In Remembrance: Jerry Belson

     Jerry Belson, the three time Emmy Award winning television comedy writer who penned such films as the original version of Fun With Dick And Jane and the 1982 cult classic Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again, has passed away on October 10, 2007 in Los Angeles, CA. He was 68.

     Born on July 8, 1938 in El Centro, CA, Belson relocated to Hollywood to pursue a career as a writer, though he worked as a magician, a drummer and a comic book writer before making his first script sale to The Danny Thomas Show. In 1962, Belson met Gary Marshall and the two soon began penning scripts together for such shows as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Joey Bishop Show and Hey Landlord, which they created. The two quickly became known as one of the premier comedy writing teams of the 1960s and early 70s. There best known work was in developing Neil Simon’s play and film The Odd Couple for television and serving as executive producers on the show for its popular five year run.

     Belson’s first produced screenplay was the 1968 James Garner/Debbie Reynolds comedy How Sweet It Is!. He also scripted the Jacqueline Bisset drama Grasshopper (1970), the 1975 beauty pageant satire Smile and the Disney comedy Fun With Dick And Jane (1977). His script for the 1978 dark comedy The End, which featured Burt Reynolds as a terminally ill man repeatedly attempting suicide, was praised by fellow writers for its ability to find humor in its grim subject.

     Belson’s uncredited re-write on Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) had the director recruit him to update the screenplay to 1943’s A Guy Named Joe for his 1989 remake Always. Belson also drafted the screenplays for 1980’s Smokey And The Bandit Part II and the 1987 romantic comedy Surrender.