Television writer Richard Baer died 22 February 2008 of complications followed a heart attack he suffered in January. Born on 28 April 1928 in New York City, he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale University and a master’s in cinema from the University of Southern California. After graduating, his maternal uncle—radio and television pioneer David Sarnoff, who was the head of RCA—gave him his start in television. According to Baer’s autobiography I Don’t Drop Names like Marilyn Monroe Just to Sell Books, Sarnoff called an NBC vice president at 6AM on day in the 1950s, ordering him to find Baer “a job by 9 o’clock.”
He wrote mostly for sitcoms, and was nominated for an Emmy in 1961. He wrote his last sitcom script in the 1980s, before turning to playwriting.
His genre credits include work on: Turnabout (1979), Poor Devil (1973), 22 episodes of Bewitched (1965-72), and 5 episodes of The Munsters (1965-66).
Baer is survived by his second wife, television producer Diane (they married in 1994); his son, film producer Matthew; another son, Josh; daughter Judy; stepdaughter Michele, and three grandchildren.