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Six degrees of Joss Whedon

by Bob Sassone, posted Jan 23rd 2007 2:30PM

Dick Van Dyke ShowSo I was watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show this weekend. What does this have to do with Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Firefly mastermind Joss Whedon? Read on.

The episode I was watching was "Scratch My Car and Die," the one where Rob buys a new sports car and Laura accidentally scratches it while shopping. Watching the credits (I often watch the credits to see who was in an episode and then I run to the comptuer to check the IMdB to see what else they've done, if they're still alive, etc) I noticed that it was written by someone named John Whedon. Now, Whedon isn't the most common name, and he did work in television, so I checked and...yup, it's Joss Whedon's grandfather! He wrote another episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show and also wrote episodes of Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, and several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (though it's hard to figure out how many exactly with the IMdB's odd credits system).

Whedon died in 1991.

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toodles

FYI, imdb's older credits are beyond spotty, so I'd be willing to believe that both Joss' dad and grandad have more credits than they're given credit for... :)

January 23 2007 at 5:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kyle K.

Odd that the post was changed without any "Updated" note to reflect it. Bob, if you make a mistake, changing the post doesn't eliminate the error.

A good blogger notes such mistakes by adding an update to announce the error and its correction...not by simply changing the post as if it was always correct.

But, I ask again...do you READ the articles you blog about? Skimming doesn't count. :)

January 23 2007 at 3:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Douglin

Joss isn't the only 3rd gen. TV writer any more, his brother Zack wrote an episode of Deadwood Last year.

January 23 2007 at 2:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Justin

I had noticed this myself before when watching the Dick Van Dyke Show. I think it's widely believed that Joss Whedon is the first (only?) third generation television writer, since his father Tom Whedon was also a TV writer.

January 23 2007 at 2:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BillS

Joss's dad also wrote for television, Benson being the only show I can think of off the top of my head, but he was a career writer. Talented family, it seems.

January 23 2007 at 2:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Umm... the link you have says it's his grandfather.

January 23 2007 at 2:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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