Jack Douglas

Jack Douglas was an American comedy writer who wrote for radio, television and a series of humor books, beginning with the bestselling My Brother Was an Only Child. On radio, he was a writer for Red Skelton, Bob Hope and the situation comedy, Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou, in which Riggs switched back and forth from his natural baritone to the voice of a seven-year-old girl.

Continuing to write for Skelton and Hope as he moved into television, Douglas also wrote for Jimmy Durante, Bing Crosby, Woody Allen, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Jack Paar Show, The George Gobel Show and Laugh-In. The producer of Laugh-In, George Schlatter, said, “He saw the world from a different angle than the rest of us. He was not only funny, he was nice.”

He was best known for his appearances as a frequent guest on Jack Paar’s shows of the late 1950s and early 1960s. On one such appearance, when Douglas was well established as a Paar guest, he was chastised by Paar for holding a stack of file cards with his jokes while talking with Paar. When Paar returned to television in 1973 and was confronted by unexpected low ratings, he had engaged Douglas to contribute monologue material by mail. One week there was no mail from Douglas, but his next package contained a note: “Sorry I didn’t send anything last week. I forgot you were on.”