Jess Oppenheimer

Jess Oppenheimer was an American radio and television writer, producer, and director, best known as creator, producer and head writer of the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy. He won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for seven others.

Lucille Ball called Jess Oppenheimer "the brains" behind I Love Lucy. As series creator, producer, and head writer, "Jess was the creative force behind the 'Lucy' show," according to I Love Lucy director William Asher. "He was the field general. Jess presided over all the meetings, and ran the whole show. He was very sharp."

Oppenheimer left I Love Lucy in 1956 to take an executive post at NBC. He produced a series of TV specials including the General Motors 50th Anniversary Show, nominated as "Best Single Program of the Year" by the TV Academy, and the 1959 Emmy Awards. Oppenheimer and Ball were reunited in 1962 when he produced The Danny Kaye Show with Lucille Ball, nominated as "Program of the Year" by the TV Academy, and again in 1964, when he executive produced The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour. Other TV credits include The United States Steel Hour, Angel (1960-61), Glynis (1963-64), Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Get Smart, and The Debbie Reynolds Show.

Oppenheimer died December 27, 1988, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 75. In 1991 the Writers Guild of America posthumously awarded him its Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement.

Oppenheimer is memorialized in the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum & Center for Comedy in Jamestown, New York.