The brain behind THE BRADY BUNCH and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND Sherwood Schwartz chats about his life as a writer. Interviewed by Del Reisman. Filmed on June 25, 1996.
A brilliant interview from start to finish. I'm glad someone had the wisdom to sit him down and get his story. What he says at the very end about writers - the best, most common sense advice I've ever heard. RIP.
It seems impossible that with so many thousands of want-to-be writers in the world only 78 people have viewed this video interview with the great Sherwood Schwartz. As #79 I feel I am in a select group. Thanks to the WGF for making this possible.
Idiots. Most people would knock this guy out of the way to get a picture with Ashton Kutcher. This guy is one of a kind. A rare treat where a person's talent was put to good use.
These are amazing anecdotes. And an amazing person. This is the first time I've seen or heard Sherwood Schwartz talk. I had always pictured him being a way out eccentric. But he's very genuine and sensible here, along with being colorful and inventive. Nice to get to know him through this video.
The brilliance of Sherwood was honed in radio, where the importance of dialogue and image were un aided by visual technology.Other greats of TV had similar training in vaudville; these training grounds no longer exist.
Back in the day I LOVED watching Gilligan's Island.... Watching it was a lot like visiting good friends once a week...And I especially enjoyed singing along to the theme song....
Sherwood shaped the way I view comedy to the level that I don’t think there is a day, since childhood, that goes by in which I don’t imitate a character’s mannerisms or lines that he created.
I absolutely adored part 1 and part 2 of Sherwood Schwartz's interview. It is funny, insightful, wistful, clever and truthful. Every aspiring screen writer should watch this. He is the great grandfather of screenwriting and creating ideas for television. His method has informed and shaped generations not only of writers but of popular tastes. Beyond writing, Sherwood Schwartz is a tastemaker because what audiences watch, becomes eventually how they see and perceive the world.
Wow. What a fabulous interview! Wonder what he thought about having to insert canned audience laughter into a show to tell the viewer when to laugh. I hate when shows did/do that.
It was the norm for the time, so - and I am not trying to score a cheap point here, simply to state a likely fact - I don't suppose it bothered him at all.
Terrific interview with so many insights on how to create a hit show. As for residuals, that was always a sore point with the Gilligan's Island cast, but hey they're all dead now RIP except Tina, and tons of people still get a lot of joy from the 58-year-old show. =)
Sherwood Schwartz was a brilliant man, but he did not invent an expository theme song for TV shows. Those were already in place even in 1963 when he was selling Gilligan's Island -- The Beverly Hillbillies comes immediately to mind predating even his original pilot by over a year -- I'm sure there are other examples, too. I'm not saying Mr. Schwartz is lying -- I'm sure his general story about writing it and singing it in the meeting is true... but I'm also sure he has forgotten/reworked/re-remembered/embellished aspects of how original an idea that whole thing was in his memory. Besides, there is some question as to which song was what... a young John Williams wrote the original expository opening song for the original pilot (probably under a mandate from Schwarzt) -- and Schwartz, himself, wrote the song that was eventually used -- both versions "told the story"... but were different from one another. Also, unsure of whether this meeting was to greenlight the pilot or greenlight the series... but either way, it is clear that there is some fond-re-writing of memories of just what transpired with regard to that opening song.
He never said he invented it. He said that kind of theme song wasn't in common use, which is true, and he said he anticipated the need to do it, which also was true as far as selling the show to the network.
"No phone, no light, no motorcar."... Wow, no motorcar? That was difficult. Imagine how much easier their lives on that island would have been with a motorcar!
@@darkwood777 He HAS said, many times (perhaps not exactly here -- but have you read his book?) that this was entirely an original idea. I do NOT minimize his impact and creativity... but the guy DOES embellish himself. It is interesting to compare recorded interviews that he gave in the 1960's to the last ones he gave. I suppose we ALL embellish ourselves (and our memories slightly warp) as we get older.
Sherwood said here the song he wrote was the "calypso" song which was the version only heard on the original pilot. We can assume Williams fleshed out the music for it. I don't think anyone thinks John Williams wrote the lyrics. The pilot episode doesn't give any specific credits for who made the theme song. The episodes after the pilot which all have a revised song have credits that say it was by George Wyle and Sherwood. Wyle is a composer so we can assume he worked on the music for that version. I would assume Sherwood revised the lyrics himself.
