Woody Kling
Encyclopedia
Woody Kling was an American television writer, producer
, playwright, and composer
.
for the New York Daily Mirror
, predicting the horse races in his strip Joe and Asbestos. Woody Kling was given the middle name Fisher in tribute to Ken Kling's friend Bud Fisher
, who created the first successful daily comic strip in the United States.
building in New York City. At one of those parties, Woody Kling, then only in his 20s, met the vaudeville star Milton Berle
. Berle told a joke, at which Kling did not laugh. When questioned by Berle as to what was wrong, Kling said the joke wasn't told in the right way, and retold it in his own style. Upon Kling receiving the laughs of the entire party, Berle hired Kling on the spot to produce, head write and create the theme song for a new television show in which Berle would be starring. Called The Texaco Star Theatre Starring Milton Berle, the show was created by Berle, produced live before a New York audience on kinescope
s owned by Berle, but with the script
s and music owned by Kling. The show’s theme song was the broadcasting creation of the modern jingle
. The theme song, called "We Are the Men of Texaco", and written by Kling and Buddy Arnold
, was the first time that a television program used music to promote a commercial advertiser's product.
In the decades that followed, "We are the Men of Texaco" and the way it was staged – sung by four gas station attendants (Kling’s idea) – would be licensed by Kling’s heirs to filmmakers wishing to depict the impact of television’s advent on the American family (like Barry Levinson
’s 1990s film Avalon
). The song also served as Milton Berle’s theme for personal appearances. In 1979, Dan Aykroyd
, John Belushi
and Garret Morris recreated Kling’s staging and sung "We Are the Men of Texaco" live on Saturday Night Live
in honor of Berle, its host that week. And in obituaries of Berle, the theme song's lyrics would be quoted.
, The Will Rogers, Jr. Show, and The Red Buttons Show. He additionally created and wrote a several dozen of cartoons programs at Hal Seeger
Studios.
In 1968, Kling was producer of the program Wedding Party. Thereafter, he became head writer on the The Jackie Gleason Show
in Palm Beach, Florida
. The hit show for Gleason became the first hit television shows to be broadcast from Florida. Finally, in late 1969, the now married Kling moved to Hollywood, California where he wrote for Joseph Barbera
the filmed television show Love, American Style
.
where he became head writer. While on Burnett, producer Norman Lear
offered Kling the position of head writer on a new emerging show called All in the Family
. Ironically, Lear had offered the starring role in the show to Kling's previous star Gleason, and then to Mickey Rooney
, who 12 months later would tour the country with a play written by Kling.
Under Kling, All in the Family became a huge hit for CBS
and Lear. Some of the show’s most memorable episodes Kling had drawn from his personal life. They include the February 23, 1976 episode "Joey’s Baptism" in which Archie Bunker
’s baptizing his Jewish born son, which Kling (born Jewish) based upon the baptism of his son Anthony at the time.
In less than half a decade, Burnett and All in the Family brought Kling seven Emmy nominations, and two Emmy Awards.
Kling helped create the introduction of the spin-off
The Jeffersons
, and wrote or head wrote other Lear shows Maude
, Good Times
, and Sanford Arms among others while turning down other Lear shows like One Day at a Time
.
Three Goats and a Blanket (Stop Thief Stop or Alimony). Over the next decade, the show touring with Mickey Rooney
would become the highest grossing play to never reach Broadway
.
and the The Harlem Globetrotters
. In 1983, he created and wrote the series The Littles
and thereafter wrote the syndicated special Cabbage Patch Kids First Christmas.
