Mel Tolkin
Encyclopedia
Mel Tolkin, né Shmuel Tolchinsky (August 3, 1913 – November 26, 2007), was a television
comedy
writer
best known as head writer of the seminal, live TV sketch comedy
series Your Show of Shows
(NBC
, 1950–1954) during the Golden Age of Television
. There he presided over a storied staff that at times included Mel Brooks
, Neil Simon
, Danny Simon
, and Larry Gelbart
. The writers' room inspired the film
My Favorite Year
(1982), produced by Brooks, and the Broadway
play
Laughter on the 23rd Floor
(1993), written by Neil Simon.
Tolkin, who won an Emmy Award
and every other major prize for television writing, was the father of screenwriter
-novelist Michael Tolkin
and TV writer-director
Stephen Tolkin.
") in a Jewish shtetl
near Odessa
, Ukraine
, then part of the Russian Empire
. This background of anti-Semitic pogrom
s, shared by other comedy writers of his generation, he noted in 1992, "I’m not happy to have to say ... created the condition where humor becomes anger made acceptable with a joke".
His family moved to Montreal, Canada in 1926, where Tolkin became known as Samuel. He studied accounting after graduating from high school
, and surreptitiously entered show business by composing songs and sketches for local revues and playing piano
in jazz club
s. Fearing his parents would disapprove of what they would see as an impractical career choice, he began using the pseudonym
Mel Tolkin.
During World War II
, Tolkin did military service
in the Canadian Army, playing the glockenspiel
in a military orchestra. He moved to New York City
, New York
, in 1946, and married Edith Leibovitch that year. He teamed with longtime writing partner Lucille Kallen and began concocting comedy
for performers at the Poconos resort Camp Tamiment. In 1949, the duo became the sole writing staff of the NBC
television network
variety show
The Admiral Broadway Revue
. By the following year, that series, starring the eventually legendary Sid Caesar
and Imogene Coca
, had evolved in Your Show of Shows
.
, writers including Mel Brooks
, Neil Simon
, Danny Simon
, Larry Gelbart
, Tolkin, and Kallen, famously fought, argued, quipped, crafted, "paced, muttered, swore, occasionally typed and more than occasionally threw things: crumpled paper cups, cigars (lighted) and much else. The acoustical-tile ceiling was fringed with pencils, which had been flung aloft in a rage and stuck fast; Mr. Tolkin once counted 39 of them suspended there".
The series quickly settled into a starring quartet of Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner
and Howard Morris
. Many of its sketches became classics that found a new audience beginning in 1973, when the show's producer
-director
, Max Liebman, compiled the theatrical film release 10 From Your Show of Shows. Tolkin continued writing on an acclaimed successor series, Caesar's Hour, which ran September 27, 1954 through 1957. He also wrote the theme song for Your Show of Shows, "Stars Over Broadway
".
on the landmark CBS
sitcom All in the Family
, writing several of its scripts. He also wrote for sequel series Archie Bunker's Place
, and for the Tony Randall
sitcom Love, Sidney
.
Tolkin died of heart failure at age 94, at his home in Century City, California. Aside from children and grandchildren, he was survived by his wife, Edith, and by a brother, Sol Tolchinsky
. He was interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California
.
and nightclub
entertainers Bob Hope
, Jerry Lewis
, Danny Kaye
, and Danny Thomas
.
, Bill Persky
, and Carl Reiner
shared the 1967 "Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety" Emmy Award
, for The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special.
Tolkin also received the following Emmy nominations:
Tolkin also received four Writers Guild of America Award
s, a Humanitas Prize
and a Peabody Award
.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
best known as head writer of the seminal, live TV sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
series Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
(NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, 1950–1954) during the Golden Age of Television
Golden Age of Television
The Golden Age of Television in the United States began sometime in the late 1940s and extended to the late 1950s or early 1960s.-Evolutions of drama on television:...
. There he presided over a storied staff that at times included Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
, Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
, Danny Simon
Danny Simon
Danny Simon was an American television writer and comedy teacher. He was also older brother to acclaimed American playwright Neil Simon....
