Henry Sharp obit

Henry Sharp(1912-2019)

 He was not on the list.

Henry Sharp was born on June 25, 1912 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Wild Wild West (1965), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Mission: Impossible (1966). He died on January 9, 2019 in the USA.

Henry Sharp wrote some of the best episodes of THE WILD, WILD WEST and was the only writer to survive all four seasons and work with all the major producers. At the time Michael Garrison approached him to write a script he was already involved in TV but was mostly as a commercial artist where he could take his ideas and sketch out the gimmicks and give them to the construction department. After creating some of the first's season most memorable shows, such as his first script "TNot Assassin" (for Freiberger), "TNot Puppeteer" (for Mantley) and "TNot Druid's Blood" (for Coon), when Bruce Lansbury took over the reins, he made Sharp story editor.

Sharp relates, "The show had obviously been running a while before I came on as story editor and I think by working with so many of the different producers, I knew the show better than anybody else. But off all the ones I did, my favorite one has to be "Puppeteer." The actor who played the puppet master (Lloyd Bochner) was great and the idea of the big switch at the end was beautiful. Of course the fight scene with Bob earlier on against the puppets, a caveman and joker were also marvelous. And then when he realizes that someone else is in charge and he makes his way to this wonderfully constructed stairway to the tip of the spider's web, so to speak, where our friend was pulling the wires that controlled the controller. It was a good show and actually quite colorful and it's a pity that the audience will never get to see that. And that final scene where they are racing for the door with the onrushing ocean behind them was an effective shot."

The stock footage they used for the gigantic blasting ocean shot was the same one used in the fourth season's "TNot Kraken." In his second written episode, "TNot Howling Light," we are introduced to a Dr. Arcularis who use Pavlov's newly discovered conditioned response experiment on humans to modify there behavior to do what he wants when there is a bright light or bell rung. A Dr. Occularis uses Sharp's mind controlling technique in season four's "TNot Winged Terror." DP Photography Ted Voigtlander received an Emmy Award nomination for "Howling Light." Sharp also makes a poignant statement on the plight of the Indians and their eventual ousting to small reservations.

As a writer, Sharp admits that he was heavily influenced by the English play "The Inspector Calls" stating, "It had a certain aura about it that I have never forgotten. It has a wonderful blend of the unexplainable, inexplicable and it's a show involving a group of people and how they destroy one another on their way to the truth and at the end you're still not quite sure who was the madman. Take my Count Manzeppi episode ("TNot Feathery Fury"), it has a lot of science fiction in it but he's so wonderfully blasé and a good example of the play. It's also one of my favorite episodes. What stands out in that show is when he says "lights" and the light just flared up in is domain. I forget where it was but it was wonderful in that period of time for the light to respond to his order and flair up and illuminate the whole place. I also just love that mystic quality about it."

After writing "TNot Druid's Blood" for Gene Coon, a story that spoke of spontaneous combustion and an evil scientist's method of keeping brains alive in an aqueous solution and using that brain's intelligence for his own purposes, he next wrote "TNot Golden Cobra" which starred Boris Karloff and saw West use the "Corbomite Maneuver." Sharp reflects on Karloff, Conrad and Martin. "Karloff hated kids but I loved this guy. He played a sultan in the United States. Wonderful guy.

"Ross was eager to try something new and would measure up to whatever was written for his new characterization. Bob didn't want to do that, Bob felt that this show was as he put it, "his (Martin's) accent box" and he wanted to do it just the way he had always done it, with fighting and kicking.

"I must tell you parenthetically. When CBS called us in, there was a big to do about an exaggerated degree of violence in all the shows and so we all thought what can we do about it. For my part it's possible to devise scenes that are not so much violence as a clever way of getting around and defeating the villain facing you. Bob didn't like giving up his fight scenes and thought this is what he did well and wanted to continue doing it. But as much as possible I tried to devise methods and shticks where he could defeat odds against him not with his fists but with clever ways of undermining the opposition. I write the action scenes and Bob would want to extend them. It was his show and you didn't argue with him because he was happy with his stunt team and they're always together and they would always work on bits to stick into the show."

In the second season he wrote a great script for Ricardo Montalban to play a wheelchair ridden anti-villain who had the power to use his mind to transport people through time warps. Regarding the origins of "TNot Lord of Limbo" Sharp relates, "There has always been a ferment of ideas that I've always been playing around with that could do well on the show. I was amazed that Garrison gave me the go ahead for that one because it involved science fiction of the highest order, H.G. Wells and time travel. Artemus and West had a dueling scene in an earlier era and it worked well. Ross did his own fencing. He had immaculate acting credentials that Bob with all his abilities didn't have. But that was okay because Bob did what he did best and Ross was capable of chameleon changes.

"But you know with the character for Ricardo, it's an absolute necessity to create characters you care for, doesn't mean you like them though, but it's a quality we try to infuse into the show. Just like for my Loveless story ("The Night Loveless Died") and the one show he did where he errected a knight and he operated that and in this way he was on more even terms or actually had the advantage so he could now finally engage in hand to hand combat with West ("TNot Murderous Spring"). It was his way of saying "I want to kill him but to kill him on equal terms. You can respect that in him even if he is bad.""

