An appreciation: Sitcom writer Leonard Stern

One of classic TV's funnymen, Stern wrote for "The Honeymooners" (including the above episode), "Get Smart," and "The Phil Silvers Show," among many other shows. He died Tuesday of heart failure. Stern was 87. From THR:

Stern penned "Abbott & Costello in the Foreign Legion" (1950) and a pair of "Ma & Pa Kettle" films before his stint on The Jackie Gleason Show, where he wrote Honeymooners sketches for the variety show and the series it spawned. "It's funny, and it deals with hope and dreams," Stern said of "The Honeymooners" in an interview with the Archive of American Television. "It makes you comfortable that you're not them. I don't know, it's kind of a mystery. Gleason used to say, 'It's funny and it's never going to go out of style because it makes you laugh and it's not current.'"