On Danny Simon, Neil’s Unsung Brother

December 18 was the birthday of the great comedy writer Danny Simon (1918-2005). The success of Simon’s younger brother Neil as a Broadway playwright and Hollywood screenwriter has tended to overshadow Danny’s place in show biz history, so we thought we would use this occasion to Blow His Horn. After all, Woody Allen considered Danny Simon his greatest influence as a comedy writer, and it was Danny who conceived the idea for The Odd Couple, based on his own experiences, and gave the idea to Neil.

Danny and Neil started out as a comedy writing team in radio after taking a workshop with Goodman Ace at CBS. In radio they wrote for The Robert Q. Lewis Show, and then were able to take their talents to television variety. As a team they wrote forBroadway Open House,The Red Buttons Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, and Your Show of Shows (and Caesar’s Hour) as well as sit-coms like The Phil Silvers Show, and Buddy Hackett’s Stanley. They also contributed sketches to the Broadway revues Catch a Star! (1954) and New Faces of 1956.

As the senior partner of the team, Danny also had a separate career going on his own nearly from the beginning, writing for Colgate Comedy Hour,The Jimmy Durante Show, and others. When Neil peeled off to write for Broadway, Danny added more sit-coms to his own workload. He worked for The Danny Thomas Showa.k.a Make Room for Daddy (1959-62), and wrote episodes of The Ann Sothern Show, Bachelor Father,The Joey Bishop Show,My Three Sons, et al, through the ’60s. He made a return to variety shows too, staging sketches on The Carol Burnett Show, and writing for Kraft Music Hall and the ABC Comedy Hour.

In the ’70s, the pace began to slow down. He directed three episodes of Love American Style, and wrote for One Day at a Time, Diff’rent Strokes, and The Facts of Life, as well as The Sonny and Cher Show and The Mac Davis Show. He directed an episode of What’s Happening! and consulted on the short-lived The Big Show. He wrote special material for Joan Rivers when she sat in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.

From 1980 to 1995, Simon taught comedy in lectures, workshops, and seminars. Some of his wisdom was gathered by writer James Scott Bell into this book.

Danny Simon was highly respected by nearly every colleague he ever worked with, for his skill at crafting witty lines, and in creating dialogue (which, not coincidentally, are also his brother’s strengths). While he didn’t co-write Neil’s plays, he is said to be IN as many as ten of them, as a character. Neil basically channeled Danny, writing him into his plays and making characters based on him say the things he would say.

And to this day, many an aspiring comedy writer makes comedy dialogue happen by channeling both of them.

For more about show business historyconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.