…And in case you’re wondering why we think an awareness of this very funny and highly influential dood, it’s because as one of the most prominent voices behind THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, THE GIRL, WHO’S THE BOSS, THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW, and many more he has indeed been a very funny and highly influential, erm, writer.
Listen up:
by Reed Bunzel
Like many early comedy writers, Bill Persky found himself working with some of the great classic comics of radio and TV. After a stint as a cabana boy at the famed Grossinger’s Hotel in the Catskills, he became an assistant program director at WNEW New York in the mid-1950s. His first TV sale came when he and writing partner Don Rosenblit invented a character known as “the Pigloo,” a combination of a pig and an igloo that was picked up by the Howdy Doody Show as a regular character. Savoring that first taste of success, he moved to California and wrote for a variety of innovative programs, including The Steve Allen Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Julie Andrews Show, McHale’s Navy, and The Joey Bishop Show.