Tag: Producer

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Lee Mendelson, Producer, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ Dies 86

Leland Maurice Mendelson (March 24, 1933 – December 25, 2019) was an American television producer and the executive producer of the many Peanuts animated specials.

A Charlie Brown Christmas aired December 9, 1965, on CBS. The show went on to win both the Emmy and Peabody award, and was the first of over 40 animated Peanuts specials created by Mendelson, Meléndez and Schulz. In addition, they collaborated on The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, which ran on Saturday mornings during the 1980s.

Mendelson founded and headed Lee Mendelson Film Productions, a Burlingame, California-based television and film production company. Mendelson Productions has produced over 100 television and film productions, winning 12 Emmys and 4 Peabodys, as well as numerous Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar nominations.

Lee Mendelson cause of death

Mendelson died on December 25, 2019, from lung cancer, leaving a wife, Ploenta, and four children.

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‘Golden Girls’ producer Paul Junger Witt dies 77

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Paul Junger Witt (March 20, 1941 – April 27, 2018) was an American film and television producer. He, with his partners Tony Thomas and Susan Harris (also his wife), produced such hit TV shows as Here Come the Brides, The Partridge Family, The Golden Girls, Soap, Benson, Empty Nest and Blossom. The majority of their shows have been produced by their company, Witt/Thomas Productions (alternately Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions), founded in 1975. Witt also produced the hit films Dead Poets Society, Three Kings, Insomnia, and the successful made-for-TV movie Brian’s Song. He was a graduate of the University of Virginia.

Witt died of cancer in Los Angeles on April 27, 2018, at age 77.

Paul Junger Witt cause of death

Paul Junger Witt talks about Casting Sophia for Golden Girls (2006)