Sol Saks, Creator of Bewitched and Writer for Many Comedy Series

Comedy writer Sol Saks, who created the 1964-72 classic TV comedy Bewitched, died of complications from pneumonia on April 16, 2011, in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 100.

Born Solomon Saks in New York City on December 13, 1910, Saks grew up in Chicago and studied journalism at Northwestern Universal, where he landed a job as a reporter for a local weekly newspaper. He began his entertainment career in radio, writing for Duffy’s Tavern and other comedic shows, and segued into television as a staff writer for 1950s sitcoms I Married Joan, My Favorite Husband and the short-lived Mr. Adams and Eve, which featured real-life couple Ida Lupino and Howard Duff. After Mr. Adams and Eve, and prior to Bewitched, Saks remained occupied writing episodes of Alcoa Theatre and Startime in 1959, and Shirley Temple Theatre in 1960.

Inspired by films like Bell, Book and Candle and I Married a Witch, Saks penned a pilot script called I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha, which segued into ABC’s biggest hit series at the time, Bewitched. Just one season into its eight-year run, Bewitched finished second overall in primetime (behind only Bonanza). Preferring pilots to the grind of a weekly series, Saks never wrote another episode of Bewitched, but his name remained in the credits for all 253 episodes. During the run of Bewitched, Saks was an executive producer with CBS in Hollywood, where he oversaw comedy programming.

Saks also wrote the screenplay for big screen comedy Walk, Don’t Run, which was set during the housing shortage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and featured Cary Grant in his final role. He also authored The Craft of Comedy Writing, published in 1985 by Writer’s Digest Books.

Saks is survived by his second wife, Sandra Wagner; two children from his first marriage, Mary Spivey and Daniel Saks; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. His first wife, Anne Chaddock, died in 1972.