Milt Josefsberg (June 29, 1911 – December 14, 1987) was an American screenwriter.

Career

Milt Josefsberg's first big break came in 1938, when he was hired as writer on

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

program.Josefsberg, Milt: ''The Jack Benny Show'' (Arlington House Publishers, 1977), p. 52. , Five years later, in the summer of 1943, he left Hope and took over as one of four new writers on ''

The Jack Benny Program ''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 ...

'' on the radio. At the time, Benny's two main writers, Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, had just recently left the show. Josefsberg was to remain with Jack Benny for twelve years, until the closure of Benny's radio program in 1955. During his long association with Benny, Josefsberg would collaborate with all of Benny's other writers, although he tended to work most closely with John Tackaberry. From the early 1950s, he also worked on Benny's TV show. Even after his partnership with Benny officially ended, Josefsberg would reportedly write

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

material for Benny on occasion in the 1960s. From the mid-1950s onward, Josefsberg worked as a writer for many television

sitcom 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 ...

s, such as ''

The Lucy Show ''The Lucy Show'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1962 to 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to '' I Love Lucy''. A significant change in cast and premise for the fourth season (1965–1966) divides the program into two distin ...

'', ''

Here's Lucy ''Here's Lucy'' is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. The series co-starred her long-time comedy partner Gale Gordon and her real-life children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. It was broadcast on CBS from 1968 to 1974. It was Ball's th ...

'', '' The Odd Couple'', ''

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...

,'' and ''

Archie Bunker's Place ''Archie Bunker's Place'' is an American television sitcom produced as a continuation of ''All in the Family''. It aired on CBS from September 23, 1979, to April 4, 1983. While not as popular as its predecessor, the show maintained a large enough ...

.'' Jim Wickey of ''The Green House'', ''The Rip Borsley Show'' once commented about Josefsberg:

"Milt Josefsberg is an American success story. I doubt I would be writing if I had not been influenced by Milt, and I know that can be said for many of today's writers. The WGA picket line would be thinner without him!"

Also a producer and script reader, Josefsberg, who was called by Mel Shavelson, one-time creative partner and three-time Writers Gould of America (WGA) president "the maven of comedy", did such for the television show, '' The Joey Bishop Show'' from 1961 to 1965, the film ''Butterfly'' (1979), as well as the TV series, '' You Can't Take It with You'' which ran from 1987 to 1988. In later years, he also penned the books ''The Jack Benny Show'' (1977), reminiscing about his years as a writer on Benny's radio and TV shows, and ''Comedy Writing for Television and Hollywood.''''Comedy Writing for Television and Hollywood'' by Milt Josefsberg, (paperback), , , V Perennial, HarperCollins Publishers, September 1, 1987.

Family life and death

Josefsberg and his wife Hilda had two sons, Steven and Alan. Alan had two children, Suzi and Dean. Josefberg's great grandchildren, Amber and Taylor Ellison (Suzi's) and Mason and Matthew Josefsberg (Dean's), live today in Southern California. Josefsberg died in Burbank, California.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Josefsberg, Milt 1911 births 1987 deaths American radio writers American television writers American male television writers Writers from New York City Screenwriters from New York (state) 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American male writers