Gilligan's Island prefigured all the reality TV shows that were to come into fashion 40 years later. "Big Brother" follows the same idea as Gilligan's Island in that it recruits very different people to all live in one big house and then watch how their relationships develop over the course of several weeks. The house is a metaphor for the world as was the island a metaphor for the world, as Sherwood explains. Gilligan's Island has at its core the idea of social experimentation which is now so common in every reality TV show on air in 2020. This idea goes back to the Greek pantheon where 9 or so archetypes are portrayed close together and each character represents a different aspect of humanity: intellect (the professor), virginity (Mary Anne), stoicism (the skipper), The innocent or fool (Gilligan), the femme fatale (ginger), the wealthy husband and wife (king or queen, Mr and Mrs Howell).
He created some very fun stuff, most of it cotton candy without any real weight or significance. I'm not sure he's the writer I'd personally want to emulate, particularly now when there's so much great writing going on in the medium.
This guy must have pocketed a ton of money since the cast members of Gilligan's Island did not receive any residuals after the show ended. It reminds me of how the Three Stooges got screwed over big time.
Maybe, but in fairness, the Brady Bunch actors went ahead and did "The Brady Bunch Hour" without Sherwood's consent. He didn't know about it until he saw ads for the new variety show, and he could have sued all those actors. But he left it alone because he had a personal history with them. Also, from the interviews I've seen, they all (except for Bob Reed) thought Sherwood was a great guy.
Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) Unrated | 1h 51min | Comedy, Family | 24 April 1968 (USA) A widower with ten children falls for a widow with eight, and they must decide about forming a huge, unconventional family. Director: Melville Shavelson Writers: Bob Carroll Jr. (story), Madelyn Davis (story) |2 more credits » Stars: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson |See full cast & crew »
Procommenter that occurred to me as well, but he did mention earlier in the interview he was inspired by an article that was an insert in the newspaper in 1965 about percentages of families who were united because of 2nd marriages. That was well before Yours, Mine and Ours was released in 1968. However the book upon which that movie was based may have been published around that time. Not sure. At any rate, he developed a novel idea for the time.
@@DyneVan he also immediately registered the idea with the Writers Guild Network. When the powers that be for "Yours, Mine, and Ours" tried to sue him when "The Brady Bunch" pilot aired, he responded by telling them that #1. he had registered the idea first, and #2. they should be lucky he didn't sue them. They left him alone after that.
Yes, and also in 1968 was the Doris Day-Brian Keith comedy film With Six You Get Eggroll, another blended family. What I think is interesting is how Schwartz speaks of this as such a new concept for a family sitcom, but the actual show tiptoed around it by making the conflict boys vs girls instead of Carol's kids vs Mike's kids. It made the situation sweeter and easier for the audience. We never saw any of them get angry and yell "You're not my mother" or "You're not my father," or "My last name is Martin, not Brady," etc. Of course, in Yours, Mine, and Ours, several of the children were already teenagers, and so felt it waa disloyal to have a step-parent.
@@anglobostonian Schwartz's original title for the series in 1966 was Mine and Yours. The networks didn't want it until after the success of the movie Yours, Mine and Ours but after that, Sherwood had to change the title to avoid confusion.
Both Tv-Series Gilligan's Island And The Brady Bunch Made Sherwood Schwartz A Billionaire 10 Tiimes Over In Residuals Did He Ever Share That Fortnite With The Cast Members That Made It Possible NO! Not 1 Red-Cent! And There Was Episodes Of Both Gilligan's island! And The Brady Bunch! That Talked About The Inportance Of Sharing With Others. What a Hypocritcal Skunk! He Really Was
Well, it's worth remembering he did an episode of the Brady Bunch as a pilot for a new series that didn't sell: a childless couple who were friends of Mike and Carol decide to adopt a little boy (white, like them), but he waa lonely as an only child. They decided then to adopt his 2 closest friends from the orphanage, who turned out to be two boys, one Chinese-American, the other African-American. So he was thinking about changing storylines involving diversity--that series just didn't get picked up.
Diversity of skin color only matters to superficial people. Gilligan's cast was as diverse as you could get...rich and poor, dumb and smart, educated and uneducated, famous and unknown, etc. Skin color is meaningless when it comes to defining who a person is.
@@jedijones LOL!! That's the most moronic remark I've ever read on You Tube, and that's quite an accomplishment! Representation matters, civil rights groups fight for representation. Skin color is not "meaningless" in a racist society. Such drivel.
A brilliant interview from start to finish. I'm glad someone had the wisdom to sit him down and get his story. What he says at the very end about writers - the best, most common sense advice I've ever heard. RIP.
Well balanced, humorous, lighthearted, humble, likable guy.
It seems impossible that with so many thousands of want-to-be writers in the world only 78 people have viewed this video interview with the great Sherwood Schwartz. As #79 I feel I am in a select group. Thanks to the WGF for making this possible.
right? this has been here for 5 yrs. and has under 1,700 views. i am lucky to care and have this curiosity i guess. and whomever else is in here.
