Richard Baer (writer)
Encyclopedia
Richard Baer was an American
writer
and screenwriter
. Baer wrote for more than 56 television shows, many of which were sitcoms, throughout his career, including The Munsters
, Leave It to Beaver
and Bewitched
.
in 1928. He was the only child of Herbert and Ede Baer. He earned his bachelor's degree
in psychology
from Yale University
and his master's degree
in cinema
from the University of Southern California
.
, a broadcasting
pioneer who headed the RCA
company. Sarnoff is credited with beginning Baer's career and forming his interest in television. According to Baer's 2005 autobiography
, Sarnoff called a vice president
at NBC
at 6 A.M. and ordered him to find Baer "a job by 9 o'clock" that same morning. The vice president obliged. Baer was hired in 1953 for his first job in television as an assistant for the William Bendix
sitcom, The Life of Riley
, which aired on the NBC network. He later wrote several episode
s for the show.
Baer wrote the script
for the film
, Life Begins at 17, for Columbia Pictures
in 1958.
Baer began writing for Hennesey
, which starred actor Jackie Cooper
, in 1960. Baer wrote a total of 38 episodes for the series. His work on Hennesey earned him his an Emmy nomination.
In the twenty five years that followed 1960, Baer wrote for over 56 separate television shows. For example, Baer wrote ten episodes of That Girl
and 23 episodes of the television classic, Bewitched
. Baer also wrote five scripts for The Munsters
. His favorite episode of The Musters which he personally penned was Just Another Pretty Face. In the episode, the character Herman Munster
is struck by lightning
, which changes his face into that of a normal human being. The Munsters are shocked by how ugly they think Herman has become. His other sitcom credits included The Andy Griffith Show
, F Troop
and Petticoat Junction
.
Baer began working on television movies later in his career. His writing credits included the 1972 ABC
comedic television movie, Playmates, which starred Alan Alda
and Doug McClure
as divorced single fathers. The Los Angeles Times
called Playmates "spiced with biting wit
" in its review of the movie. Baer also wrote the CBS
movie, I Take These Men, which aired in 1983.
Baer's wrote his last television sitcom script
for an episode
of ABC's Who's the Boss?
in the 1980s. He then successfully tried his hand as a playwright
. Baer's Mixed Emotions, a romantic comedy
play
about two widowed friends who start a romantic relationship
during their later years, debuted in 1987. The play first opened in Los Angeles
. Baer's play later debuted on Broadway in New York City
in 1993 and ran for more than six weeks. Mixed Emotions was later performed in theaters worldwide, including Eastern Europe
and Australia
.
Baer was an active member of the Writers Guild of America
. He served on the WGA's negotiating committee during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike
.
, on February 22, 2008, at the age of 79. He had suffered a heart attack in January 2008. He was survived by his wife, Diane Asselin Baer, a television producer, who he married in 1994, as well as his children, Josh, Matthew and Judy and three grandchildren. His first wife of 35 years, Louise, died in 1991.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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....
and 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:...
. Baer wrote for more than 56 television shows, many of which were sitcoms, throughout his career, including The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
, Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
and Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
.
Early life
Richard Baer was born in New York CityNew 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...
in 1928. He was the only child of Herbert and Ede Baer. He earned his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and his master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in cinema
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...
from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
.
Career
Baer's maternal uncle was David SarnoffDavid Sarnoff
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...
, a broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
pioneer who headed the RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
company. Sarnoff is credited with beginning Baer's career and forming his interest in television. According to Baer's 2005 autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, Sarnoff called a vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
at 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...
at 6 A.M. and ordered him to find Baer "a job by 9 o'clock" that same morning. The vice president obliged. Baer was hired in 1953 for his first job in television as an assistant for the William Bendix
William Bendix
William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, best remembered in movies for the title role in the movie The Babe Ruth Story and for portraying clumsily earnest aircraft plant worker Chester A. Riley in radio and television's The Life of Riley...
sitcom, The Life of Riley
The Life of Riley
The Life of Riley, with William Bendix in the title role, is a popular American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a long-run 1950s television series , and a 1958 Dell comic book...
, which aired on the NBC network. He later wrote several episode
Episode
An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
s for the show.
Baer wrote the script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
for 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...
, Life Begins at 17, for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
in 1958.
Baer began writing for Hennesey
Hennesey
Hennesey is an American military sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1962. The series, which aired for three seasons, stars Jackie Cooper in the title role.-Synopsis:...
, which starred actor Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
, in 1960. Baer wrote a total of 38 episodes for the series. His work on Hennesey earned him his an Emmy nomination.
In the twenty five years that followed 1960, Baer wrote for over 56 separate television shows. For example, Baer wrote ten episodes of That Girl
That Girl
That Girl is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. It stars Marlo Thomas as the title character, Ann Marie, an aspiring actress, who had moved from her hometown of Brewster, New York to make it big in New York City...
and 23 episodes of the television classic, Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
. Baer also wrote five scripts for The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
. His favorite episode of The Musters which he personally penned was Just Another Pretty Face. In the episode, the character Herman Munster
Herman Munster
Herman Munster, 5th Earl of Shroudshire, is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom The Munsters, originally played by Fred Gwynne. The patriarch of the Munster household, Herman is an entity much like Frankenstein's monster along with Lurch on the show's competitor The Addams Family.Due to the...
is struck by lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
, which changes his face into that of a normal human being. The Munsters are shocked by how ugly they think Herman has become. His other sitcom credits included The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
, F Troop
F Troop
F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom that originally aired for two seasons on ABC-TV. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was filmed in black-and-white, but the show...
and Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction
Petticoat Junction is an American situation comedy produced by Filmways which originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters created by Paul Henning; the others are The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.The setting for the series...
.
Baer began working on television movies later in his career. His writing credits included the 1972 ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
comedic television movie, Playmates, which starred Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
and Doug McClure
Doug McClure
Douglas Osborne "Doug" McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s...
as divorced single fathers. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
called Playmates "spiced with biting wit
Wit
Wit is a form of intellectual humour, and a wit is someone skilled in making witty remarks. Forms of wit include the quip and repartee.-Forms of wit:...
" in its review of the movie. Baer also wrote the 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...
movie, I Take These Men, which aired in 1983.
Baer's wrote his last television sitcom script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
for an episode
Episode
An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
of ABC's Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992...
in the 1980s. He then successfully tried his hand as a playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
. Baer's Mixed Emotions, a romantic comedy
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
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...
about two widowed friends who start a romantic relationship
Intimate relationship
An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...
during their later years, debuted in 1987. The play first opened in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Baer's play later debuted on Broadway in 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...
in 1993 and ran for more than six weeks. Mixed Emotions was later performed in theaters worldwide, including Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Baer was an active member of the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
. He served on the WGA's negotiating committee during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike
1988 Writers Guild of America strike
The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a strike action taken by members of both the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West against major United States television and film studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers...
.
Death
Richard Baer died at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, on February 22, 2008, at the age of 79. He had suffered a heart attack in January 2008. He was survived by his wife, Diane Asselin Baer, a television producer, who he married in 1994, as well as his children, Josh, Matthew and Judy and three grandchildren. His first wife of 35 years, Louise, died in 1991.