If it is true that Sherwood Schwartz was only responsible for making crap on telelvision, then it was crap that has made a huge group of people very happy for a huge number of years. One of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid was Gilligan’s Island, Schwartz’ first successful creation. I have since outgrown this show and now recognize the crap-factor, but it hasn’t stopped me from owning every single solitary episode on DVD.
I was late at getting into the Brady Bunch, Schwartz’ second and final humongous hit program. Most of my friends already watched the show, but I didn’t catch the wave until the early 1980’s. But once I started watching, I was addicted – and crap though it may be, I still love all things Brady, including the reunion shows and more recent movies. I made sure that It’s a Sunshine Day played at my weddings and all those for which I provided music – and I naturally also own every episode of that fiasco on DVD as well.
So during my autograph collecting spree in the summer of ’97, I began a subscription to Autograph Collector, a magazine obviously targeted to those in the hobby. There was always a few success stories in each issue regarding through-the-mail attempts and one of the features was on Sherwood Schwartz, showing that he was great at sending out signed photos. So I immediately wrote to him hoping to beat the rush that would be coming from everyone else who read the issue.
I sent along nothing but a self-addressed-stamped envelope on August 30 and received not one, not two, but three great signed photos from him, one a simple portrait, and one from each of his series.
I later wrote to Tina Louise (Ginger) and this was the only photo that she would sign. Another photo was refused and I was told a fee was required. It was probably because this high-quality color photo was a gift from Sherwood Schwartz (who doesn’t actually appear in the photo)
Sherwood Schwartz is show with the cast of The Brady Bunch in 1968. A few years later my friend Bob had Barry Williams (Greg) sign the photo at a TV Land convention.
This wild success more than made up for the unsuccessful run I had been having throughout August with failed attempts from William Devane, Larry Bird, William Forsythe, George Bush, Harry Spear, Karen Black, Brad Anderson, Will Elder, Charles Schultz, Cathy Guiswhite, and Jackie Lynn Taylor.
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
Fun! It’s a shame that the others wouldn’t sign it, but I have actually heard that baseball players charge for their signatures, too!
Amber
May 26th, 2008