Sherwood Schwartz

Credit: Everett; Inset: Courtesy AP

Sherwood Schwartz, The Brady Bunch Creator, Dies

Originally posted 07/12/2011 02:25PM

Sherwood Schwartz, who created two of the most popular sitcoms of the '60s and '70s, Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, died Tuesday in Los Angeles of natural causes, surrounded by his family, a family member announced. He was 94.

Not only did Schwartz send the passengers and crew of the Minnow on a three-hour tour, one that lasted from 1964 to 1967 (and forever after in reruns), but he also wrote the Gilligan's theme song.

He did the same for the 1969-74 Brady Bunch, about a widow and a widower with a lot of kids – and a sagacious housekeeper.

And while critics threw bricks at both shows, the public lapped them up – possibly, at least in the case of The Brady Bunch, because he grounded the show in some type of reality.