In the 1980s, Kling wrote and created the program Rainbow Brite
that he licensed, solely for television syndication broadcast only. After Kling's death, his heirs sued Hallmark Cards
, for copyright infringement
of Kling’s property allegeding that Hallmark had stolen Kling’s property making Hallmark over $1 billion during his illness and thereafter. Kling’s case went up on appeal twice to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California
. In the first appeal (Kling v. Hallmark), Kling’s heir won. The court found against Hallmark, ruling Kling’s case was not barred by laches
, becoming the leading decision on laches still today of the Court. In a second appeal (Kling v. Hallmark), the 9th Circuit found for Kling’s heir, ruling Kling’s heir to be the copyright owner of Woody Kling’s Rainbow Brite works, but found Kling’s damages to be barred by the statute of limitations
, awarding Klings’ heirs no money.
eventually dying in Los Angeles on April 10, 1988.
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
, playwright, and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Early life
Born Heywood Fisher Kling in New York City, Kling was the son of Mayme and Ken Kling. Ken was a cartoonistCartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
for the New York Daily Mirror
New York Daily Mirror
The New York Daily Mirror was an American morning tabloid newspaper first published on June 24, 1924, in New York City by the William Randolph Hearst organization as a contrast to their mainstream broadsheets, the Evening Journal and New York American, later consolidated into the New York Journal...
, predicting the horse races in his strip Joe and Asbestos. Woody Kling was given the middle name Fisher in tribute to Ken Kling's friend Bud Fisher
Bud Fisher
Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher was an American cartoonist who created Mutt and Jeff, the first successful daily comic strip in the United States....
, who created the first successful daily comic strip in the United States.
Career
In the 1940s, Ken and Mayme Kling hosted celebrity parties at their home at The EldoradoThe Eldorado
The Eldorado at 300 Central Park West, on the Upper West Side of New York City, is the northernmost of four twin-towered luxury housing cooperatives that face the west side of Central Park...
building in New York City. At one of those parties, Woody Kling, then only in his 20s, met the vaudeville star Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
. Berle told a joke, at which Kling did not laugh. When questioned by Berle as to what was wrong, Kling said the joke wasn't told in the right way, and retold it in his own style. Upon Kling receiving the laughs of the entire party, Berle hired Kling on the spot to produce, head write and create the theme song for a new television show in which Berle would be starring. Called The Texaco Star Theatre Starring Milton Berle, the show was created by Berle, produced live before a New York audience on kinescope
Kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
s owned by Berle, but with the script
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
s and music owned by Kling. The show’s theme song was the broadcasting creation of the modern jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
. The theme song, called "We Are the Men of Texaco", and written by Kling and Buddy Arnold
Buddy Arnold
Arnold Buddy Grishaver, better known as Buddy Arnold , was an American jazz saxophonist....
, was the first time that a television program used music to promote a commercial advertiser's product.
In the decades that followed, "We are the Men of Texaco" and the way it was staged – sung by four gas station attendants (Kling’s idea) – would be licensed by Kling’s heirs to filmmakers wishing to depict the impact of television’s advent on the American family (like Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
’s 1990s film Avalon
Avalon (1990 film)
Avalon is a feature film directed by Barry Levinson. It is a mostly autobiographical story of a family of Polish-Jewish immigrants to the United States who settle in Baltimore, Maryland, at the beginning of the 20th century. The movie follows the family as they grow, become more prosperous, and...
). The song also served as Milton Berle’s theme for personal appearances. In 1979, Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
, John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
and Garret Morris recreated Kling’s staging and sung "We Are the Men of Texaco" live on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
in honor of Berle, its host that week. And in obituaries of Berle, the theme song's lyrics would be quoted.
1950s to 1960s
Kling soon became the head writer on a number of television shows like the The Jack Parr ShowThe Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
, The Will Rogers, Jr. Show, and The Red Buttons Show. He additionally created and wrote a several dozen of cartoons programs at Hal Seeger
Hal Seeger
Harold "Hal" Seeger was an animated cartoon producer and director who owned his own studio the Hal Seeger Studio ....
Studios.
