October 20: Ralph, Norton and Coleman

Coleman Jacoby (Jacobs), a comedy writer who helped bring Jackie Gleason and Art Carney together as a comedy team, died at 95 on this date in 2010. Jacoby and his longtime writing partner Arnie Rosen also wrote some fifty episodes of “The Phil Silvers Show” (“Sergeant Bilko,” for which the writer won Emmy Awards three years in a row), for Gary Moore, Milton Berle, Alan King, and Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows.” Jacoby lost his mother and was deserted by his father at age 7, and moved from Pittsburgh to New York at 16. He made a living painting murals for nightclubs before writing comedy material for stand-up comics and, on radio, for Bob Hope and Fred Allen. Jacoby’s son is filmmaker and puppeteer Joseph Jacoby, who described himself in his autobiography as a “cast-off kid.” To view Gleason and Carney in one of their first Jacoby-inspired team-ups, see below. “He had a natural gift for comedy [and was] adept at creating funny situations as well as writing one liners. Because of this, he created a good deal of classic television comedy.” —Terence Towles Canote