Patt Shea, the Norman Lear common who co-wrote the 1979 sequence finale of All within the Household and co-created and labored on two spinoffs of the fabled sitcom, Archie Bunker’s Place and Gloria, has died. She was 93.
Shea died April 12 of pure causes on her birthday at her residence in Sherman Oaks, her son Michael Shea, a director and assistant director, informed The Hollywood Reporter. The household selected to attend till this week to publicly announce her demise.
“Patt Shea was a trailblazer in comedy writing,” Michael famous. “Her success as a author in groundbreaking sitcoms was solely matched by her generosity and compassion for folks.”
Jack Shea, her husband of 59 years, died in 2013. He directed dozens of episodes of such Lear-connected sitcoms as The Jeffersons, Silver Spoons and Sanford and Son and served as president of the DGA from 1997-2002, a part of a half-century of devoted service to the guild.
Patt Shea obtained her first TV writing credit score on The Jeffersons in 1977, and he or she additionally labored for Lear on the spinoff Sanford, the McLean Stevenson-starring Within the Starting and the Terrence McNally-created Mama Malone.
Plus, she collaborated with All within the Household stars Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton on their subsequent sequence Within the Warmth of the Evening and Bagdad Café, respectively.
A narrative editor after which a employees author on All within the Household, Shea and frequent writing companion Harriett Weiss obtained “written by” credit score for “Too Good Edith,” the 205th (by many counts) and closing installment of the present.
On the episode, Edith (Stapleton) is tasked with cooking all of the meals for Archie’s (O’Connor) St. Patrick’s Day shindig at his bar, however she’s developed phlebitis — which she’s conserving a secret — and is barely capable of stand. On the finish, they share a young second, uncommon for this TV couple.
Shea, who contributed to lots of the Edith-centric storylines on the sequence, obtained the primary of her three Humanitas Prize nominations for her work on this episode.
O’Connor and Stapleton instantly segued to Archie Bunker’s Place, which lasted 4 seasons and 97 episodes by April 1983. (At first of the second season in 1980, it’s revealed that Edith has died from a stroke.) Shea bought writing credit score on about 20 episodes of this one.
Shea, Weiss and Joe Gannon then created Gloria, which starred Sally Struthers’ All within the Household character (now working in a veterinarian’s workplace) and her son. That sequence lasted one season (1982-83) of 21 episodes.
The daughter of a realtor, Patricia Catherine Carmody was born in Sacramento on April 12, 1931. She attended St. Francis Excessive Faculty and, after shifting to Los Angeles, Immaculate Coronary heart Faculty.
She met her future husband backstage when she was within the solid of George Washington Slept Right here at Immaculate Coronary heart, and so they married in Carmel, California. They lived in New York for a bit whereas Jack was a stage supervisor for NBC, then returned to L.A. in 1953.
Shea took writing lessons at UCLA and at all times carried a yellow pad together with her, always writing whereas her 5 youngsters attended practices, her son stated.
Her inaugural credit score on The Jeffersons got here on an episode that was directed by her husband. She bought writing credit score on two final-season installments of All within the Household earlier than tackling the final episode and in addition wrote for Blissful Days, Cagney & Lacey, Lou Grant, Valerie and The Golden Ladies.
She and Jack co-founded Catholics in Media Associates in 1992 and accepted the group’s lifetime achievement award a decade later. In addition they have been offered with a Luminosa in Unity honor from the Focolare Motion for “bringing collectively producers, administrators, writers and actors to convey constructive values by their work.”
Along with Michael, survivors embrace her different sons, Invoice (one other director/assistant director) and J.J., and their grandchildren, Amanda, Michael, Dylan, Hudson, Katherine and Jackson.
Her oldest baby, daughter Shawn Shea, a longtime assistant director and stage supervisor in Hollywood, died in February of pneumonia at age 69. One other daughter, Elizabeth, died in 2006 at age 48.
A joint service for Patt and Shawn was held April 20 at St. Francis De Gross sales Parish in Sherman Oaks.