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 an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

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 and television comedy series. The show ran for over three decades, from 1932 to 1955 on radio, and from 1950 to 1965 on television. It won numerous awards, including the 1959 and 19 ...

'' 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 John Tackaberry (October 9, 1912 – June 24, 1969) was a radio writer for ''The Jack Benny Show''. Early years He was born in Adelaide, Australia and grew up in Oodnadatta, a small railroad stop in the Simpson Desert in the Australian State of ...

. 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 performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

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

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

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 distinct ...

'', ''

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 third ...

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

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American sitcoms in the United States, sitcom television series that aired on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes. It was later produced as ''Archie Bunker's Pla ...

,'' 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. After the final first-run telecast on CBS in April 1983, the series went i ...

.'' 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 Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery Screenwriters from New York City 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American male writers