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Earl Barret, a television comedy writer whose work helped shape sitcoms from the 1960s through the 1980s, died of natural causes at his Sherman Oaks, California, home on October 22. He was 94, and his death was announced by his daughter, J.K. Barret.
From a free class in Canton to network television
A native of Canton, Ohio, Barret began writing for TV after taking a free weekly class in 1961 taught by Robert C. Dennis, who would later collaborate with him on scripts. That same year he sold material to action and adventure programs such as Sea Hunt, Hawaiian Eye and Ripcord. A 1963 script for My Favorite Martian marked his entrance into sitcom writing, a field he worked in for more than two decades.
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Credits across the 1960s and 1970s
During the 1960s Barret contributed to a range of popular series. His sitcom credits included episodes of My Three Sons, My Mother the Car, O.K. Crackerby!, Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show and Julia. He also wrote multiple scripts for Bewitched—notably in Seasons 1 and 3—and in 1966 penned four Batman episodes featuring Victor Buono as the comic archvillain King Tut.
Barret occasionally turned his comic touch toward action-comedy hybrids, writing for shows such as I Spy and The Wild Wild West. In the 1970s he continued to be prolific: he wrote for Love, American Style, The Bob Newhart Show and Dirty Sally, and contributed dozens of episodes to series including The Governor and J.J. (21 episodes) and The Sandy Duncan Show (13 episodes). His credits from that decade also include work on Sanford and Son, Welcome Back, Kotter and Stockard Channing in Just Friends.
The creation of Too Close For Comfort and later film work
In 1980 Barret, along with Brian Cooke and Arne Sultan, created the sitcom Too Close For Comfort, built as a star vehicle for Ted Knight after his success on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Developed with longtime partner Sultan, the series cast Knight as a politically conservative cartoonist living in San Francisco with his wife (Nancy Dussault) and two adult daughters (Deborah Van Valkenburgh and Lydia Cornell). Jim J. Bullock co-starred as the neighbor and comic foil.
The show ran six seasons beginning on ABC and later in syndication under the alternative title The Ted Knight Show. Barret served as an executive producer and directed 13 episodes. He and Sultan later collaborated with Marvin Worth on the screenplay for the feature See No Evil, Hear No Evil, the 1989 comedy starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder and directed by Arthur Hiller. Sultan, who died in 1986, and Barret were both credited as executive producers on the picture—their final joint credit.
Family
Barret is survived by his wife, Barbara Barnett Barret; his daughter J.K. Barret, who announced his death; a son, John Nelson; and five grandsons. He was predeceased by his daughter Lisa Nelson.
