Bernard Slade, Tony nominated playwright who created TV’s ‘Partridge Family,’ 89

Bernard Slade, a Canadian writer for the stage and screen who created “The Partridge Family” and earned Tony and Oscar nominations for “Same Time, Next Year,” an adulterous romantic comedy that became one of Broadway’s most popular two-handers, died Oct. 30 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 89.

The cause was complications from Lewy body dementia, said his literary agent, Charlie Van Nostrand.

Slade was initially an actor who performed in more than 200 Canadian radio, television and stage productions before turning to writing at age 27, penning witty, romantic teleplays that landed him a job with the production company Screen Gems. He soon dashed off 17 episodes of “Bewitched,” starring Elizabeth Montgomery as a married witch in the suburbs.

Based in Los Angeles, he went on to develop or create a slew of 1960s and ‘70s sitcoms, including “Love on a Rooftop,” about newlyweds in San Francisco, and “The Flying Nun,” which starred Sally Field as Sister Bertrille, a novice nun who – through the grace of God and, somehow, the laws of physics – could catch a breeze and fly.

As she explained it, “When lift plus thrust is greater than load plus drag, anything can fly.”

Slade had considered developing a new sitcom using music when he saw six singing siblings and their mother perform on “The Tonight Show” hosted by Johnny Carson. The group, called the Cowsills, inspired “The Partridge Family,” which premiered on ABC in 1970 and ran for four seasons.

Like “The Monkees,” a popular ‘60s series about a manufactured pop band, “The Partridge Family” mixed typical sitcom plots with original musical numbers, including “I Think I Love You” and “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted,” largely recorded by professional musicians.