Witt/Thomas Productions

Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions variation Logo at the end of "The Layoff"

Susan Harris

John Rich

Gilbert Junger

Don Reo

Mitchell Hurwitz

Gary S. Levine

**Witt/Thomas Productions** is an American television and movie production company run by TV producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. The company was consistently productive between its founding in 1973 and 1999, but is still active, producing an occasional film or TV series project. It has produced more than 25 American primetime television series, mostly half-hour sitcoms.

Numerous Witt/Thomas television series were created and co-executive produced by Susan Harris, then Witt's wife. The shows that had involvement from Harris were produced under the modified title **Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions**.

Witt/Thomas is perhaps best known for producing the popular sitcoms *Soap*, *Benson*, *It's a Living*, *The Golden Girls* (along with its sequel, *The Golden Palace*), *Empty Nest*, *Blossom*, and *Brotherly Love*.

## History

### Beginnings and work with Susan Harris

The partnership between Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas began in 1971, when the two were paired as producers on the now-classic and influential ABC made-for-TV movie *Brian's Song*. Following this, Witt and Thomas elected to continue working together on additional TV movies for all the major American broadcast networks, for Screen Gems, Spelling-Goldberg Productions and Danny Thomas Productions (a company operated by Tony's father Danny Thomas). After having each built an extensive resume separately as TV producers, aside from their partnership (Witt had producing experience on TV series, including *The Partridge Family* and *The Rookies*, and Thomas was by now tenured in telefilms), the two formed Witt/Thomas Productions in 1973 as an in-name only independent shell branch under Danny Thomas Productions, and two years later, upon selling their first TV pilot, the NBC comedy *Fay*.[1] The sitcom, which premiered in the fall of 1975, was created by Susan Harris, who instantly became a key partner in the production company (and later entered into a relationship with Witt, which culminated in their 1983 marriage). *Fay* failed to find an audience, and was cancelled after a single, heavily interrupted season.

Shortly after picking up *Fay* for the fall 1975 schedule, though, NBC had bought a second pilot from Witt and Thomas, which was granted a midseason replacement slot for early the following year. Premiering in January 1976 was *The Practice*, a comedy set in a family-run doctor's office, the first series to be strictly a Witt/Thomas Production (sans Harris). The series was created for Witt/Thomas by Steve Gordon, who later became known for writing and directing the blockbuster film *Arthur* (1981). This was also the first of three TV series the company produced in which Thomas' father, Danny Thomas, was cast in the starring role. *The Practice* performed well enough to be awarded a second season, but the early ratings success was not sustained. NBC cancelled the series in January 1977, after 12 months on the air. By 1976, Witt-Thomas-Harris became an independent entity from Danny Thomas Productions and started making projects on its own.[2] In the spring of 1977, CBS broadcast another of the company's efforts, the romantic comedy *Loves Me, Loves Me Not*, created by Harris and starring Susan Dey, but it lasted only six episodes. The series reunited Witt with Dey, with whom he had worked on *The Partridge Family*; the show additionally featured two actors who again worked for Witt/Thomas, Kenneth Gilman (who later starred on *Nurses*) and Art Metrano (of the short-lived *Tough Cookies*).

Witt, Thomas, and Harris soon found success with their next pilot, a sitcom parody of daytime soap operas entitled *Soap*. ABC picked up the series, which drew controversy over its tawdry and taboo storylines from the day it was announced on the network's schedule. *Soap* premiered in September 1977 to further controversy (several ABC affiliates chose to pre-empt the show during the 1977–78 season), but its blockbuster ratings cemented Witt, Thomas, and Harris as producers of breakthrough, socially relevant television. In the midst of *Soap*'s success, the company produced the spin-off series *Benson*, for *Soap* regular Robert Guillaume, which debuted in September 1979. By this time, Witt/Thomas (and Harris) were experiencing increased demand, primarily by ABC. Both of these went on to become hit successes.[1] In 1980, the producers sold the series *I'm a Big Girl Now* to ABC, which paired Danny Thomas with *Soap* star Diana Canova in the lead roles. Both *Soap* and *I'm a Big Girl Now* were cancelled in 1981, with *Benson* continuing until 1986, lasting longer than its parent show.

