George Atkins' credit on The Mary Tyler Moore Show
George Atkins (1929-2021)[1] was a writer, primarily for comedy shows and cartoons, who scripted Clark Gist's animated inserts for Sesame Street. He occasionally provided a character voice as well.
Atkins began writing in 1956 for Jonathan Winters, first on The NBC Comedy Hour and then on his own series. After writing Mr. Magoo and Terrytoons cartoon shorts, Atkins joined Jay Ward, writing for Rocky and His Friends beginning with "Fractured Fairy Tales" and later writing some "Mr. Know-It All" segments for The Bullwinkle Show.[2] He wrote a series of comedy promotional mailers and faux contests for the studio and its various projects, and worked on Ward's live-action series Fractured Flickers and the pilot The Nut House.[2]
Atkins produced and conceived (with composer Henry Levine) the comedy albums Sing Along with JFK (1963) and Washington Is For the Birds (1966), which edited actual recordings of politicians and set them to song with a chorus. He left Jay Ward to write for Carol Burnett, followed by scripts for Room 222, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Three's Company, and other sitcoms and variety shows. He returned to animation in the late seventies and into the 1980s, for Hanna-Barbera (Jabberjaw, Yogi's Space Race, the 1980s The Jetsons and others), Filmation (Archie and Ghostbusters), and on DuckTales and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
Sources[]
- ↑ While no obituary was published, the Writers Guild of America reported his death in their yearly "in memoriam" report.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Scott, Keith. The Moose That Roared. St. Martin's Press, 2000. p. 324-325