Sherwood Schwartz, the legendary Jewish television guru who created "The Brady Bunch" and "Gilligan's Island" has died at the age of 94.
Aside from creating some of America's most beloved shows, Schwartz is also known for his mass accomplishments as a script supervisor, writer and producer in Hollywood. In 1961 he won an Emmy for his writing contribution to The Red Skelton Show. In 2008, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Schwartz was a TV legend that "accidentally" got his start working as a writer on the Bob Hope radio show in the 1940s when he was in college, pursuing a career in medicine.
"I came out to California. My plans were to get a medical degree. I went to pre-med. I did not want to become a regular doctor. I wanted to do research kind of doctoring. I read a book which influenced my whole life called Microbe Hunters. A wonderful book about doctors who had saved millions of people like Louis Pasteur and whats-his-name who discovered X-Rays. I wanted to be that kind of doctor. Well, first you have to go through medical school. Well, here's some dirty laundry if you want to hear it.
The AMA in its infinite stupidity said, "There are too many Jewish doctors. Jews only account for two percent of the population and twenty-five percent of the doctors are Jewish!" Like it makes a difference to you if you're having brain surgery whether the doctor is Chinese or Indian or Jewish or anything else. You want the best man for the job. But they thought otherwise and they severely limited the amount of Jewish students that could get into medical school. I guess this was about nineteen thirty-eight. Doctors will deny that existed, but I saw the book because one the principals at some college said to me, "We're very sorry, you have the grades and all..." So, I was out of there."
I figured, "Well, I'm going to get another degree, and maybe with a masters degree, I'll be able to get into a medical school." This happened in New York. I came out West. I had no money. I'm talking the depths of the depression. My brother, who had just gotten a job on The Bob Hope Show... they were just organizing the Bob Hope writing team. While I was going to USC to get my masters degree, my brother and the other Bob Hope writers would sometimes gather in my brother's house. I would hear what they were saying. It didn't seem to me to be hard to write jokes. I wasn't interested in being a writer, but here was an opportunity.
If Bob liked the joke, maybe I could get five dollars or even ten dollars a joke. In those days you could buy a lot of meals for ten dollars. So I said, "If I write some jokes, can you give them to Bob?" So my brother... [gave] Bob the jokes and he made a wonderful deal with me. He was terrific guy. He was a brilliant man, Bob Hope. He said, "If you don't get into medical school, come on the show as a writer. You wrote some very good jokes." So it was a no-lose situation for me. And that's what happened."
Schwartz went on to create and produce Gilligan's Island, starring Bob Denver, Alan Hale, and Dawn Wells, and The Brady Bunch with Florence Henderson and Robert Reed.
Schwartz also penned the theme song for three of his shows: Gilligan's Island, It's About Time, and The Brady Bunch.
Schwartz died from natural causes and is survived by his wife of 69 years and their four children. He is remembered by the Hollywood community as a very generous person with an immense personality, and a knack for making people laugh.
Sherwood Schwartz, the legendary Jewish television guru who created "The Brady Bunch" and "Gilligan's Island" has died at the age of 94. 
