Gary David Goldberg, the Emmy-winning creator of "Family Ties," died on June 23 of brain cancer, Variety reported. He was 68.
Born in Brooklyn, Goldberg was raised in a home with a close, extended family that was headed by a strong matriarch, his grandmother. He was a huge sports fan and a wanderer who had a bit of trouble figuring out what he wanted to be when he grew up.
Goldberg's collegiate career, which he described as "prolonged and checkered," involved attending numerous schools, including Brandeis University and San Diego State University. He only decided to become a scriptwriter at the urging of one of his professors.
Goldberg was working as a waiter at the Village Gate club in Greenwich Village in 1969 when he met his wife and the love his life, Dr. Diana Meehan. They were a couple of hippies -- a product of their time -- and spent the early part of their marriage traveling around the world, then running a day care center in Berkeley, Calif. Their relationship would later serve as the backdrop of one of the most popular TV shows of all time.
Goldberg broke into show business in the mid-1970s, penning scripts for "The Bob Newhart Show," "Lou Grant," "The Tony Randall Show" and "The Last Resort." He won his first Emmy Award in 1977 for his work on the CBS drama "Lou Grant," a spin-off of the successful series "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
In 1981, Goldberg formed his own production company, UBU Productions. He would eventually produce nine TV shows, including the CBS program "Brooklyn Bridge," a semi-autobiographical series about his childhood.
UBU Productions' first endeavor, however, was "Family Ties," a half-hour comedy about two left-wing parents raising three children, including a son who was very conservative. By its third season, "Family Ties" had become part of NBC's much-touted and wildly popular "Must-See TV" Thursday night lineup. The show, which ran for seven seasons, earned Goldberg a second Emmy and transformed a very young actor by the name of Michael J. Fox into a star.
Goldberg later reunited with Fox for "Spin City," another popular comedy that aired for six seasons on ABC. Interestingly, Fox once told Goldberg that if he hadn't been cast in "Family Ties," he would have given up acting entirely and returned home to Canada. Instead Fox found fame and fortune on the big and small screens. Actress Tracy Pollan, who played Fox's girlfriend Ellen on "Family Ties," later became his wife.
Goldberg received numerous honors for his work in Hollywood, including a Golden Globe, a Peabody, two Writers Guild Awards, five Humanitas Awards, the Producers Guild Award and the Valentine Davis Award. He was also a member of the Broadcasting Magazine Hall of Fame.
Even if TV audiences didn't know his name, they certainly recognized Goldberg's labrador retriever, who appeared in the closing credits of each show with the memorable tagline "Sit, Ubu, sit." The tagline later served as the title of Goldberg's 2008 autobiography. The book also featured the hilarious subtitle: "How I went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the same woman, the same dog and a lot less hair."
But TV wasn't Goldberg's only medium, The Hollywood Reporter noted. He also wrote and directed the films "Dad," "Bye Bye Love" and "Must Love Dogs," and published several blog items for The Huffington Post.
Goldberg is survived by his wife and two daughters, Shana Goldberg-Meehan, the Emmy-winning writer and producer of "Friends"; and Cailin Goldberg-Meehan, a freelance writer and contributor to The Huffington Post.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story erred in the award announcement. Goldberg won an Emmy for his work on "Lou Grant," which was a spin-off of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," not the other way around. We regret the error.