Bernie Orenstein

Bernard Orenstein was born in Toronto, Ontario, on February 5, 1931, the youngest of five boys. He had no middle name, joking that the family was "too poor for that." His father sold women's clothing and had a gambling problem, and his mother was a homemaker.

As a youngster he acted on CBC radio programs. His break into show business came through The All Varsity Revue, a University of Toronto show, after which he left university and began appearing on CBC television variety programs in the early days of Canadian TV. "Nobody knew anything about television," he recalled. "They paid very little, and anybody who had any nerve to get up in front of a camera was accepted. I had nerve as opposed to talent."

Orenstein attended the University of Toronto but dropped out after appearing in The All Varsity Revue and moving into television. Decades later, after he and Saul Turteltaub finished two years as story consultants on Cosby, he returned to school and completed his college degree. He went on to teach television history at Long Island University in Brooklyn, where he was described as an associate professor of television history and a mentor in the TV Writers Studio MFA program.

Orenstein acted and wrote for the CBC variety series The Barris Beat, produced by Norman Jewison, which led to his move to New York in 1965 to write for the CBS prank show Candid Camera. There he shared a carpool with fellow writer Joan Rivers. He moved to Los Angeles for ABC's The Les Crane Show and, after it was cancelled, spent three years writing for The Hollywood Palace, providing material for Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire and others.

In 1967 he enlisted Saul Turteltaub to help write the pilot of a Pat Boone afternoon talk show. The two became partners for more than 30 years, usually writing separately and fitting their acts together. Their first sitcom sales were to Hey, Landlord, Good Morning, World and That Girl. Orenstein also wrote for The Monkees, and in 1968 the pair wrote and produced The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show, hiring an unknown Lorne Michaels.

They served as writer-producers on That Girl in its final two seasons, then moved to Arizona in 1971 to produce Carl Reiner's The New Dick Van Dyke Show. Back in Los Angeles they produced Love, American Style. In 1974 Norman Lear brought them onto Sanford and Son as producer-writers, and they stayed until the series ended in 1977, also working on the spin-offs Grady and Sanford Arms. They bought early scripts from Garry Shandling.

With Bud Yorkin they launched TOY Productions, which placed What's Happening!!, Carter Country and 13 Queens Boulevard on ABC. Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems bought the company, with the sale closing in 1979 on the day all three shows were cancelled. For Columbia they worked on One of the Boys, starring Mickey Rooney with Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, and One in a Million with Shirley Hemphill. They created E/R for CBS, featuring Elliott Gould and George Clooney, executive produced Diane English's Foley Square, wrote for You Again? with Jack Klugman and John Stamos, joined Kate & Allie in 1988, produced Baby Talk with Scott Baio, created the 1989 ABC comedy Chicken Soup with Jackie Mason and Lynn Redgrave, and finished their run as story consultants on Cosby. The Television Academy also credits the pair with specials including The Mama Cass Television Program and The Perry Como Winter Show.

Orenstein married actress Barbara Rhoades, known for The Shakiest Gun in the West, Soap and Match Game, on Sunday, February 18, 1979, at L'Orangerie in West Hollywood. She was his second wife. He later joked that their pairing inspired Chicken Soup: "He was a short, Jewish guy. I'm a short, Jewish guy. My wife is a tall, Irish redhead."

In 1995 the couple moved to Weston, Connecticut, with their son Alec. Orenstein had four children, Lisa, Barbara, Jenny and Alec, as well as eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He also bred thoroughbred racehorses, a passion reflected in his first novel.

Orenstein credited Carl Reiner with teaching him much of what he knew about comedy. He was candid about the odds in the business, saying that although he wrote hundreds of scripts and produced around 40 shows, only four or five were truly successful. He saw the writer's life as uniquely resilient: "As a writer there's a great advantage: you're never out of work. You can always sit down at the typewriter or computer."

He was proud of That Girl's place in representing feminism on television, and in his teaching he lectured on the influence of African American performers and series on American television. He also admitted to regrets, including marrying off the lead characters of That Girl and Kate & Allie, which he believed helped end both shows.

Orenstein and Turteltaub are remembered as one of the most enduring comedy writing teams in American television. Their work spans That Girl, a milestone in portraying an independent single woman; Sanford and Son, one of the defining sitcoms of the 1970s; and What's Happening!!, which centred on Black teenagers growing up in Watts and gave Fred Berry his signature role as Rerun. They helped open doors for Lorne Michaels, Garry Shandling and Diane English. His 2016 oral history for the Television Academy Foundation, recorded with the Writers Guild Foundation, preserves two hours of his recollections, and his LIU Brooklyn students learned television history from someone who had helped make it.

No major individual awards for Orenstein have been documented in the sources consulted, and the Television Academy's database lists no Primetime Emmy nominations for him. His recognition came instead through the longevity of his shows and through the Television Academy Foundation's decision to record his career for The Interviews archive in 2016, in a joint venture with the Writers Guild Foundation.

Orenstein wrote two novels. Fender Mason (2011) was a comic look at thoroughbred racing, and Black Sheep (Xlibris, September 2013) follows a comedy writer caught up with mob bosses and crooked cops on a trip from Atlantic City to the Cayman Islands.

On June 2, 2016, in New York, he recorded a two-hour interview with Adrienne Faillace for the Television Academy Foundation's The Interviews, in partnership with the Writers Guild Foundation. He was also among the sitcom writers featured in Scott Lewellen's book Funny You Should Ask: Oral Histories of Classic Sitcom Storytellers (McFarland, 2013).

Orenstein recalled that he and Turteltaub came under criticism from the Beverly Hills chapter of the NAACP as two white Jewish writers running Sanford and Son, and that Redd Foxx defended them. In his 2016 interview he also discussed difficulties with What's Happening!! cast members, including Mabel King's departure, and a dispute involving the screenwriter of Cooley High, the film on which the series was based. He took personal responsibility for the quick cancellation of Chicken Soup in 1989 despite its Roseanne lead-in: "That was my fault. I was positive that my life would be accepted by America. Apparently, it wasn't."

Bernie Orenstein died on September 14, 2026, at the age of 95. His family confirmed the death, which was reported publicly by Variety on October 13, 2026, and by The Hollywood Reporter on October 15, 2026. The place and cause of death have not been made public. The Television Academy Foundation marked his passing by sharing clips from his 2016 interview, including his answer on how he wished to be remembered: "By the body of work and the fact that I never hurt anybody."