‘Gilligan’s Island,’ ‘Brady Bunch’ Creator Sherwood Schwartz Dead at 94

Sherwood Schwartz, who created Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch, two of the most affectionately ridiculed and enduring television sitcoms of the 1960s and ’70s, died early Tuesday morning in his Los Angeles home. He was 94.

Schwartz, well known for his prolific writing ability, had admitted that his entertainment career came “by accident,” as he originally had plans to pursue a master’s degree in biology, but upon needing employment to pay his way through school, he took a gig writing jokes for Bob Hope’s radio program.

“I was faced with a major decision — writing comedy or starving to death while I cured those diseases. I made a quick career change,” Schwartz was quoted as saying.

When Hope saw Sherwood’s jokes, he loved them and began using them frequently, much to the delight of his audiences. Eventually Mr. Hope offered Schwartz a full-time job writing and the rest, as they say, is history.

Schwartz, who died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes, is survived by his wife of 69 years, Mildred Schwartz, and their four children.