In 1968, Kling was producer of the program Wedding Party. Thereafter, he became head writer on the The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...
in Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
. The hit show for Gleason became the first hit television shows to be broadcast from Florida. Finally, in late 1969, the now married Kling moved to Hollywood, California where he wrote for Joseph Barbera
Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....
the filmed television show Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...
.
1970s
Kling thereafter was quickly was hired for The Carol Burnett ShowThe Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
where he became head writer. While on Burnett, producer Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
offered Kling the position of head writer on a new emerging show called All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
. Ironically, Lear had offered the starring role in the show to Kling's previous star Gleason, and then to Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, who 12 months later would tour the country with a play written by Kling.
Under Kling, All in the Family became a huge hit for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and Lear. Some of the show’s most memorable episodes Kling had drawn from his personal life. They include the February 23, 1976 episode "Joey’s Baptism" in which Archie Bunker
Archie Bunker
Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional New Yorker in the 1970s top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative, blue-collar worker, and...
’s baptizing his Jewish born son, which Kling (born Jewish) based upon the baptism of his son Anthony at the time.
In less than half a decade, Burnett and All in the Family brought Kling seven Emmy nominations, and two Emmy Awards.
Kling helped create the introduction of the spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, through June 25, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The show was produced by the T.A.T. Communications Company from 1975–1982 and by Embassy Television from 1982-1985...
, and wrote or head wrote other Lear shows Maude
Maude (TV series)
Maude was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 22, 1978.Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with...
, Good Times
Good Times
Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer...
, and Sanford Arms among others while turning down other Lear shows like One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time is an American situation comedy on the CBS network that aired from December 16, 1975 until May 28, 1984. It portrays Ann Romano, a divorced mother, played by Bonnie Franklin, her two teenage daughters Julie and Barbara Cooper and Schneider, their building superintendent .The show...
.
Playwright
In the early 1970s, Kling wrote the playPlay (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
Three Goats and a Blanket (Stop Thief Stop or Alimony). Over the next decade, the show touring with Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
would become the highest grossing play to never reach Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Cartoons
Between television film shows, Kling would reunite and write for Joe Barbera a series of cartoon series including Casper the Friendly GhostCasper the Friendly Ghost
Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a ghost, but is quite personable...
and the The Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters (TV series)
Harlem Globetrotters was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera and CBS Productions, featuring animated versions of players from the basketball team, Harlem Globetrotters....
. In 1983, he created and wrote the series The Littles
The Littles
The Littles is a series of children's novels by American author John Peterson, the first of which was published in 1967. Peterson's books were adapted into the The Littles animated series by DIC Entertainment 16 years later...
and thereafter wrote the syndicated special Cabbage Patch Kids First Christmas.
In the 1980s, Kling wrote and created the program Rainbow Brite
Rainbow Brite
Rainbow Brite was a character franchise introduced by Hallmark Cards in 1983, with the animated television series starting the following year....
that he licensed, solely for television syndication broadcast only. After Kling's death, his heirs sued Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
, for copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
of Kling’s property allegeding that Hallmark had stolen Kling’s property making Hallmark over $1 billion during his illness and thereafter. Kling’s case went up on appeal twice to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. In the first appeal (Kling v. Hallmark), Kling’s heir won. The court found against Hallmark, ruling Kling’s case was not barred by laches
Laches (equity)
Laches is an "unreasonable delay pursuing a right or claim...in a way that prejudices the [opposing] party" When asserted in litigation, it is an equitable defense, or doctrine...
, becoming the leading decision on laches still today of the Court. In a second appeal (Kling v. Hallmark), the 9th Circuit found for Kling’s heir, ruling Kling’s heir to be the copyright owner of Woody Kling’s Rainbow Brite works, but found Kling’s damages to be barred by the statute of limitations
Statute of limitations
A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
, awarding Klings’ heirs no money.
Death
Shortly after creating Rainbow Brite, Kling became ill with inoperable brain and lung cancerLung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
eventually dying in Los Angeles on April 10, 1988.