Allan Burns moved to Los Angeles in 1956 intending to pursue a career as a cartoonist or commercial artist. After being laid off from his job as a page at NBC, he did begin earning a living as a cartoonist for greeting cards. He soon moved to television, employed in 1962 by Jay Ward on the cartoon series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show. Burns then formed a partnership with Chris Hayward, and they created The Munsters, perhaps an obvious next step for a cartoonist. Burns then moved on to the comedy series He and She, where he won the first of six Emmy Awards for his writing. Of that series Burns says, “That was my first great experience, creating character rather than gimmicks.” On He and She, he met Jay Sandrich, who was directing the show.

Hayward and Burns then became story editors for Get Smart, where they worked with Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and where Sandrich also worked for a time as a producer. Following that experience, the Burns-Hayward partnership dissolved, and in 1969 Burns saw the pilot of Room 222 (created by James L. Brooks), liked it, and began to write for the show. When Brooks took a leave to do a movie, Grant Tinker, the executive in charge of programming, asked Burns to produce Room 222.

At about this same time, Tinker received a 13-week commitment from CBS for an undeveloped series starring Mary Tyler Moore, to whom he was then married. CBS agreed that the project was to be under the complete control of Tinker and Moore; Tinker approached Burns and Brooks and asked them to collaborate to develop a show. As Burns remembers, “We had this remarkable situation where we had an office and an on-air commitment and nothing else.”

The group rejected the idea of a domestic comedy and determined to portray a woman who was 30 years old, unmarried, and employed “somewhere.” Burns recalls that they had to explain “30 and unmarried” to the network, so “We thought, ‘Ah! here is our chance to do a divorce.’” CBS would have no part of that idea, however, and the executives in New York sent word to Tinker, “Get rid of those guys.” He refused. Instead, the creators changed the plot to begin with Mary having just ended a failed love affair. The pilot was made, Allan Burns moved to Los Angeles in 1956 intending to pursue a career as a cartoonist or commercial artist. After being laid off from his job as a page at NBC, he did begin earning a living as a cartoonist for greeting cards. He soon moved to television, employed in 1962 by Jay Ward on the cartoon series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show. Burns then formed a partnership with Chris Hayward, and they created The Munsters, perhaps an obvious next step for a cartoonist. Burns then moved on to the comedy series He and She, where he won the first of six Emmy Awards for his writing. Of that series Burns says, “That was my first great experience, creating character rather than gimmicks.” On He and She, he met Jay Sandrich, who was directing the show.

Hayward and Burns then became story editors for Get Smart, where they worked with Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and where Sandrich also worked for a time as a producer. Following that experience, the Burns-Hayward partnership dissolved, and in 1969 Burns saw the pilot of Room 222 (created by James L. Brooks), liked it, and began to write for the show. When Brooks took a leave to do a movie, Grant Tinker, the executive in charge of programming, asked Burns to produce Room 222.

At about this same time, Tinker received a 13-week commitment from CBS for an undeveloped series starring Mary Tyler Moore, to whom he was then married. CBS agreed that the project was to be under the complete control of Tinker and Moore; Tinker approached Burns and Brooks and asked them to collaborate to develop a show. As Burns remembers, “We had this remarkable situation where we had an office and an on-air commitment and nothing else.”

The group rejected the idea of a domestic comedy and determined to portray a woman who was 30 years old, unmarried, and employed “somewhere.” Burns recalls that they had to explain “30 and unmarried” to the network, so “We thought, ‘Ah! here is our chance to do a divorce.’” CBS would have no part of that idea, however, and the executives in New York sent word to Tinker, “Get rid of those guys.” He refused. Instead, the creators changed the plot to begin with Mary having just ended a failed love affair. The pilot was made, with Sandrich directing, and one of television’s landmark series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, was on its way.

In 1977, when the show concluded after 168 episodes, most of the writing staff moved to Paramount with long-term contracts. Burns, however, decided to stay with Tinker and joined with Gene Reynolds to create Lou Grant. Despite the fact that it essentially reinvented the Lou Grant character, the series was a major success, and soon became part of the CBS Monday-night response to ABC football.

Burns also directed his talent to the writing of feature films, one being the highly praised A Little Romance, starring Laurence Olivier, for which Burns received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay Adaptation. Burns left MTM in 1991 after developing several other TV series.

Calm and persuasive, Allan Burns combines outstanding talent with an ability to work extremely well with a variety of competing personalities. Observing him on the set of a series in production, one senses that he quickly commands both trust and respect from those with whom he collaborates. Director Sandrich sums it up well, “Allan is the best.”