Irma Kalish
1924 - 2021
Time for another of those Absent Friends whose obituary you stumble across in the news and just say "wow." Or at least, I do.
Irma Kalish was a writer, a comedy writer, primarily a writer for television sitcoms. She wrote in partnership with her husband Austin "Rocky" Kalish, who died in 2016. Her career stretches back to the days of radio with her first significant gig coming as a writer on the Martin & Lewis Radio Hour.
Her credits are as long as your arm, and include such shows as....
My Favorite Martian
Gilligan's Island
All In The Family
Maude
The Bob Newhart Show
My Three Sons
I Dream of Jeannie
The Patty Duke Show
Gidget
That Girl
F Troop (Aside to pal Tim Baker - She also wrote the lyrics to the F Troop theme song!)
And if you look her up, you will find that I am leaving out as many credits as I have listed. She was also active in the Writers Guild, the Producers Guild, and an organization called Women in Film.
You may not ever have heard of Irma Kalish, but if you are like me, you would have laughed a lot less in your life had she never existed, and I can't think of a better epitaph for a person.
RIP Irma Kalish
“It was always my contention that in order for a woman to write, she had to be twice as good as a man, which fortunately was not that difficult.” - Irma Kalish
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