Saul Turteltaub passed away this week. I don’t recall ever hearing his name, but I know his work, and so do you: The Carol Burnett Show, Sanford and Son, That Girl, What’s Happening, Love American Style, and much more. This is my favorite paragraph from the remembrance I just read.
…he had dated future TV star and Lamb Chop puppeteer Shari Lewis (real name: Phyllis Hurwitz) during summer camp in 1947, then met with her about a job when he got out of the Army. He was told there was nothing available, but after he put together a few sketches for her as a thank-you and sent them in, he was immediately hired for $60 a week.
Elsewhere I read that Saul wrote a lot for Shari Lewis through the years, any time she called on him…and always for scale.