Yahoo Lifestyle Mike Milligan Dies: ‘All In The Family,’ ‘The Jeffersons’ Writer-Producer Was 77
Mike Milligan, the writer and producer of such award-winning television series including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude and Dear John, died December 20 of acute respiratory failure at his home in West Hills, CA, his reps told Deadline. He was 77.
Milligan, who was a member of the Writers Guild of America for the better part of a century, and his writing partner of 18 years, Jay Moriarty, additionally wrote and produced Good Times, What’s Happening Now, Here and Now and Melba (which he said was “canceled by the network during the commercial break while the pilot aired on CBS”).
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As writers and executive producers for Norman Lear’s groundbreaking sitcom The Jeffersons, Milligan and Moriarty received an NAACP IMAGE Award; the show was among the first to tackle such topics as suicide and white supremacy in American comedy programs and was the first-ever TV episode to feature a trans character. The show — a spinoff of Lear’s seminal All in the Family — won two Emmys.
In 1992, Milligan and Moriarty served as co-EPs and writers on the NBC series Here and Now with Malcolm Jamal-Warner. Two decades later, Milligan and Moriarty’s All in the Family Season 7, Episode 15 script titled “The Draft Dodger” (originally written and aired as a Christmas episode in 1976) was used verbatim in the ABC TV special, Live in Front of a Studio Audience by Lear and Jimmy Kimmel; that telecast, featuring Woody Harrelson in the role of Archie Bunker and Marisa Tomei as Edith, received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special.
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In 1999, Milligan created and wrote the original Telemundo series Los Beltrán with Carlos Bermudez, loosely based on All in the Family. The series, which ran through 2001, received a number of accolades including an Alma Award (Best Comedy Series), Golden Eagle Award (Outstanding Comedy Series), an Imagen Foundation Award (Best Comedy Series) and a GLADD Award nomination, as it was the first-ever Spanish language series to feature gay characters as regulars.
Born Bernard Michael Milligan on Jan. 28, 1947 in Los Angeles, Milligan attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif. and was a graduate of local Loyola Marymount University. To stay ahead of the draft during the Vietnam War, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in Massachusetts. As a clerk typist, he always claimed, “we don’t retreat, we backspace.”
Outside of the television sphere, Milligan became an expert on the subject matter of trauma-informed care related to the homeless. Collaborating with partner John Harper, the duo presented workshops at little or no cost to nonprofit organizations across the country.
He is survived by his beloved wife, Jill, of 30 years; his son, John Milligan; his sister, Jeri (Milligan) Gesto; his stepdaughters, Dionn Avant and Mischon Beneda; and five granddaughters, nieces, nephews and numerous cousins.
A memorial service is planned for later this year.
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