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Historical records matching Edwin Samson Friendly, Jr.
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About Edwin Samson Friendly, Jr.
Ed Friendly, 85, a Producer of ‘Little House’, Dies
By DENNIS HEVESI Published: June 22, 2007 Ed Friendly, co-producer of hit television shows including the rambunctious “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and the frontier saga “Little House on the Prairie,” died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. He was 85. The cause was cancer, his son, Trip, said.
With his partner, George Schlatter, Mr. Friendly produced “Laugh-In,” a weekly serving of rapid-fire comic sketches and sight gags that were often politically charged or laced with sexual innuendo. The show ran on NBC from 1968 to 1973.
With Dan Rowan as the exasperated straight man and Dick Martin playing the dumb-guy buddy, “Laugh-In” brought early acclaim to comedians including Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin and Henry Gibson. In 1968, it won an Emmy for outstanding variety program.
Mr. Friendly later was co-producer of “Little House,” an adaptation of the children’s books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, based on her childhood on the Kansas prairie in the late 1800s. The show, starring Michael Landon as the patriarch of the family and Melissa Gilbert as his plucky daughter Laura, ran on NBC from 1974 to 1983.
Ron Simon, curator of the Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio, said of Mr. Friendly, “With his programming expertise, Ed Friendly could both satirize the present and look back nostalgically at American history.”
In 1979, Mr. Friendly produced the NBC mini-series “Backstairs at the White House,” a depiction of eight American presidents, Taft through Eisenhower, through the eyes of White House workers. The series received 11 Emmy nominations.
Edwin Samson Friendly Jr. was born in Manhattan on April 8, 1922. He was an Army captain in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he worked in advertising in New York, then became director for sales at ABC and eventually vice president for special programs at NBC. He moved to California in 1967 and opened Ed Friendly Productions Inc.
In addition to his son, of Los Angeles, he is survived by his second wife, Paula Zinnemann; a daughter, Brooke, of Ashland, Ore.; and three grandchildren. His first wife, Natalie Brooks, died in 2002.
In 1970, with his friend Lorne Greene (Ben Cartwright of “Bonanza”), Mr. Friendly bought the first of the more than 60 thoroughbred racehorses that he would eventually own. In 1993, he started Thoroughbred Owners of California, which now represents 9,000 licensed thoroughbred owners. From http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/business/media/22friendly.html?_r=0
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Edwin Samson Friendly, Jr.'s Timeline
| 1922 |
April 8, 1922
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New York, NY, United States
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| 2007 |
June 17, 2007
Age 85
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Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego County, CA, United States
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