Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Big Eddie

Big Eddie aired on CBS from August until November 1975.

Eddie Smith ( Sheldon Leonard), was a reformed gambler who was trying to make it as the owner-promoter of New York's Big E Sports Arena. Despite the gruff exterior, accentuated by the thickest New York accent ever heard on television, Eddie was a softie at heart and really wanted to broaden his intellectual horizons and improve his manners. His family consisted of his wife Honey ( Sheree North),an ex-stripper; his granddaughter Ginger ( Quinn Cummings), and his brother Jesse( Alan Oppenheimer), the accountant for Eddie's business. Bang Bang ( Billy Sands) was Eddie's cook, and Raymond ( Ralph Wilcox), a stereo-typed jive talking young black man working for Eddie. Big Eddie was given a pre-season preview run on Saturday nights before moving into a Friday time period, but it faded quickly when pitted against Sanford And Son, it's regular competion in September.

Created by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff

Here is Sheldon Leonard's Obituary from The New York Times.

Sheldon Leonard, Film Actor And TV Producer, Dies at 89

By FRANK BRUNI
Published: January 13, 1997

Sheldon Leonard, whose performances as snarling underworld figures in scores of Hollywood movies in the 1940's gave way to an equally prolific career producing and directing some of the most popular shows on television in the 60's, died on Friday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 89.

Mr. Leonard's long, varied career pegged him as a Renaissance man of the entertainment industry, moving fluidly between theater and film, radio and television, acting and writing, directing and producing.

His Brooklyn accent, imposing six-foot frame and sinister face, which was sometimes decorated with a cigar, were indelible stamps on more than 150 movies, beginning with ''The Thin Man'' and including ''Guys and Dolls,'' ''A Pocketful of Miracles'' and ''It's a Wonderful Life,'' in which he played the bartender who ejected James Stewart.

It was in television, however, that Mr. Leonard, a man renowned for his unshakable confidence in his own abilities and his unassailable instincts about what viewers wanted, found his greatest wealth and made his greatest impact.

''Sheldon was one of the pioneers of situation comedy in television,'' said Chuck Warn, a spokesman for the Directors Guild of America, on whose board Mr. Leonard had served for the last 39 years.

Mr. Leonard appreciated early on the ascendancy of television as a popular art form. ''It occupies a sizable portion of the waking time of the majority of the people in this country,'' Mr. Leonard told a reporter in 1965, when three shows he helped create -- ''The Dick Van Dyke Show,'' ''The Andy Griffith Show'' and ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.'' -- were among the 10 with the highest Nielsen ratings.

''It conditions their thinking,'' Mr. Leonard added. ''It influences their attitudes. It has changed the nature of the American family.''

Mr. Leonard's comedies reassured Americans of their innocence in the late 1950's to mid-60's in much the same way that Norman Lear's comedies would capture their cynicism in the 70's and Aaron Spelling's dramas would distill their greed and narcissism in the 80's and early 90's.

Mr. Leonard won two Emmy Awards, in 1957 and 1961, for his directing work on ''The Danny Thomas Show'' and a third Emmy in 1970 for producing ''My World and Welcome to It,'' a situation comedy based loosely on the writings of James Thurber. He also had a hand in an important television milestone, producing the comedy-adventure ''I Spy,'' which made Bill Cosby the first black star of a program on a major network.

''What he likes in his gut the public likes in their guts,'' a fellow producer once said of him. ''On television, that's worth more than a crystal ball.''

Mr. Leonard, whose original name was Sheldon Leonard Bershad, was born in New York City in 1907. The son of a salesman, he attended Syracuse University on an athletic scholarship and excelled there academically as well, becoming a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

After his graduation in 1929, he headed to Wall Street, beginning a job on Black Friday, when the stock market crashed. His stint there was understandably brief. In the ensuing years, he thrashed about for a career, working as a longshoreman, lifeguard and printing salesman.

He also began to win roles in theatrical productions, eventually appearing on Broadway in the 1930's in ''Fly Away Home'' and ''Kiss the Boys Goodbye,'' among other plays. Hollywood beckoned, leading him to move there in 1940, but what it had in mind for Mr. Leonard was largely a string of similar characters with such names as Louie, Lefty and Blackie.

He craved more control and eventually secured it, selling his first television script in 1950. He subsequently went to work on the situation comedy ''Make Room for Daddy'' (later retitled ''The Danny Thomas Show''), on which he served alternately as a director and an executive producer. He wrote for the show as well and played a recurring role as Mr. Thomas's agent.

Mr. Leonard's critics sometimes faulted his comedies for being bland, cloying and relentlessly domestic, with sugar-coated views of life's problems and their resolutions. Mr. Leonard was always ready to offer a contrasting point of view.

''Television requires familiar fare because of the conditions under which the material is viewed,'' he once said. ''It is viewed at home, as a form of relaxation. It is viewed between the upturned, unshod feet and with a can of beer at hand. The homely situation comedy is well adapted to this kind of viewing.''

Mr. Leonard's other television credits included ''My Favorite Martian,'' ''The Joey Bishop Show'' and ''The Bill Dana Show.'' In 1975, he starred in ''Big Eddie,'' a short-lived comedy on CBS. In 1994, he served as executive producer, along with Bill Cosby, of a special, ''I Spy Returns.''

Mr. Leonard was inducted recently into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He served the Director Guild's secretary-treasurer from 1973 until his death.

He is survived by his wife, Frances, a son, Stephen Bershad, of Santa Fe, N.M., a daughter, Andrea Bershad, of Beverly Hills, and four grandchildren.

For more on Big Eddie go to www.oldtvtickets.com/archives1/2006/01/big_eddie.html