Bill Persky (born September 9, 1931) is an American television
director,
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
, and
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
.
Biography
Persky was born to a
Jewish family, the son of an estate auctioneer.
His father would travel between various resort towns where the wealthy lived to conduct estate auctions.
He has one older sister, Bunny Persky Grossinger, and attended Ramble Elementary School in
Hot Springs, Arkansas.
During the summers, he worked as a lifeguard in the
Borscht Belt in the
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...
.
He attended
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
, where he studied advertising, and after school went to work for an advertising agency in New York City.
He then took a job at
WNEW where he met
Sam Denoff
Samuel Denoff (July 1, 1928 – July 8, 2011) was an American screenwriter and television producer.
Biography
Denoff was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Esther (Rothbard) and Harry Denoff, a salesman. With his long-time ...
where they wrote jokes for the DJs out of fun which soon morphed into part of their job tasks.
The writing team moved to
Los Angeles in the 1960s, taking a job to write for ''
The Steve Allen Show''.
Persky and Denoff wrote some of the most popular episodes of ''
The Dick Van Dyke Show''. They later wrote and created the television show ''
That Girl'' starring
Marlo Thomas as well as ''
Good Morning World'' starring
Joby Baker and
Ronnie Schell. Persky directed 100 episodes of the
situation comedy
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 ne ...
''
Kate and Allie''.
He also directed the situation comedies ''
The Practice'' (1976) and ''
Busting Loose'' (1977), and the movie ''
Serial'' (1980).
In 2015, Persky appeared on the reality TV show NY:ER (Season 2, Episode 13) as himself after suffering a collapsed lung. In the appearance, Persky had his wife bring a copy of his book ''My Life as a Situation Comedy'' to the ER so he could sign a copy for his nurse. His wife also claimed to have brought him a bottle of bourbon, which was not shown.
Personal life
Persky has been married three times. He has three daughters with his first wife: neuropsychologist Dana Persky, restaurateur Jamie Persky, and television producer Liza Persky. His third wife is New York advertising executive, Joanna Patton.
References
External links
An interview with Bill Persky, March 2011Audio interview with Bill Persky, July 2014
*
*
1931 births
American television directors
American television producers
20th-century American Jews
Emmy Award winners
Living people
21st-century American Jews
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