Sometimes, they just get by you. When Phil Hahn passed away last November, it was apparently covered in many newspapers and online Hollywood sites but I somehow missed it. It wasn't until I saw him in the "In Memoriam" reel on the Creative Arts Emmys, which I watched on YouTube, that I found out. Phil was one of the best comedy writers it was ever my pleasure to be around.
He hailed from Kansas and got his first real writing job there working for Hallmark Cards. True Story: In 1983, Phil and I were on staff working on a show for Dick Clark Productions. One day, my friend Russell Myers — who was then drawing the newspaper strip Broom-Hilda and still is — was in town so he came by the office to visit and to go out to lunch. We were heading out and we passed Phil's office where Phil was sitting, working.
Russell walked a few steps by Phil's door, then stopped and said, "I recognize that man!" He walked back into Phil's office and said, "Excuse me, sir, but I have the feeling I know you." Phil looked at Russell and said, "I think I know you, too." It took about two minutes before they figured out that they'd both been on staff at the same time at Hallmark back in Kansas City, MO. Phil wrote gags for cards. Russell did the artwork for many of them. But they'd never met or been introduced there; just seen each other in the halls. They didn't actually meet until years later in Dick Clark's building in Burbank.
Phil sold a lot of funny articles to MAD magazine and also recommended one of the best artists he worked with at Hallmark. And that's how Paul Coker Jr. joined the Usual Gang of Idiots at MAD. Together, they did a recurring feature called "Horrifying Clichés." On a lot of his MAD work, he collaborated with Jack Hanrahan, who became his writing partner when Phil moved to Hollywood. Together, they wrote for dozens of shows including Get Smart and The Sonny & Cher Show, and they put in a stint at Hanna-Barbera writing The Banana Splits and about half the episodes of H-B's 1967 Fantastic Four series. But their biggest credit was several seasons on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In for which they each earned an Emmy.
In the early seventies, the team split up and what became of Jack Hanrahan was not a happy story. But Phil continued working on popular shows including Donny and Marie and Dolly Parton's 1987 variety series and a whole lot of specials. He eventually retired to Coos Bay, Oregon where he was happily retired with his family, and where he died of lung cancer last November at the age 0f 87. A nice man. A funny man. I wish I'd known about his passing and was able to note it last year.