A truly funny writer named Chris Hayward died last Monday at age 81 following, as they say, "a long illness." Hayward had a long history in both animated and live-action television, the former including scripts for Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Fractured Flickers and other Jay Ward programs. Even while he was working on those, he branched out into non-cartoons with scripts for 77 Sunset Strip and several other detective shows of the day, then segued into variety shows (writing mainly for Steve Allen) and situation comedies with Get Smart, The Governor and J.J. and My Mother, the Car. He and fellow Ward writer Allan Burns created The Munsters and later, Hayward was one of the main writers on Barney Miller.
I met Chris only once…the way a lot of writers meet other writers: On the picket line. We were traipsing around ABC Studios with our signs in '81 when someone introduced us. Chris was quite pleased that I knew of his work for Jay Ward, though quick to credit Bill Scott for making funny work possible there. And I'm afraid I don't recall anything else that was said that day. I'm just pleased I got to tell the man what a powerful influence his work was on a lot of us.