Bernie Orenstein Dies at 95: Writer and Producer of 'Sanford and Son,' 'That Girl,' 'Kate & Allie' and More

Bernie Orenstein, whose television career spanned writing for Candid Camera to writing and producing 'That Girl,' Dick Van Dyke's new show, 'Sanford and Son,' 'What's Happening!!,' 'Kate & Allie' and others, has died. He was 95. His family said Orenstein died on September 14 but did not provide further details. Orenstein was a writer who […]

Bernie Orenstein, whose television career spanned from writing for Candid Camera to writing and producing That Girl, Dick Van Dyke's new show, Sanford & Son, What's Up!!, Kate and Ally and others, has died. He was 95.

Orenstein died Sept. 14, his family said, but did not provide details.

Orenstein was a writer for Alan Funt's Candid Camera in the 1960s, when he began writing episodes of sitcoms and variety shows including The Monkees, The Roger Miller Show, Accidental Family, Away We Go - which featured a young George Carlin - and Hey, Landlord. His main gig was as a writer for ABC's hit show The Hollywood Palace from 1965 to 1968. This will be Orenstein's first project with his longtime writing and producing partner Saul Turteltaub.

Together they wrote and produced TV shows That Girl - led by Marlo Thomas - Dick Van Dyke's New Show and Phyllis Diller's Beautiful Show. Orenstein and Turteltaub also worked on episodes of the campy anthology comedy Love, American Style before becoming writers and producers on Redd Foxx's classic 1974 sitcom Sanford & Son. That season, the NBC sitcom was second only to All in the Family in the year-end ratings, ranking 1975-7.

They stayed on the show until the end of 1977 and also worked on the short-lived spin-off Grady and the short-lived sequel The Sanford Arms, which aired a small number of episodes with many of Sanford and Son's cast without needing to.

Orenstein and Turtletaub's next big show, ABC's What's Happening!! was an urban comedy that started in 1976. Adapted from Norman Lear's popular shows of the time, the first season was a hit, ranking 25th in the three network world's most watched year-end ratings. But later seasons were less successful and the show ended in 1979.

The duo continued to write and produce television series and specials into the 1990s, creating the Mickey Rooney-Dana Carvey sitcom in 1982 and working on such 80s shows as One in a Million, Double Trouble, E/R, Foley Square and You Again? Their biggest hit of the decade was Kate & Ally, the CBS sitcom starring Susan St. James and SNL original Jane Curtin as divorced best friends in a Greenwich Village apartment. Orenstein and Turteltaub served as EPs and writers for its final season in 1988-1989.

They were partners for more than three decades, going on to write and produce the 1990s sitcoms Baby Talk and Cosby, the latter of which was Orenstein's last.

Born in Toronto on February 5, 1931, Orenstein broke into television in the 1950s as an actor on the Canadian shows Encounter and On Camera. He later starred in Sanford & Son, That Girl, and The New Dick Van Dyke Show.

"There's a huge advantage as a writer," Orenstein told the Academy Foundation in a 2016 TV interview. "You are never idle. You can always sit at a typewriter or a computer."

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