Idiots. Most people would knock this guy out of the way to get a picture with Ashton Kutcher. This guy is one of a kind. A rare treat where a person's talent was put to good use.
These are amazing anecdotes. And an amazing person. This is the first time I've seen or heard Sherwood Schwartz talk. I had always pictured him being a way out eccentric. But he's very genuine and sensible here, along with being colorful and inventive. Nice to get to know him through this video.
Sherwood Schwartz created some funny, knee slapping, all around good sitcoms. No TV producer could ever recreate what Sherwood was doing.
The brilliance of Sherwood was honed in radio, where the importance of dialogue and image were un aided by visual technology.Other greats of TV had similar training in vaudville; these training grounds no longer exist.
Back in the day I LOVED watching Gilligan's Island.... Watching it was a lot like visiting good friends once a week...And I especially enjoyed singing along to the theme song....
Great interview and lots of good advice.
Sherwood shaped the way I view comedy to the level that I don’t think there is a day, since childhood, that goes by in which I don’t imitate a character’s mannerisms or lines that he created.
I absolutely adored part 1 and part 2 of Sherwood Schwartz's interview. It is funny, insightful, wistful, clever and truthful. Every aspiring screen writer should watch this. He is the great grandfather of screenwriting and creating ideas for television. His method has informed and shaped generations not only of writers but of popular tastes. Beyond writing, Sherwood Schwartz is a tastemaker because what audiences watch, becomes eventually how they see and perceive the world.
Wow. What a fabulous interview!
Wonder what he thought about having to insert canned audience laughter into a show to tell the viewer when to laugh. I hate when shows did/do that.
It was the norm for the time, so - and I am not trying to score a cheap point here, simply to state a likely fact - I don't suppose it bothered him at all.
Great interview.
Yeah.
Wow, lots of respect for Mr Schwartz
This helps MY writing career. Thank you!
SS was a nice guy and brilliant writer, a TV legend. Marvelous stories!👍🤗
Terrific interview with so many insights on how to create a hit show. As for residuals, that was always a sore point with the Gilligan's Island cast, but hey they're all dead now RIP except Tina, and tons of people still get a lot of joy from the 58-year-old show. =)
Yes, I got that as I grew older. Gilligan's Island did have a lot to say about humanity. Thanks.
Sherwood Schwartz was a brilliant man, but he did not invent an expository theme song for TV shows. Those were already in place even in 1963 when he was selling Gilligan's Island -- The Beverly Hillbillies comes immediately to mind predating even his original pilot by over a year -- I'm sure there are other examples, too. I'm not saying Mr. Schwartz is lying -- I'm sure his general story about writing it and singing it in the meeting is true... but I'm also sure he has forgotten/reworked/re-remembered/embellished aspects of how original an idea that whole thing was in his memory. Besides, there is some question as to which song was what... a young John Williams wrote the original expository opening song for the original pilot (probably under a mandate from Schwarzt) -- and Schwartz, himself, wrote the song that was eventually used -- both versions "told the story"... but were different from one another. Also, unsure of whether this meeting was to greenlight the pilot or greenlight the series... but either way, it is clear that there is some fond-re-writing of memories of just what transpired with regard to that opening song.
He never said he invented it. He said that kind of theme song wasn't in common use, which is true, and he said he anticipated the need to do it, which also was true as far as selling the show to the network.
"No phone, no light, no motorcar."... Wow, no motorcar? That was difficult. Imagine how much easier their lives on that island would have been with a motorcar!
@@darkwood777 He HAS said, many times (perhaps not exactly here -- but have you read his book?) that this was entirely an original idea. I do NOT minimize his impact and creativity... but the guy DOES embellish himself. It is interesting to compare recorded interviews that he gave in the 1960's to the last ones he gave. I suppose we ALL embellish ourselves (and our memories slightly warp) as we get older.
Sherwood said here the song he wrote was the "calypso" song which was the version only heard on the original pilot. We can assume Williams fleshed out the music for it. I don't think anyone thinks John Williams wrote the lyrics. The pilot episode doesn't give any specific credits for who made the theme song. The episodes after the pilot which all have a revised song have credits that say it was by George Wyle and Sherwood. Wyle is a composer so we can assume he worked on the music for that version. I would assume Sherwood revised the lyrics himself.
Gilligan's Island prefigured all the reality TV shows that were to come into fashion 40 years later. "Big Brother" follows the same idea as Gilligan's Island in that it recruits very different people to all live in one big house and then watch how their relationships develop over the course of several weeks. The house is a metaphor for the world as was the island a metaphor for the world, as Sherwood explains. Gilligan's Island has at its core the idea of social experimentation which is now so common in every reality TV show on air in 2020. This idea goes back to the Greek pantheon where 9 or so archetypes are portrayed close together and each character represents a different aspect of humanity: intellect (the professor), virginity (Mary Anne), stoicism (the skipper), The innocent or fool (Gilligan), the femme fatale (ginger), the wealthy husband and wife (king or queen, Mr and Mrs Howell).
