Danny Simon

Danny Simon was a comedy writer, who together with his brother, Neil Simon, wrote for such classic 1950s television series as Your Show of Shows (1950). It was Danny who mentored his younger sibling and nicknamed him "Doc". They worked together in radio in the late 1940s and then in television, a period of their lives chronicled in Neil Simon's 1993 play, "Laughter on the 23rd Floor". The brothers wrote not only for Your Show of Shows (1950), 90 minutes of live original comedy starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, but also worked for The Jackie Gleason Show (1952), The Red Buttons Show (1952) and The Phil Silvers Show (1955), in which Silvers portrayed the conniving Army Sgt. Ernie Bilko. While working on Your Show of Shows (1950), the Simons collaborated with such writers as Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Sheldon Keller, Mel Tolkin and later Woody Allen, who once said, "Everything I learned about comedy, I learned from Danny Simon". When Neil grew dissatisfied with the restrictions of network TV and left to write for the theater, Danny stayed in television as head writer for NBC's The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950). He later wrote for The Danny Thomas Show (1953), starring Danny Thomas; Diff'rent Strokes (1978) and The Facts of Life (1979); and provided material for many of Joan Rivers appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).