Irma Kalish


Irma May Kalish was an American television producer and screenwriter who held a pioneering role as a woman in the TV industry. Kalish produced and wrote for television programs, including Too Close for Comfort, All in the Family, The Facts of Life, Good Times, The Hogan Family, Maude, I Dream of Jeannie, F Troop and Family Affair. She is known for writing the episode of Maude where Maude gets an abortion.

Early life and education

Kalish was born in The Bronx in New York City.
In 1944 or 1945, Kalish graduated from Syracuse University, where she was a member of Phi Sigma Sigma sorority.

Career

Kalish produced and wrote for television programs, including Too Close for Comfort, All in the Family, The Facts of Life, Good Times, The Hogan Family, Maude, I Dream of Jeannie, F Troop and Family Affair.
Starting with the radio show, The Martin and Lewis Show, that featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Kalish often wrote with her husband Rocky, her writing partner. When the radio show became a TV show, the Kalishes made the shift to writing for television.
Kalish also executive produced 227, a sitcom about a working-class African-American family in Washington, D.C.
Kalish also wrote under the pseudonym Cady Kalian with co-writer Naomi Gurian.

Personal life

Kalish was married to Austin “Rocky” Kalish from 1948 to his death in 2016. The couple met when they were young kids in the Bronx. Kalish was Rocky's sister's friend. They had a son, comedy writer Bruce Kalish, and a daughter, Nancy Biederman, who pre-deceased Kalish.
Kalish died on September 3, 2021, at the Motion Picture & Television Fund cottages in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 96 from complications of pneumonia.

Membership

Honors

Selected filmography

The Martin and Lewis Show, writerThe Martin and Lewis Show, writer

About

  • "The Good Life," Writer's Digest, November 1950. Cover-featured article on Irma and Rocky Kalish. The front cover text reads, "Two free lance writers edit Romance Western Roundup on the beach."
  • Karen Young, "Hollywood vets Irma Kalish and Naomi Gurian on getting their groove back, in novel form," Encino Sun, October 28-November 3, 2006.