Awesome
He created some very fun stuff, most of it cotton candy without any real weight or significance. I'm not sure he's the writer I'd personally want to emulate, particularly now when there's so much great writing going on in the medium.
he was my childhood I guess. tks
Why did Thurston howl not bring like a 300 ft super-yacht. Harder to get “Tossed” in one of those.
Schwartz was brilliant
Nearly life affirming: he is just like I inmagined he would be. Could this not be real?
This guy must have pocketed a ton of money since the cast members of Gilligan's Island did not receive any residuals after the show ended. It reminds me of how the Three Stooges got screwed over big time.
Maybe, but in fairness, the Brady Bunch actors went ahead and did "The Brady Bunch Hour" without Sherwood's consent. He didn't know about it until he saw ads for the new variety show, and he could have sued all those actors. But he left it alone because he had a personal history with them. Also, from the interviews I've seen, they all (except for Bob Reed) thought Sherwood was a great guy.
He Was A Shyster There's No Denying That!
Love of money, Root of All Evil, TV is not a good way to spend time living life
Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
Unrated | 1h 51min | Comedy, Family | 24 April 1968 (USA)
A widower with ten children falls for a widow with eight, and they must decide about forming a huge, unconventional family.
Director: Melville Shavelson
Writers: Bob Carroll Jr. (story), Madelyn Davis (story) |2 more credits »
Stars: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson |See full cast & crew »
Procommenter that occurred to me as well, but he did mention earlier in the interview he was inspired by an article that was an insert in the newspaper in 1965 about percentages of families who were united because of 2nd marriages. That was well before Yours, Mine and Ours was released in 1968. However the book upon which that movie was based may have been published around that time. Not sure. At any rate, he developed a novel idea for the time.
@@DyneVan he also immediately registered the idea with the Writers Guild Network. When the powers that be for "Yours, Mine, and Ours" tried to sue him when "The Brady Bunch" pilot aired, he responded by telling them that #1. he had registered the idea first, and #2. they should be lucky he didn't sue them. They left him alone after that.
Yes, and also in 1968 was the Doris Day-Brian Keith comedy film With Six You Get Eggroll, another blended family. What I think is interesting is how Schwartz speaks of this as such a new concept for a family sitcom, but the actual show tiptoed around it by making the conflict boys vs girls instead of Carol's kids vs Mike's kids. It made the situation sweeter and easier for the audience. We never saw any of them get angry and yell "You're not my mother" or "You're not my father," or "My last name is Martin, not Brady," etc. Of course, in Yours, Mine, and Ours, several of the children were already teenagers, and so felt it waa disloyal to have a step-parent.
@@anglobostonian Schwartz's original title for the series in 1966 was Mine and Yours. The networks didn't want it until after the success of the movie Yours, Mine and Ours but after that, Sherwood had to change the title to avoid confusion.
You're right, of course. He not only borrowed the idea, but dumbed it down as well.
Both Tv-Series Gilligan's Island And The Brady Bunch Made Sherwood Schwartz A Billionaire 10 Tiimes Over In Residuals Did He Ever Share That Fortnite With The Cast Members That Made It Possible NO! Not 1 Red-Cent! And There Was Episodes Of Both Gilligan's island! And The Brady Bunch! That Talked About The Inportance Of Sharing With Others. What a Hypocritcal Skunk! He Really Was
He was never a billionaire
Personally, I love Brady Bunch but I would had the man have girls and the woman have the boys.
Who's he trying to con? There was no diversity in the cast of either show. None.
Well, it's worth remembering he did an episode of the Brady Bunch as a pilot for a new series that didn't sell: a childless couple who were friends of Mike and Carol decide to adopt a little boy (white, like them), but he waa lonely as an only child. They decided then to adopt his 2 closest friends from the orphanage, who turned out to be two boys, one Chinese-American, the other African-American. So he was thinking about changing storylines involving diversity--that series just didn't get picked up.
Diversity of skin color only matters to superficial people. Gilligan's cast was as diverse as you could get...rich and poor, dumb and smart, educated and uneducated, famous and unknown, etc. Skin color is meaningless when it comes to defining who a person is.
@@jedijones LOL!! That's the most moronic remark I've ever read on You Tube, and that's quite an accomplishment! Representation matters, civil rights groups fight for representation. Skin color is not "meaningless" in a racist society. Such drivel.
@@stationarywanderer7910 Fine, but it's stupid to have diversity of skin color just "because".
@@jeffw1267 Yawn.