Gary Jacobs is an American

television comedy Television comedy is a category of broadcasting that has been present since the early days of entertainment media. While there are several genres of comedy, some of the first ones aired were variety shows. One of the first Television in the United ...

writer and producer and author. He was born in New York in 1952, grew up in Dallas, and was educated at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, where he received his bachelor's degree in Journalism. Immediately upon graduation, Jacobs moved to New York to pursue comedy writing. His first job was at the

Children's Television Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—includin ...

, where he became co-editor (with Ron Barrett) of ''The Electric Company Magazine'', a companion piece to the television series. A couple of years later, Jacobs landed his first television job, writing for ''The Dick Cavett Show''. Jacobs then moved to Los Angeles, and began accumulating credits, writing for both variety shows and situation comedies. His big break came when he was hired (with writing partner,

Arnie Kogen Arnie Kogen is an American comedy writer and producer. He has written for TV, film, and is a longtime writer for ''Mad Magazine''. Among his hundreds of ''Mad'' bylines, Kogen has written more than 100 film or television parodies. Born in Brookly ...

) on the staff of ''

Newhart ''Newhart'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from October 25, 1982, to May 21, 1990, with a total of 184 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons. The series stars Bob Newhart and Mary Frann as an author and his wife, respe ...

''. In 1988, Jacobs executive produced a new series, ''

Empty Nest ''Empty Nest'' is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from October 8, 1988, to June 17, 1995. The series, which was created as a spin-off of ''The Golden Girls'' by creator and producer Susan Harris, starred Richa ...

'', which became a long-running hit for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. It was one of the top ten highest rated shows each of the three seasons Jacobs served as Executive Producer. After ''

'', Jacobs created and executive produced two series of his own. The first, '' Woops!'', was a zany, Monty Pythonesque show about a group of survivors of a nuclear war. The second series was '' All-American Girl'', starring

Margaret Cho Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian, actress and musician. In her Stand-up comedy, stand-up routines she critiques social and political problems, especially about race and sexuality. She starred in the Ame ...

, the first sitcom to feature an Asian-American family. In 2000, Jacobs left television and moved to Austin. There, he has published a novel (''Still Life with Genitals''), two anthologies of short pieces (''Out of My Mind: A Collection of Essays, Short Stories, and Other Silly Things'' and ''Maybe It's Just Me''), and a children's book (''The Curious Ant''). He also earned two master's degrees, one in Education from

Texas State University Texas State University (TXST) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in San Marcos, Texas, United States, and another campus in Round Rock, Texas, Round Rock. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has ...

and the other in Creative Writing from

Goddard College Goddard College was a Private college, private college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle. The college offered undergraduate and graduate degree programs. With predecessor ins ...

. Jacobs has written humorous essays for a variety of publications, including the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' and the ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

''. He is currently posting videos on TikTok and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

under the username "garyjacobs70yearsold." Jacobs is married with two children and numerous animals.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Gary Living people American comedy writers American television writers American male television writers American television producers American humorists Year of birth missing (living people)