### 1980s

Subsequent shows with a Witt/Thomas/Harris collaboration include *It Takes Two* (ABC, 1982–83), a single-season comedy starring Patty Duke and Richard Crenna as a modern, dual-career couple; *Hail to the Chief* (ABC, 1985), another starring vehicle for Ms. Astin, in which she played the first female president of the United States; and *The Golden Girls* (NBC, 1985–1992), a comedy inspired by a segment of NBC's 1984 fall preview special, which featured comedic interplay between NBC stars Selma Diamond and Doris Roberts, who hosted the segment. Diamond spoke of a new series they were about to preview, about elderly women living in a Miami home, entitled "Miami Nice". Roberts corrected Diamond, stating that they were about to take a sneak peek at *Miami Vice*. *The Golden Girls*, which centered on four older women rooming together and enjoying their golden years, went on to become, arguably, the biggest success for Witt/Thomas/Harris, garnering several Emmy nominations (and wins for each of the show's four principal stars) and strong ratings. The series produced an equally successful spin-off in 1988, *Empty Nest*, which starred Richard Mulligan as eligible older bachelor Dr. Harry Weston, who lived and held medical practice in the same neighborhood as *The Golden Girls*.

In 1987, Witt/Thomas/Harris had the new sitcom project *Mama's Boy* in development for NBC. It served as a starring vehicle for Bruce Weitz and Nancy Walker, in which the former played a successful journalist whose loving mother (Walker) moves into his New York apartment and interrupts his bachelor lifestyle. Susan Blakely and Dan Hedaya also starred. *Mama's Boy* was picked up by the network, but only retained the status of being a "special" throughout the 1987–88 season, due to its irregular scheduling. After a preview broadcast on September 19, 1987, it only aired five more times, over several months, between October 31 of that year and August 6, 1988. The seventh episode was never aired.

### 1990s

In the 1990s, Harris created four more series for the company, beginning with the *Empty Nest* spin-off *Nurses*, which aired alongside its parent series and *The Golden Girls* on NBC's Saturday night lineup. With all three of the latter series taking place in the same section of Miami (with *Nurses* focusing on the nurses' station and upper levels of the same hospital that employed Dr. Harry Weston), Witt/Thomas/Harris was thus able to create the rarity of a single, unified storyline carrying through all three programs in the same night. This practice continued between *Empty Nest* and *Nurses* alone after *The Golden Girls* ended its run in 1992. When it was announced that *The Golden Girls* would conclude in its seventh season, in the wake of star Bea Arthur's decision to leave, Harris immediately transported the remaining three "girls" (Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty) into the sequel series *The Golden Palace*. NBC originally committed to airing the sequel, but CBS offered Witt, Thomas and Harris a better deal (24 episodes, versus NBC's agreement to 13). *The Golden Palace* premiered on CBS in September 1992, and nearly replicated the success of *The Golden Girls* in terms of ratings. At the end of its inaugural season, though, CBS decided to drop certain series with older demographics, and *The Golden Palace* fell victim to this plan. Estelle Getty brought her long-running role of Sophia Petrillo back to NBC in the fall of 1993, when Witt/Thomas/Harris decided to move the character to *Empty Nest*. Getty continued on *Empty Nest* until the end of its run in 1995. *Nurses*, meanwhile, was cancelled by NBC at the end of its third season in 1994.

Harris' other 1990s creations were short-lived: *Good & Evil* (ABC, 1991), a variation of her successful *Soap* formula, in which the struggle of two sisters, one evil and conniving (played by Teri Garr) and the other sweet and pure (played by Margaret Whitton) was chronicled. *Good & Evil*, which was placed in the unusual-for-a-sitcom 10:30/9:30 C slot on Wednesdays, was poorly rated, and in addition, a blind psychologist character (played by Mark Blankfield) brought the series under fire by the National Federation of the Blind for negatively portraying blind people as clumsy and clueless (though, coincidentally, Blankfield went on to play a blind man of questionable portrayal in *Robin Hood: Men in Tights* to little criticism). As a result, ABC cancelled the series after only six episodes. After this experience, Harris vowed in the press that she would never work with ABC ever again, feeling that the network had sabotaged *Good & Evil* from the beginning. Witt and Thomas were apparently in agreement with Harris; five years passed before Witt and Thomas alone entered into a new development deal with ABC (for *Common Law*).

In 1998, Harris rekindled her relationship with ABC, and created what has been her last TV series to date, *The Secret Lives of Men*. A comedy centering on the camaraderie of three middle-aged bachelors, it received heavy promotion, but was another short-lived venture. The series was dropped by ABC in November 1998, after only two months on the air, hardly lasting longer than *Good & Evil*, the series that caused Harris to cut ties with the network in the first place.