In the final season, Sharp wrote 2 scripts, one "TNot Gruesome Games" which guest starred William Schallert who would later appear a replacement for Martin during his illness and the other, "TNot Avaricious Actuary" where West and Gordon tackle a villain who has invented a giant destructive tuning fork. One of his great lines in that episode sums up the Secret Service in a nutshell. West and Gordon charge into a rich man's home who yells, "What the devil?" Gordon politely replies, "No, Secret Service."

Sharp recalls watching his episodes as well as the shows, "I watched each show with a great deal of pain because I felt they were directed badly. They weren't the best directors (33 different ones) and it seemed most were obsessed with getting things done under budget and fast, so it suffered. I don't think a lot of them quite read the script and were amazed they didn't quit know what they knew it was about. Directors are always thinking of their next assignment. On occasion when I watched the show in progress I'd walk out of the screening room not understanding what was going on."

Sharp's fondest memories of the show? "What was really delightful about the show though was that Garrison said to do what I wanted and he'd say, "Make my show the best in the world." He wasn't happy with the way the show was going which is why he had me come in. It was the custom when I was story editor to write as many as I could but I really didn't have time, but I tried to rewrite a lot of the episodes not because the material was bad but just to give the show a consistent quality. If I had any suggestions for casting it was a done deal. It wasn't my job to be a producer but he would listen to new ideas and was delighted with changes that gave the show color. I don't think he was well liked by CBS. He had this battle with them all the time but in spite of it, he had a good show going for himself."

 

Writer

Michael Roberds, John DeSantis, Steven Fox, Nicole Fugere, Ellie Harvie, Betty Phillips, Brody Smith, and Glenn Taranto in The New Addams Family (1998)

The New Addams Family

6.4

TV Series

teleplay byteleplay

1999

2 episodes

 

Korg: 70,000 B.C. (1974)

Korg: 70,000 B.C.

6.9

TV Series

written by

1974

1 episode

 

Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974)

Valley of the Dinosaurs

6.6

TV Series

Writer

1974–1976

 

Adam West, Norman Alden, Jack Angel, Michael Rye, William Callaway, Danny Dark, Shannon Farnon, Casey Kasem, and Ted Knight in Super Friends (1973)

Super Friends

7.2

TV Series

story

1973

16 episodes

 

The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (1972)

The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan

6.2

TV Series

story

1972

15 episodes

 

Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead, and Dick York in Bewitched (1964)

Bewitched

7.6

TV Series

written by

1970–1972

3 episodes

 

Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Peter Graves, Peter Lupus, and Greg Morris in Mission: Impossible (1966)

Mission: Impossible

7.9

TV Series

storyteleplay

1970–1971

2 episodes

 

Robert Brown, Bobby Sherman, and David Soul in Here Come the Brides (1968)

Here Come the Brides

7.6

TV Series

writer

1969

1 episode

 

Robert Conrad and Ross Martin in The Wild Wild West (1965)

The Wild Wild West

8.1

TV Series

writerwritten byteleplay ...

1965–1968

10 episodes

 

Jackie Coogan, John Astin, Marie Blake, Ted Cassidy, Carolyn Jones, Lisa Loring, and Ken Weatherwax in The Addams Family (1964)

The Addams Family

8.0

TV Series

teleplay by

1965

5 episodes

 

Bea Benaderet, Edgar Buchanan, Smiley Burnette, Frank Cady, Rufe Davis, Linda Henning, Gunilla Hutton, Meredith MacRae, Mike Minor, Jeannine Riley, Lori Saunders, and Pat Woodell in Petticoat Junction (1963)

Petticoat Junction

7.0

TV Series

story

1964

1 episode

 

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

7.7

TV Series

teleplay

1964

1 episode

 

McHale's Navy (1962)

McHale's Navy

7.4

TV Series

story

1964

1 episode

 

"Academy Awards: 36th Annual," Natalie Wood.  1964.

The 36th Annual Academy Awards

6.8

TV Special

written by

1964

 

Ron Howard, Frances Bavier, and Andy Griffith in The Andy Griffith Show (1960)

The Andy Griffith Show

8.4

TV Series

written by

1963

1 episode

 

Bob Denver and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959)

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

7.7

TV Series

teleplay

1962

1 episode

 

Pete and Gladys (1960)

Pete and Gladys

7.3

TV Series

written by

1961–1962

2 episodes

 

The Donna Reed Show (1958)

The Donna Reed Show

7.4

TV Series

written byteleplay

1958–1961

9 episodes

 

Robert Cummings in The Bob Cummings Show (1961)

The Bob Cummings Show

7.3

TV Series

written by

1961

1 episode

 

The Tom Ewell Show (1960)

The Tom Ewell Show

7.1

TV Series

written by

1961

1 episode

 

The Ann Sothern Show (1958)

The Ann Sothern Show

7.8

TV Series

Writer

1958–1960

4 episodes

 

Bachelor Father (1957)

Bachelor Father

7.2

TV Series

written by

1959

1 episode

 

Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Kathleen Nolan in The Real McCoys (1957)

The Real McCoys

7.6

TV Series

written by

1957–1959

7 episodes

 

Target (1958)

Target

7.3

TV Series

teleplay

1958

1 episode

 

Richard Carlson in Mackenzie's Raiders (1958)

Mackenzie's Raiders

7.4

TV Series

written by

1958

1 episode

 

The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna (1956)

The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna

7.8

TV Series

written by

1958

1 episode

 

Additional Crew

Robert Conrad and Ross Martin in The Wild Wild West (1965)

The Wild Wild West

8.1

TV Series

story consultantstory editor

1966–1969

72 episodes