Allan Manings | TV comedy producer, 86

Allan Manings, 86, a television comedy writer and producer who created the situation comedy

One Day at a Time

with his late wife, actress Whitney Blake, died Wednesday in California.

Mr. Manings, who recently underwent surgery for esophageal cancer, died after going into cardiac arrest at his oncologist's office in Beverly Hills, said his stepdaughter, actress Meredith Baxter.

In a career that began in the 1950s, Mr. Manings wrote for TV shows such as Leave It to Beaver, McHale's Navy, and Petticoat Junction.

As a writer on the comedy sensation Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Mr. Manings was part of a team that won the 1968 Emmy for outstanding writing achievement in a musical or variety program.

He came into TV producer Norman Lear's fold as a writer and an executive producer on Good Times, the 1974-79 CBS sitcom about a black family living on the South Side of Chicago and starring John Amos, Esther Rolle, and Jimmie Walker.

Tapping his wife's memories of having been raised by a divorced mother and her own experiences as a divorced mother before they were married, Mr. Manings and Blake created One Day at a Time for Lear's company.

The 1975-84 CBS sitcom starred Bonnie Franklin as the mom and Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her teenage daughters. - Los Angeles Times