BOB WEISKOPF

March 13, 1914

Bob Weiskopf was born in Chicago, Illinois. He became an Emmy-winning writer and producer for television. 

At the start of World War II, he moved in with writer Jess Oppenheimer, who 13 years later would hire him to write for “I Love Lucy". Weiskopf was hired to write radio comedy for the legendary comedian Fred Allen. He served in the US military. 

He began writing for television in 1950, when he wrote an episode for “The Colgate Comedy Hour” featuring Fred Allen. His creative partnership and friendship with Bob Schiller began in 1953 writing a single radio script for “Our Miss Brooks” before delving into the new media of television together. They wrote for such popular shows as “Make Room for Daddy” (filmed at Desilu), “The Bob Cummings Show,” “I Love Lucy,” “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” Desilu’s “The Ann Sothern Show” (which they co-created), and “Pete and Gladys”.

Weiskopf joined the “I Love Lucy” writing staff for season five, starting with “Lucy Visits Graumans” (ILL S5;E1) in Fall 1955. This was his first time writing for Lucille Ball. 

He continued writing for the show until it’s final episode (53 in all) and continued writing all 13 episodes of “The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour” through the end of 1959. 

In between he wrote the pilot script for “The Ann Sothern Show”, an outgrowth of “Private Secretary” created by Desilu when Sothern came to a creative impasse with the previous producers. Lucille Ball played Lucy Ricardo on the series at the start of season two. 

He acted as script consultant in 1959 when Lucy and Desi appeared on “Sunday Showcase: The Lucy-Desi Milton Berle Special” assuring that the Ricardo characters were consistently written for Berle’s special. He served in the same capacity for “The Desilu Revue” a holiday variety show for the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” in December 1959. 

In the 1960s and 1970s they continued their partnership with such series as “The Lucy Show,” “The Red Skelton Show,” “The Good Guys” (where they were also co-producers), “The Phyllis Diller Show,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “The Flip Wilson Show,” “Maude” (which they also co-produced), “All in the Family,” and its spinoff series, ”Archie Bunker’s Place.” 

In 1960 he was one of the writers creating “Guestward Ho” for Desilu. The series was supposed to star Vivian Vance, but the network decided she was too associated with Ethel Mertz and the show was recast for the series. In 1961, Weiskopf was one of the writers of “Pete and Gladys”, a spin-off of Desilu’s “December Bride” that was not produced by Desilu. 

In 1962, he returned to working for Desilu and Lucille Ball (as well as briefly for Desi Arnaz) on “The Lucy Show”. 

Weiskopf was uncredited co-creator and wrote 48 episodes from season one through the end of 1964. 

Although he wrote ten episodes of “The Carol Burnett Show” during season three, he was not a writer for Lucille Ball’s appearance in November 1969. 

Weiskopf was, however, one of the writers of the second season opener of “Flip” that featured Lucille Ball. This would be Weiskopf’s last time writing for Ball. 

During their long collaboration, Schiller and Weiskopf were honored with two Emmy Awards, a pair of Peabody Awards, a Golden Globe, and the Writers’ Guild of America’s Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Achievement.

His final writing credit was a 1986 episode of “He’s The Mayor.”  He died in 2001 at age 86.