, and Larry Gelbart
Larry Gelbart
Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
. The writers' room inspired the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
My Favorite Year
My Favorite Year
My Favorite Year is a 1982 American comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin which tells the story of a young comedy writer. It stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Lou Jacobi, Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Selma Diamond, Cameron Mitchell, and Gloria Stuart. O'Toole was...
(1982), produced by Brooks, and the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
Laughter on the 23rd Floor
Laughter on the 23rd Floor
Laughter on the 23rd Floor is a play by Neil Simon.Inspired by Simon's early career experience as a junior jokesmith for Your Show of Shows, the play focuses on Sid Caesar/Jackie Gleason-like Max Prince, the star of a weekly comedy-variety show circa 1953, and his staff, including Simon's...
(1993), written by Neil Simon.
Tolkin, who won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
and every other major prize for television writing, was the father of screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
-novelist Michael Tolkin
Michael Tolkin
Michael L. Tolkin is an American filmmaker and novelist. He has written numerous screenplays, including The Player , which he adapted from his 1988 book by the same name, and for which he received the 1993 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay...
and TV writer-director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
Stephen Tolkin.
Early life and career
Mel Tolkin was born Shmuel Tolchinsky ' onMouseout='HidePop("35804")' href="/topics/Tulchyn">TuľčynTulchyn
Tulchin , Latin Tulcinum, ) is a small city in the Vinnytsya Oblast of western Ukraine, former Podolia. It is the administrative center of the Tulchynsky Raion , and was the chief centre of the Southern Society of the Decembrists, Pavel Pestel was located there during planning of the rebellion...
") in a Jewish shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
near Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. This background of anti-Semitic pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s, shared by other comedy writers of his generation, he noted in 1992, "I’m not happy to have to say ... created the condition where humor becomes anger made acceptable with a joke".
His family moved to Montreal, Canada in 1926, where Tolkin became known as Samuel. He studied accounting after graduating from high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, and surreptitiously entered show business by composing songs and sketches for local revues and playing piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
in jazz club
Jazz club
A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music. Jazz clubs have been in large rooms in the eras of Orchestral jazz and big band jazz and when its popularity as a dance music was common...
s. Fearing his parents would disapprove of what they would see as an impractical career choice, he began using the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Mel Tolkin.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Tolkin did military service
Military service
Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...
in the Canadian Army, playing the glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
in a military orchestra. He moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, in 1946, and married Edith Leibovitch that year. He teamed with longtime writing partner Lucille Kallen and began concocting comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
for performers at the Poconos resort Camp Tamiment. In 1949, the duo became the sole writing staff of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
variety show
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
The Admiral Broadway Revue
The Admiral Broadway Revue
The Admiral Broadway Revue is an American variety show that premiered on January 28, 1949, and was broadcast live simultaneously on both NBC and the now-defunct DuMont network.-Overview:...
. By the following year, that series, starring the eventually legendary Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
and Imogene Coca
Imogene Coca
Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows....
, had evolved in Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
.
Your Show of Shows
Considered by TV historians as a classic of the medium, with Ronald C. Simon, television curator of The Paley Center for Media calling it "a pinnacle of television history", the series presented 90 minutes of comedy live each week for 39 weeks a year, for a total of 160 shows airing February 25, 1950, to June 5, 1954. From its sixth-floor office on West 56th Street in ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, writers including Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
, Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
, Danny Simon
Danny Simon
Danny Simon was an American television writer and comedy teacher. He was also older brother to acclaimed American playwright Neil Simon....
, Larry Gelbart
Larry Gelbart
Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, Tolkin, and Kallen, famously fought, argued, quipped, crafted, "paced, muttered, swore, occasionally typed and more than occasionally threw things: crumpled paper cups, cigars (lighted) and much else. The acoustical-tile ceiling was fringed with pencils, which had been flung aloft in a rage and stuck fast; Mr. Tolkin once counted 39 of them suspended there".
The series quickly settled into a starring quartet of Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
and Howard Morris
Howard Morris
Howard Morris was an American comic actor and director who was best known for his role as Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show.- Life and career :...
