Lewis Gomavitz, Director of Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Passes at 99
Gomavitz directed the classic children’s series for its entire run, and in later years worked on the sitcom Sanford and Son.
Lewis Gomavitz, a director who achieved renown for his work on Kukla, Fran & Ollie, the classic children’s television series that aired from 1947-57, died December 1, 2010. He was 99.
Gomavitz, known to many TV fans as “Gommy,” had the distinction of being interviewed by the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television on February 2, 2000.
During the four-hour interview, conducted in Northridge, California, by Archive director Karen Herman, Gomavitz described his involvement in the Chicago experimental station W6XBK during World War II.
After the war, he was hired on to the station, renamed WBKB, and served as a stage manager until he was tapped to direct a new show starring Burr Tillstrom’s puppets and Fran Allison. The show, originally called Junior Jamboree, evolved into the classic Kukla, Fran & Ollie.
Gomavitz directed the show for ten years, until it went off the air. After that, he moved to Los Angeles, where he directed and associate-produced various specials. In the 1970s, he worked as the prop master on the popular comedy series Sanford and Son until it went off the air.
Gomavitz retired in the late 1980s.
The entire interview is available online here.