Danny Arnold (23 January 1925 - 19 August 1995) was a double Emmy Award winning producer, writer, comedian, actor and director known for producing Barney Miller, That Girl and Bewitched.
Career
Arnold was best known for writing and producing such high-quality television sitcoms as
Bewitched and
That Girl. Over his career, he won two
Emmy Awards, one for
My World and Welcome to It and one for the series for which he is most famous,
Barney Miller. This latter show also won Arnold a
Peabody Award. He was honored with the
Paddy Chayefsky Award in 1985 by the Writer's Guild of America to celebrate his lifetime of achievement. A native of
New York City, Arnold started out acting in summer stock and doing comedy in
Vaudeville, but began his career in
Hollywood at
Columbia Studios as a sound editor in 1944. He appeared in films as an actor opposite the hot young comic duo
Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis. Arnold wrote the screenplay for a third Martin and Lewis vehicle,
The Caddy (1953). In 1956, Arnold started writing for such television series as
The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show and
The Rosemary Clooney Show. He started contributing to television sitcoms in 1963. Though his subsequent work was popular with audiences, Arnold frequently butted heads with TV executives regarding issues of content and fair shooting schedules. While working on
Barney Miller, Arnold became so sick of the constant network battles that he founded his own distribution company so he could syndicate shows as he wished, but with the cancellation of his subsequent series
Joe Bash and
Stat, his plans with Miller never came to fruition.
Danny Arnold died in
Los Angeles from
heart failure.
References
External links