Mel Tolkin
TV Writer
1913 – 2007
Who was Mel Tolkin?
Mel Tolkin, né Shmuel Tolchinsky, was a television comedy writer best known as head writer of the seminal, live TV sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows during the Golden Age of Television. There he presided over a storied staff that at times included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, and Larry Gelbart. The writers' room inspired the film My Favorite Year, produced by Brooks, and the Broadway play Laughter on the 23rd Floor, written by Neil Simon.
Tolkin, who won an Emmy Award and every other major prize for television writing, was the father of screenwriter-novelist Michael Tolkin and TV writer-director Stephen Tolkin.
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- Born
- Aug 3, 1913
Odessa - Also known as
- Shmuel Tolchinsky
- Samuel Tolchinsky
- Siblings
- Spouses
- Edith Leibovitch
(1944 - 2007/11/26)
- Edith Leibovitch
- Children
- Ethnicity
- Jewish people
- Nationality
- Ukraine
- Profession
- Died
- Nov 26, 2007
Century City
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Mel Tolkin." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/mel_tolkin>.
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