Allan Manings, a
television comedy writer and producer who
created the situation comedy "One Day at a
Time" with his late wife, actress Whitney
Blake, has died. He was 86.
Manings, who recently underwent surgery for
esophageal cancer, died after going into
cardiac arrest Wednesday at his oncologist's
office in Beverly Hills, said his
stepdaughter, actress Meredith Baxter.
In a career that began in the 1950s,
Manings wrote for TV
shows such
as "Leave It to Beaver," "Petticoat
Junction" and "McHale's Navy."
As a writer on the comedy sensation "Roman &
Martin's Laugh-In," Manings was part of a
team that won the 1968 Emmy for outstanding
writing achievement in a musical or variety
program.
He came into TV producer Norman Lear's fold as a writer and an executive producer on
"Good Times," the 1974-79 CBS sitcom about a
black family living in the South Side of
Chicago and starring Esther Rolle, John Amos
and Jimmie Walker.
Tapping his wife's memories of having been
raised by a divorced mother and her own
experiences as a divorced mother before they
were married, Manings and
Blake
created "One Day at a Time" for Lear's
company.
The 1975-84 CBS sitcom starred Bonnie
Franklin as the mom and Mackenzie Phillips
and Valerie Bertinelli as her teenage
daughters.
"He was a wonderful man and a wonderful
writer," Lear said of Manings on Friday.
Getting a series about a divorced single
woman with children on the air in the 1970s
"was difficult," Lear said. With a chuckle,
he added: "We were living in other times; we
were growing in awareness."
A lifelong advocate for social justice,
Manings often dealt with those kinds of
issues in his writing.
Lear said he and Manings were "totally
politically sympatico."
"This man knew his citizenship mattered, and
he lived that way. As a voter, as a thinker,
as an American, he knew what mattered. He
was a concerned, caring, generous soul. And
a hell of a writer."
Long active in the Writers Guild of America,
Manings received its Morgan Cox Award in
1997. The award is presented to "that member
or group of members whose vital ideas,
continuing efforts and personal sacrifice
best exemplify the ideal of service to the
guild."
At the time, Manings had served on the
guild's board of directors for 12 years, on
the advisory board for the guild magazine
and on more than 20 different guild
committees.
"Allan was one of the funniest men you would
ever know,"
Baxter
said. "I call him Sweetheart Cranky Pants,
because he's rough and blustering, a very
outspoken liberal but a terrific, funny man
and a real softy."
Manings most recently wrote a play, "Goodbye
Louie … Hello," a comedy-drama dealing with
a family's memories. It will be produced by
Theatre West in Los Angeles in the coming
months.
He was born March 28, 1924, in Newark, N.J.,
and grew up on Staten Island. After serving
in the Army in the Pacific during World War
II, he joined other returning GIs to become
the first male students at Sarah Lawrence
College.
Manings' wife
died in 2002.
In addition to Baxter, he is survived by two
stepsons, Richard and Brian Baxter; his
sister, Muriel Manings; nine
grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
dennis.mclellan@latimes.com
