Burt Styler, Veteran TV Writer for Bob Hope and Numerous Series
In addition to many projects for Hope, Styler wrote for more than two dozen series over the course of a career spanning more than 30 years.
Burt Styler, a Primetime Emmy-winning writer who also wrote jokes for Bob Hope for many years, died June 13, in Tarzana, California. He was 86.
According to news reports, the cause was heart failure following heart surgery.
Styler won an Emmy in 1972 for writing an episode of All in the Family. He was also nominated in the category for another episode of the series that he co-wrote with Norman Lear.
He later earned two additional nominations for writing episodes of The Carol Burnett Show, along with wife, Adele, and other writers.
Born in New York City on February 20, 1925, Styler worked at the New York Public Library in his teens. During World War II he served in the Army and was part of the Normandy invasion after D-Day. He also wrote for a newspaper in the military and first met Hope, who was on tour entertaining the troops, after talking his way into a position with the Armed Forces Network.
After the war, he phoned Hope at his hotel in New York seeking work; Hope didn't remember him but told him to write up a monologue as a test. Styler slipped a note with some jokes under Hope's door, and the comedian hired him.
Styler wrote jokes and comedy sketches for Hope's radio programs, and later wrote two episodes of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre. He also co-wrote the feature films Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! and Eight on the Lam, both of which starred Hope.
Earlier films, written while under contract at Fox, were Call Me Mister and Down Among the Sheltering Palms.
But the majority of his work was done for television. With writing partner Albert E. Lewin, he wrote episodes of such shows as The Life of Riley and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He and Lewin ended their collaboration in 1966, after which Styler wrote on his own. During the ’60s, he wrote or co-wrote episodes of McHale's Navy, Gilligan's Island, My Favorite Martian, Mayberry R.F.D., The Flying Nun and Family Affair.
In 1972 he wrote two episodes in the first season of M*A*S*H.
With his wife Adele he wrote episodes of such shows as The Brady Bunch, Chico and the Man and Too Close for Comfort.
His last credit came in 1989 for The Munsters Today.
Adele died in 2002. Survivors include a son.
My friend and Emmy Award-winning television writer Burt Styler passed away on June 13, 2011. Burt was a longtime staff writer for Bob Hope, and won an Emmy Award for writing an episode of All in the Family, entitled "Edith's Problem."