Dale McRaven, Mork & Mindy And Perfect Strangers Creator, Has Died At 83
After bringing us some of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, Dale McRaven died on September 5, 2022 at the age of 83. His son, David McRaven, told The Hollywood Reporter that the creator of "Mork & Mindy" and "Perfect Strangers" passed away due to complications from lung cancer at his home in Porter Ranch, CA.
McRaven was born on March 5, 1939 in Pulaski, Illinois and was the fifth of six children. He lived with his family in Chicago and Phoenix before moving to Hollywood in 1957. Upon his arrival, he sold a script to Steve Allen, but his first major gig arrived in 1964 when he was hired by Gary Marshall and paired with Carl Kleinschmidt as staff writers on the final season of "The Joey Bishop Show" on NBC. After that show wrapped up, the duo would write for "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and win a WGA award for their work before moving on to a string of shows such as "Gomer Pyle: USMC," "Hey, Landlord," "Good Morning World," "The Odd Couple," "Get Smart," and more.
However, McRaven's biggest successes came after he and Kleinschmidt split up to pursue projects separately. That's when a traveling family band, an alien, and a pair of oddball cousins took his career to new heights.
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Now riding solo, McRaven wrote 15 episodes of "The Partridge Family" from 1970 to 1973 while producing the albums for the band, which consisted of Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, Danny Bonaduce, and Susan Dey on the show. Sticking with ABC after this gig, he also created "The Texas Wheelers," a short-lived sitcom that featured Gary Busey and Mark Hamill. Though it only lasted eight episodes, it was said to be the writer and producer's favorite show that he created.
After getting a taste for creating shows, he teamed up with Gary Marshall once again to create "Angie" starring Donna Pascow and Robert Hays. Producer extraordinaire Marshall would then convince McRaven in 1978 to co-create a "Happy Days" spinoff with Joe Glauberg, centered on the alien from Ork that tried to abduct Richie Cunningham. "Mork & Mindy" became a wild success during its four season run and it launched a then-unknown Robin Williams into superstardom.
McRaven would keep the hits coming in 1986 when he created "Perfect Strangers," a sitcom starring Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot about two cousins from different countries living in a Chicago apartment. The series would run for eight seasons with a total of 150 episodes, even after its creator stepped away from the day to day operations while still providing script notes.
With 36 years in show business under his belt, McRaven stepped away in the mid-1990s to pursue photography and digital art. He would also start a family of his own that includes his son David, daughter Renee, and grandchildren. However, his contributions to the world of television will never be forgotten as fans can, as Mork says in his series finale, "see warmth, see love, see someone who makes me feel like I matter in this vast lonely universe" whenever they revisit his work. We at /Film thank Dale McRaven for all the laughs and extend our deepest condolences to his family.