 This is the SF Productions Podcast Network. Oh Oscar! Oscar! Oscar! From the Pub Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. At our mark, you can check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wife to Read Comics on iTunes, or on our website SFPodcastNetwork.com. We recently lost a showbiz giant, a writer of plays, TV shows, films, and I'm talking about Neil Simon, who died at the age of 91. He was very shy when he was in school, and got the nickname of Doc. He grew up during the Great Depression in a Jewish family who constantly fought to the point where he would be sent to live with relatives from time to time. He took refuge at the movie theater, especially enjoying the silent comedians, Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, which inspired him to write comedy. He spent a lot of time reading books from humorists such as Wayne, Benchley and Kaufman. He and his brother Danny, who also became a writer, wrote comedy sketches at age 16 for a department store. And then Simon joined the Army Reserve where he began serious writing. At one point, he was a sports editor. And this would later inform his play and film Biloxi Blues, and that was 1984 for the play, 1988 for the film. He started at the bottom of showbiz, a mail clerk at the Warner Brothers' offices in New York, when he and his brother got work writing for radio, including the Robert Q. Lewis show. He moved to TV as a member of the legendary writer's room for Your Show of Shows, starring Sid Caesar and Imaging Koka. Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, Larry Gilbert, Mel Tolkien and Selma Diamond also wrote for Caesar's shows over the years. This was the pinnacle of the 1950s variety show, in the top 10 ratings for two years. Simon incorporated his experiences there into his later play, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, in 1993. He also had a run as a writer on the Phil Silver show. Now during his time with Caesar, he wrote his first play, Come Blow Your Horn, which ran for 678 performances in 1961, and had a film version starring Frank Sinatra in 1963. This show cemented his career as a playwright. Following it up with Little Me in 1962, a musical with music by Psy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Lay starring Sid Caesar. There have been two major revivals in 1982 and 1999. The next two plays became both movies and TV shows. Barefoot in the Park, 1963, starred Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley, which ran 1,530 performances, with Redford returning for the 1967 film with Jane Fonda. While Scoey Mitchell and Tracy Reid starred on the 1970 TV series version. The odd couple in 1965 starred Walter Matho and Art Carney as Oscar and Felix on the stage, running for 964 performances and winning Tony's four, Simon and Matthau. There have been many revivals of this show, with Simon writing a female version in 1985. Matthau returned for the film, which co-starred Jack Lemon, and it had its own sequel in 1988. At one point, Matthau was replaced on the stage by Jack Clugman, who went on to star as Oscar in the hit TV version, along with Tony Randall as Felix, 1970-75. There was also a TV reunion of that show, in 1993, and two more TV versions. The new odd couple in 1982, with Ron Glass and Damond Wilson, and a 2015 CBS sitcom with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon. Now you can check out my podcast, The Kinescope Initiative, Episode 57, which covers Barefoot in the Park and the odd couple on TV. The show has premiered the same month. Sweet Charity in 1966 was Simon's second musical, starring Gwen Bearden and based on a Fellini screenplay. Shirley McClain starred in the 1969 film. Simon had a rare flop in Star Spangled Girl, 1966, but followed it up with 1968's Plaza Suite, starring George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton, which ran for 1,097 performances. A film version made in 1971 did not do as well. A dropped fourth act became Simon's film The Out of Towners in 1970. Promises, promises opened the same year, a musical with music by Bert Backrack and lyrics by Hal David, starring Jerry Orbach for 1,281 performances. After a few lesser plays, The Sunshine Boys came out in 1972, starring Sam Levine and Jack Albertson for 538 performances. George Burns and Walter Mathal starred in the 1975 film. California Suite in 1976 was kind of a sequel to his earlier work, running for 445 performances with a film version in 1978. The latter co-starred Maggie Smith, who won an Oscar, playing an Oscar nominee who does not win. During the same period, Simon began writing original films not based on one of his plays. Murder by Death, 1976, and The Cheap Detective, 1978, were both parodies of other film genres. The Goodbye Girl in 1977 co-starred Richard Dreyfuss and Richard Mason, Simon's wife at the time, with the former winning an Oscar, the youngest best actor at the time. And then back to the stage for Simon's autobiographical trilogy, Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1983 kicked off the career of Matthew Broderick, who stood in for Simon, is basically playing him, and it ran for 1,299 performances and it's the first play I ever saw on Broadway. It won two Tonys and a film version was made in 1986. Broadway Blues, 1984, earlier. Broderick returned to play the same role. It ran for 524 performances, won three Tonys and spawned a 1988 film. Broadway Bound, 1986, ran for 756 performances and got a TV movie version in 1992. Lost in Yonkers in 1990 was his last major play, although he continued to write plays, eight of them, until 2003. It ran for 780 performances, co-star Kevin Spacey, won four Tonys and generated a 1993 film. And then Simon did a few more films not based on plays. The Lonely Guy, 1984, starring Steve Martin, along with writers Ed Weinberger and Stan Daniels of Taxi. The Slugger's Wife, 1985, which did not do well, and The Marrying Man, 1991, starting then married Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, also not a hit. So that's 32 plays from 1961 to 2003 and 26 films from 1966 to 1998, many of which were hits. He never won an Oscar or an Emmy, but generated many for his cast. He did win three Tonys, which seems like a small number for that kind of output. He will certainly be missed on The Great White Way. Yes, and I think on our TV screens. And while you're not watching TV, you can check out our audio podcast on iTunes or on our website, sfpodcastnetwork.com. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark, thanks for watching. Now it's garbage.