Robert Cunniff, center in sweater, with other Dick Cavett Show crew in a captionless New Yorker cartoon.
Robert Cunniff (1926–2008) was a producer of Sesame Street during seasons 4 and 5.
Cunniff worked for The Today Show in the mid-1960s, with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters, and with Dick Cavett on The Dick Cavett Show and later Cavett broadcasts in the 1980s and 1990s. He booked the combative Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal on the same Dick Cavett Show in 1971.
After Cavett's first series, Cunniff moved to the Children's Television Workshop, where he was a producer of Sesame Street from 1972 to 1974. He wrote numerous sketches and shared an Emmy Award ("Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming - Entertainment/Fictional") with executive producer Jon Stone. Sketches he was directly involved in include "Morty Moot Mope" and "The Ballad of Casey McPhee."
After Sesame Street, Cunniff became the managing editor of Good Morning, America. Among his other credits were the creation of the Disney Channel's Mousterpiece Theater and writing for TV Guide.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cunniff died on January 20, 2008 in Brooklyn, New York City after a long illness.
External links[]
- Associated Press, "Writer/producer Robert Cunniff dies," Variety, February 5, 2008.
- ROBERT CUNNIFF: GREAT, "GREY EMINENCE" OF TALK TELEVISION, obituary on his daughter's blog.