The John Charles Walters Company was a production company formed in 1978 by four former employees of MTM Enterprises: James L. Brooks, David Davis, Stan Daniels and Ed. Weinberger. The company existed from 1978 until 1983 and produced the TV show Taxi .
The foursome who created John Charles Walters were part of the creative team that produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spinoff Phyllis , as well as The Betty White Show among others, during the 1970s. They were lured away by Paramount following the end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show's run. Paramount financed the John Charles Walters Company during its existence.
The company also produced The Associates , a TV sitcom about a small group of young Wall Street lawyers which ran during the 1979 television season starring Martin Short. The show lasted for nine of the 13 episodes produced, but received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Golden Globe Award nominations and one Writers Guild of America Award nomination after its cancelation.
According to a 2003 interview, James L. Brooks said that the company was named the John Charles Walters Company because the foursome "wanted a venerable Protestant name." [1] The book Hailing Taxi indicates that the partners discovered an old pub sign that said "Charles Walters." They bought it in order to make it their logo, but then discovered that there was a director in Hollywood named Charles Walters. They added the name John to avoid legal problems.
The only known existence of Walters appears at the end of both Taxi and The Associates, as well as the 1978 telefilm Cindy, a reworking of Cinderella with an all-Black cast. In the end credits, the back of Walters is seen leaving his office while a female voice off-screen wishes him good night (with the words "Night, Mr. Walters!" or "Merry Christmas, Mr. Walters!" in holiday-themed episodes); Walters merely groans in response while he puts his hat on as he exits. The logo was shot by assistant cinematographer Larry Foster. Ed. Weinberger provided the voice of Walters during the sequence. [2] The woman is Weinberger's actual assistant.[ citation needed ]
Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), which "helped define a new vision of American womanhood" and "appealed to an audience facing the new trials of modern-day existence". Moore won seven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Ordinary People. Moore had a supporting role in the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie. Moore was an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism and diabetes awareness and research.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from September 19, 1970, to March 19, 1977. Moore portrayed Mary Richards, an unmarried, independent woman focused on her career as associate producer of a news show at the fictional local station WJM in Minneapolis. Ed Asner co-starred as Mary's boss Lou Grant, alongside Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Georgia Engel, Betty White, Valerie Harper as friend and neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern, and Cloris Leachman as friend and landlady Phyllis Lindstrom.
Taxi is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 12, 1978, to May 6, 1982, and on NBC from September 30, 1982, to June 15, 1983. It focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher. For most of the run of the show, the ensemble cast consisted of taxi drivers Alex Reiger, Bobby Wheeler, Elaine Nardo, Tony Banta, and "Reverend" Jim Ignatowski, along with dispatcher Louie De Palma and mechanic Latka Gravas. Taxi was produced by the John Charles Walters Company, in association with Paramount Network Television, and was created by James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger, all of whom were brought on board after working on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Lou Grant is a fictional character played by Ed Asner in two television series produced by MTM Enterprises for CBS. The first was The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), a half-hour light-hearted situation comedy in which the character was the news director at fictional television station WJM-TV in Minneapolis. A spinoff series, entitled Lou Grant (1977–1982), was an hour-long serious dramatic series that frequently engaged in social commentary, featuring the same character as city editor of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune. Although spin-offs are common on American television, Lou Grant remains one of a very few characters played by the same actor to have a leading role on both a popular comedy and a popular dramatic series.
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of Gracie Films. He co-created the sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, and The Simpsons and directed the films Terms of Endearment (1983), Broadcast News (1987), and As Good as It Gets (1997). He received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, 21 Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
Ted Knight was an American actor known for playing the comedic roles of Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack.
Phyllis is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from September 8, 1975, to March 13, 1977. Created mainly by Ed. Weinberger and Stan Daniels, it was the second spinoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Mary Tyler Moore Show producer James L. Brooks was also involved with the show as a creative consultant. The show starred Cloris Leachman as Phyllis Lindstrom, who was previously Mary Richards' friend, neighbor, and landlady on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Lou Grant is an American drama television series starring Ed Asner in the title role as a newspaper editor that aired on CBS from September 20, 1977, to September 13, 1982. The third spin-off of the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant was created by James L. Brooks, Allan Burns, and Gene Reynolds.
MTM Enterprises was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS. The name for the production company was drawn from Moore's initials.
James Edward Burrows, sometimes known as Jim "Jimmy" Burrows, is an American television director. Burrows has received numerous accolades including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards. He was honored with the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and NBC special Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows in 2016.
The Ellen Show is an American television sitcom created by and starring Ellen DeGeneres that was broadcast during the 2001–02 season on CBS, airing from September 24, 2001, to January 11, 2002. It also starred Cloris Leachman, Martin Mull, Kerri Kenney, Jim Gaffigan, and Emily Rutherfurd, with Diane Delano recurring.
Brothers Glen Gerald Charles and Les Charles are American screenwriters and television producers, best known for working on Taxi and co-creating Cheers.
Jay Henry Sandrich was an American television director who primarily worked on sitcoms. In 2020, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
Stanley Edwin Daniels was a Canadian-American screenwriter, producer and director, who won eight Emmy Awards for his work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi.
Edwin B. "Ed." Weinberger is an American screenwriter and television producer.
"The Last Show" is the 168th episode and series finale of the television sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and it was written by Allan Burns, James L. Brooks, Ed Weinberger, Stan Daniels, David Lloyd, and Bob Ellison. Internationally, it was first aired in Canada on CBC Television, March 18, 1977 at 8 p.m. In the U.S., it was one day later on Saturday, March 19, on CBS.
David Gibbs Lloyd was an American screenwriter and producer for television.
David Davis was an American television producer and television writer. He co-created the sitcoms The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi. He also wrote, produced, and developed the sitcom Rhoda, co-starring his partner Julie Kavner. He also wrote and produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show, off of which Rhoda was spun. In 1979, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his producing work on Taxi.
The Ted Knight Show is an American sitcom television series starring Ted Knight which centers on the owner of an escort service in New York City. The series aired on CBS from April 8, 1978 to May 13, 1978.