,"
however, remains their most enduring
and fondly remembered credit.
The series, which ended in 1963
after six seasons but continues in syndication around the world, starred Barbara
Billingsley and Hugh
Beaumont as June
and Ward Cleaver, Tony
Dow as Wally and, of course, Jerry
Mathers as the Beaver.
"I think the show is part of the Golden Age of television, and because
of Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, all the cast members feel very lucky to have
had such great, inspired
writers," Mathers told the Los Angeles Times recently.
Born in New York City in 1917, Mr. Connelly had a stint in the merchant
marines before landing a job at the J.
Walter Thompson advertising agency in New York City, where he met Mosher.
For 12 years, he and Mosher wrote for "Amos
`n' Andy," including the early 1950s TV version of the radio show.
Copyright
2003 Chicago Tribune (registration required)
10:48:21 AM 
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