AllMovie

A former actor and stand-up comedian, Danny Arnold was best known for writing and producing such high-quality television sitcoms as Bewitched and That Girl. Over his career, he won two Emmy's, one for My World and Welcome to It and one for the series for which he is most famous, Barney Miller. This latter show also won Arnold a Peabody Award. He was honored with the Paddy Chayefsky Award in 1985 by the Writer's Guild of America to celebrate his lifetime of achievement. A native of New York City, Arnold started out acting in summer stock and doing comedy in vaudeville, but began his career in Hollywood at Columbia Studios as a sound editor in 1944. He appeared in films as an actor opposite the hot young comic duo Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Arnold wrote the screenplay for a third Martin and Lewis vehicle, The Caddy (1953). In 1956, Arnold started writing for such television series as The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show and The Rosemary Clooney Show. He started contributing to television sitcoms in 1963. Though his subsequent work was popular with audiences, Arnold frequently butted heads with TV executives regarding issues of content and fair shooting schedules. While working on Barney Miller, Arnold became so sick of the constant network battles that he founded his own distribution company so he could syndicate shows as he wished, but with the cancellation of his subsequent series Joe Bash and Stat, his plans with Miller never came to fruition.