. Many of its sketches became classics that found a new audience beginning in 1973, when the show's producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
-director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, Max Liebman, compiled the theatrical film release 10 From Your Show of Shows. Tolkin continued writing on an acclaimed successor series, Caesar's Hour, which ran September 27, 1954 through 1957. He also wrote the theme song for Your Show of Shows, "Stars Over Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
".
Later life and career
For six years in the 1970s, Tolkin was a story editorStory editor
Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called "supervising producer". A story editor is a member of the screenwriting staff who edits stories for screenplays....
on the landmark CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
sitcom All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, writing several of its scripts. He also wrote for sequel series Archie Bunker's Place
Archie Bunker's Place
Archie Bunker's Place is an American sitcom originally broadcast on the CBS network, conceived in 1979 as a spin-off and continuation of All in the Family. While not as popular as its predecessor, the show maintained a large enough audience to last for four seasons, until its cancellation in 1983...
, and for the Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
sitcom Love, Sidney
Love, Sidney
Love, Sidney was an American situation comedy television series about a gay man, Sidney Shorr, and his relationship with a single mother and her five year-old daughter whom he invites to live with him...
.
Tolkin died of heart failure at age 94, at his home in Century City, California. Aside from children and grandchildren, he was survived by his wife, Edith, and by a brother, Sol Tolchinsky
Sol Tolchinsky
Sol Tolchinsky was a Canadian basketball player who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics.His brother is noted Jewish comedy writer Mel Tolkin....
. He was interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Other writing
Tolkin also wrote comedy for the standup comicsStand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
and nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
entertainers Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...
, and Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
.
Awards
Tolkin and co-writers Sam DenoffSam Denoff
Samuel Denoff was an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, television producer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. With his long time collaborator Bill Persky he wrote and created the television show "That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas.-External links:*- References :...
, Bill Persky
Bill Persky
Bill Persky is an American Emmy Award-winning director, screenwriter, producer, and actor for television. With his long time late collaborator Sam Denoff he wrote and created the television show "That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas.-External links:...
, and Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
shared the 1967 "Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety" Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
, for The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special.
Tolkin also received the following Emmy nominations:
- Best Comedy Writing - 1956
-
- for Caesar's HourCaesar's HourCaesar's Hour is a live, hour-long American sketch comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers...
(NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
), shared with Mel BrooksMel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
, Selma DiamondSelma DiamondSelma Diamond was a Canadian-born American comic actress and radio and television writer, and is known for her high-range, raspy voice and her portrayal of Selma Hacker on the first two seasons of the NBC television comedy series Night Court.-Life and career:Diamond was born in Montreal, Quebec,...
, Larry GelbartLarry GelbartLarry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, and Sheldon KellerSheldon KellerSheldon Bernard "Shelly" Keller was an American screenwriter and composer.-Life and career:Keller was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended University of Illinois, where he began writing comedy with his fraternity brother Allan Sherman...
- Best Comedy Writing - Variety Or Situation Comedy - 1957
- for Caesar's Hour (NBC), shared with Gary Belkin, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Sheldon Keller, Neil SimonNeil SimonNeil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
, and Mike Stewart- Best Comedy Writing - 1958
- for Caesar's Hour (NBC), shared with Gary Belkin, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart,Sheldon Keller, Neil Simon, and Mike Stewart
- Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy or Variety - 1964
- The Danny Kaye ShowThe Danny Kaye ShowThe Danny Kaye Show is an American variety show hosted by Danny Kaye that aired on CBS from 1963 to 1967 on Wednesday nights. Directed by Robert Scheerer, the show premiered in black-and-white, but later switched to color broadcasts...
(CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
), shared with Herbert BakerHerbert BakerSir Herbert Baker was a British architect.Baker was the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, 1892–1912....
, Gary Belkin, Ernest Chambers, Larry Gelbart, Saul Ilson, Sheldon Keller, Paul MazurskyPaul MazurskyPaul Mazursky is an American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Personal life:He was born Irwin Mazursky in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jean , a piano player for dance classes, and David Mazursky, a laborer. Mazursky was born to a Jewish family; his grandfather was an immigrant from...
, and Larry Tucker
- for Caesar's Hour
Tolkin also received four Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
s, a Humanitas Prize
Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...
and a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
.