Broadway Playwright and SAVED BY THE BELL Creator Sam Bobrick Passes Away at 87

By: Oct. 14, 2019
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BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that author, playwright, television writer, and lyricist, Sam Bobrick, best known for creating the television series Saved By the Bell, has passed away after suffering a stoke. He was 87 years old.

Bobrick began his career writing for the popular children's show Captain Kangaroo. He also wrote for such shows as The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, The Flintstones, Get Smart, The Kraft Music Hall, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He created the short-lived syndicated TV series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was resurrected by NBC as the long-running hit show Saved By The Bell. He won three Writers Guild of America Awards for his television work and was nominated for an Emmy.

Bobrick wrote over 40 plays. His first play, Norman, Is That You?, which he co-wrote with Ron Clark, opened on Broadway in the early 1970s. While a flop on Broadway, its West Coast premiere at the Ebony Showcase Theater in Los Angeles ran for seven years. Bobrick and Clark collaborated on three more Broadway plays, No Hard Feelings, Murder at the Howard Johnson's, and Wally's Cafe.

Bobrick's solo works included the plays, Remember Me?, Getting Sara Married, Last Chance Romance, Hamlet II (Better Than The Original), New York Water, Passengers and The Crazy Time. He also wrote a number of mystery plays, among them Flemming, An American Thriller, The Spider Or The Fly, Death In England and A Little Bit Wicked.

With his wife Julie Stein, he wrote two plays: Lenny's Back, about comedian Lenny Bruce, which was nominated for a Los Angeles Ovation Award, and The Outrageous Adventures of Sheldon & Mrs. Levine, an adaption of their book Sheldon & Mrs. Levine, which is performed worldwide.

Bobrick was a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, as well as the Dramatists Guild and Writers Guild of America. He directed many of his plays in regional theatres in the U.S. and Canada.



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