Harry Stephen Ackerman (November 17, 1912 – February 3, 1991) was an American television producer, credited with creating or co-creating twenty-one series, seven of which were at one time being broadcast simultaneously. Some of the

sitcoms A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new ...

in which he was involved in production during the 1950s and 1960s are also among the most popular American shows in the early history of the “small screen”, such as ''

Father Knows Best ''Father Knows Best'' is an American sitcom starring Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six seasons and 203 episodes. Created by ...

'', '' Dennis the Menace'', '' Leave It to Beaver'', '' The Farmer's Daughter'', ''

Hazel The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...

'', ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typ ...

'', ''

The Flying Nun ''The Flying Nun'' is an American sitcom about a community of nuns which included one who could fly when the wind caught her cornette. It was produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book '' The Fifteenth Pelican,'' written by Tere ...

'', and '' Gidget''. Ackerman was known in the entertainment industry as the “dean of television comedy”, although he was instrumental too in developing many dramatic classics and documentaries, such as ''

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial ''The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial'' is a two-act play, of the courtroom drama type, that was dramatized for the stage by Herman Wouk, which he adapted from his own 1951 novel, '' The Caine Mutiny''. Wouk's novel covered a long stretch of time ...

'', '' The Day Lincoln Was Shot'', and ''

The 20th Century ''The Twentieth Century'' was a documentary television program sponsored by the Prudential Insurance Company that ran on the CBS network from 20 October 1957 until 4 January 1970. It was hosted by Walter Cronkite. The opening and closing the ...

''.

Early life and education

Harry Ackerman was born in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...

and attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

as a theater arts major.

Career

Ackerman began his career as a writer, but soon became a radio performer, appearing as the comic poet Wilbur W. Willoughby Jr. In 1938 he went to work as an advertising executive at

Young & Rubicam VMLY&R is an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Young & Rubica ...

. In 1946 he became vice president of program operations. Ackerman began his career in television at CBS, where he started as an executive producer in New York for the network. Later he became vice president in charge of CBS programs in Hollywood, California. While at CBS he helped create, develop, oversee, and/or approve the casting of ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central chara ...

, I Love Lucy,

The Jack Benny Show ''The Jack Benny Program'', starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th century American comedy. He played one role throughout his radio and televis ...

, Burns and Allen,

Amos 'n' Andy ''Amos 'n' Andy'' is an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago and later in the Harlem section of New York City. While the show had a brief life on 1950s television with black actors, the 1928 to 1960 radio sho ...

, Our Miss Brooks'', and many other shows. Ackerman was CBS-TV west coast program vice president from 1948 to 1958. He began his own production company, Harry Ackerman Productions, where he immediately signed an exclusive deal with Paramount TV to create TV series, specials and feature films on a co-production basis, in 1973. He also went to work on network development for Hanna-Barbera Prods. He then joined

Screen Gems Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent ...

, which later became

Columbia Pictures Television Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CPT) was launched on May 6, 1974, by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gem ...

, where he worked for 15 years, from 1958 until 1973. He worked on many TV shows while there, including, ''

'', '' Bachelor Father'' (for Universal), '' Leave It to Beaver'' (for Universal), '' Dennis the Menace'', ''

The Donna Reed Show ''The Donna Reed Show'' is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the middle-class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz co-stars as her pediatrician husband Dr. Alex Stone, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children, Mary ...

'', ''

'', '' Grindl'', '' Gidget'', ''

'', ''

I Dream of Jeannie ''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually mar ...

'', ''

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...

'', and ''

The Partridge Family ''The Partridge Family'' is an American musical sitcom starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy. Jones plays a widowed mother, and Cassidy plays the oldest of her five children, in a family who embarks on a music career. It ran from S ...

''. In the late 1940s, before coming to Hollywood, he was involved in the beginnings of the ''

Suspense Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being Decision-making, undecided, or being Doubt, doubtful. In a Drama, dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the wikt:outcome, outcome of a plot (narrative), plot or of the solution t ...

'' and ''

Westinghouse Studio One ''Studio One'' is an American anthology drama television series that was adapted from a radio series. It was created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. It premiered on November 7, 1948 and ended on Sept ...

'' dramatic radio anthologies.

Honors

Ackerman won two

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for his work and was the first producer ever honored by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters at that organization's 1974 luncheon. He was also the national president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for two terms; and in recognition of his many contributions to the entertainment industry during his career, a star dedicated to him was installed in 1985 on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

at 6661 Hollywood Boulevard.

Personal life and legacy

Ackerman was married twice. His second marriage, to actress Elinor Donahue, who was 25 years younger, was in 1962 at the Court of Liberty. He was the adoptive father of her son from her first marriage (to Richard Smith), and he and Donahue had three sons together. Ackerman in 1991 died of “

pulmonary failure Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a ri ...

” at age 78 at St. Joseph Medical Center in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who ...

. He is buried in the Garden of Heritage at Forest Lawn

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Un ...

.Resting Places: The Burial Places of 14,000 Famous Persons, by Scott Wilson Three years later, as a memorial to her husband and to serve as an important resource for research on the history of American television, Elinor Donahue donated The Harry Ackerman Collection of personal papers to the Rauner Library at

.“Harry Ackerman papers, 1928-1990”
Rauner Library, Dartmouth College,

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of En ...

. Retrieved November 24, 2018. Ackerman was an alumnus of Dartmouth, having graduated from the college in 1935.

References

External links

*
The Papers of Harry Ackerman
at Dartmouth College Library * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ackerman, Harry 1912 births 1991 deaths American television producers Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Dartmouth College alumni missing graduation year 20th-century American businesspeople Bewitched