If you grew up laughing in front of the family television set, there’s a good chance Earl Barret was the reason, even if his name never flashed across the screen in big letters.See more…
The veteran comedy writer, who co-created the Ted Knight sitcom Too Close for Comfort and wrote for more than 30 television series, has died. He was 94.
Barret died of natural causes on October 22 at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. His daughter, J.K. Barret, shared the news, remembering him as a “lifelong learner with a keen, curious mind and a gift for impeccable comic timing.”
Born in Canton, Ohio, on October 17, 1932, Barret came to television writing in 1961, just as the golden age of the American sitcom was taking shape. Over the next 30 years, he would help shape it himself.
His credits read like a tour of classic TV. He wrote for My Favorite Martian, Bewitched, Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show, I Spy, Julia, The Partners, Sanford and Son and Welcome Back, Kotter.
One of his most colorful contributions came from Gotham City. On the 1960s Batman series, Barret co-created the flamboyant villain King Tut and wrote all four episodes in which the character appeared, a piece of camp TV history fans still treasure.
But his biggest hit was yet to come. In 1980, Barret and his longtime writing partner Arne Sultan developed Too Close for Comfort, based on the British sitcom Keep It in the Family, created by Brian Cooke.
The show was built around Ted Knight, who was fresh off his beloved run as the vain anchorman Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. This time, Knight played Henry Rush, a politically conservative cartoonist trying to keep a watchful eye on his two grown daughters in their San Francisco home.
Nancy Dussault played his wife, while Deborah Van Valkenburgh and Lydia Cornell played the daughters, and Jim J. Bullock stole scenes as the neighbor and comic foil to Knight’s Henry.
The series ran on ABC from 1980 to 1983, then found new life in syndication through 1987, later taking the name The Ted Knight Show. In all, it lasted six seasons.
Barret didn’t just write and executive produce the show. He also stepped behind the camera to direct 13 episodes, proving his comic timing worked just as well on the set as it did on the page.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara Barnett Barret, his daughter J.K. Barret, his son John Nelson and five grandsons. He was preceded in death by his daughter Lisa Nelson.
The next time a rerun of Bewitched or Too Close for Comfort makes you smile, remember the quiet man from Canton, Ohio, who helped write the laughter of a generation.
His career also shows how much a familiar television performance depends on the work behind it. Writing scenes, developing characters, producing a series, and directing episodes require different forms of judgment. Barret brought his sense of timing to each of those roles, contributing to the situations and exchanges that audiences continued to recognize long after their original broadcasts.
