Arnold and Lois Peyser



Arnold and Lois Peyser were a prominent television husband-and-wife writing team from the Sixties.

Born on April 23, 1921, Arnold Peyser grew up in New York City and began his writing career for radio comedian Fred Allen, his career later turning to television with his wife, Lois, who was born March 3, 1923 in New Jersey. Lois was hired by the American Film Institute in 1972 to start its first screenwriting class. She also taught in Brussels, Moscow and Stockholm and was a consultant for the Directing Women's Workshops. Together, she and Arnold wrote episodes of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "My Favorite Martian," "Gilligan's Island," "Love, American Style," "Mission: Impossible" "The Brady Bunch" and "My Three Sons," also venturing into films with the 1969 Elvis Presley film, "The Trouble With Girls."

Arnold went on to write a novel, "The Squirrelcage," about the experience of a troubled boy named Paul committed to a psychiatric unit by his parents. Lois, however, died in 1994 of ovarian cancer, and Fred went on to pen two nostalgic plays about the Fred Allen show, "From Boston to Portland: The Fred Allen Story," produced at Boston's Lyric Stage in 1993, and "Mr. Allen, Mr. Allen," starring Jack Riley at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks in 1999.

Sadly, Arnold passed away July 14, 2001 in his home in Los Angeles, California. He was survived by two sons, a sister and three grandchildren.

Episode(s)

 * The Chain of Command
 * St. Gilligan and the Dragon