Thomas "Tom" Tenowich (born October 23, 1941) served as a writer, story editor for Mork and Mindy in Seasons 1 through 3, also serving as an executive story editor in Seasons 1 and 2, for a total of forty episodes of the series, all with frequent collaborative partner and fellow screenwriter/producer Ed Scharlach.
Biography[]
Born in 1941 in Philadelphia. In high school he would write jokes as a hobby. When he enrolled in Temple University in Philadelphia, he started writing comedy professionally for NYC comedians
Tom is the father of former child actress turned TV producer / writer Amy Tenowich, who played the recurring part of Lola, a child who attends the daycare center where Mork works in Season 3.
Career[]
Tom, approached comedian Jackie Vernon, in a club, who liked his material and wanted him to write stuff for his shows. After one year with Vernon, Tom started a three-year collaboration with Jackie Mason, one of the “greatest stand-up comedians of all times”, according to Comedy Central. His first TV comedy staff writing job was on “The Dom DeLuise Show”, in 1968. It was followed by one year on “The Jackie Gleason Show” in Miami.[2]
From there he would go on to work as a comedy writer for NBC's The Dean Martin Show with famed comedy writer/producer Stan Daniels and then for the popular 1970's CBS-TV sitcoms Phyllis with producer brothers Glen and Les Charles, and the final season of The Bob Newhart Show first show they produced, before moving on to Mork & Mindy, where he would team up with fellow writer/producer and his creative collaborator Ed Scharlach.[3]
Since then Tom has written and produced various popular shows such as Lewis and Clark, ABC-TV's Webster, Perfect Strangers, Cheers, its' short-lived spinoff The Tortelli's and the short-lived 1987-88 ABC-TV variety series Dolly, starred country music singer/actress Dolly Parton.[3]
In 1988 he was hired by NBC as a creative consultant for the Disney Channel’s sitcom “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” and that lead to a bigger job as head writer and supervising producer on “Saved by the Bell” (he’s the one who came up with the title!) For the first season, he wrote “The Zack Tapes”, “The Lisa Card” and “Dancing to the Max”. He wrote the story for the pilot and for “The Election” and penned the teleplay of “The Mamas and the Papas”, based on a story by Stephanie Garman and Hollace White.[2]
Mork & Mindy[]
In 1978 after leaving Newhart, he began working on “Mork & Mindy” as one of the original team of writers, along with writing partner Ed Scharlach and by the third season he had worked his way up to producer and co-show runner. In 1980 he was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award Best Writing on Episodic Television.
He wrote Season 1's:
He and Ed Sharlach together as writers penned:
- Mork's Mixed Emotions
- It's a Wonderful Mork
- Mork Gets Mindy-itis
- A Morkville Horror
- The Night They Raided Mind-ski's
- Mork's Vacation
- Mork Learns to See
- Looney Tunes and Morkie Melodies
- Invasion of the Mork Snatchers
- Putting the Ork Back in Mork: Part 1 & 2
- Mindy Gets Her Job
- Reflections and Regrets
They also penned the teleplay for Mork The Monkey's Uncle
During the Mork & Mindy: First Bleam Bloopers, when Robin Williams keeps messing up his lines from the episode Mork's Mixed Emotions, he calls out and points to 'Tom' indicating Tom Tenowich as the writer who he feels (jokily) is getting angry with him for his flubs.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Birth reference results for Thomas Francis Tenowich. FamilySearch.org.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Saved By The Bell Anniversary - Tom Tenowich (2020).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 HRTS Member Spotlight - Tom Tenowich. societyviews.hrts.org (December 12, 2009).
