Sorry to hear of the passing of Leonard Stern…and most of the obits I'm reading aren't doing the man justice. He wasn't just "a writer for The Honeymooners and Get Smart." He produced Get Smart and he and his then-partner Sidney Zelinka wrote some of the best episodes of the classic Honeymooners series. They wrote the one where Ralph went on the game show and didn't know who wrote "Swanee River." They wrote the one where Ralph misunderstood a vet's report and thought he was dying. In fact, all the ones they wrote were pretty good.
And yes, Mr. Stern created the game "Mad Libs" and he did McMillan and Wife…but more important to me is that he created and/or produced a number of wonderful TV shows that didn't quite make it. Remember He and She with Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss? How about The Governor and J.J.? And whenever I ran into Mr. Stern (like this time), we always seemed to get to talking about I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. I'm sorry he didn't live to see its release on DVD because he obviously was very proud of that show. I would be too if I'd created and produced it. A good man…and I don't think I've ever heard anything bad about him, which is amazing for a guy who did as much as he did.