Sam Strangis , an Emmy-nominated CSI and CSI: Miami producer and Paramount exec and whose career dates back to classic 1960s and ’70s TV shows including Batman , The Brady Bunch and Happy Days, has died. He was 95. His family told Deadline that Strangis died July 23 of kidney failure at Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, CA, but the news had not been reported.
Strangis’ TV career spanned six decades, from directing NBC’s 1957-59 antebellum western The Restless Gun through the wildly successful first two seasons of CBS’ Crime Scene Investigation and spinoff CSI: Miami . He racked up dozens of credits along the way, also serving as Paramount’s VP of TV Production in the mid-’70s. Born on June 19, 1929, in Tacoma, WA, Strangis began his career as a script supervisor at Revue Studios, leading his directing multiple episodes The Restless Gun .
He went on to serve as production manager for the entire 1966-68 run of ABC’s tongue-in-cheek superhero series Batman , also directing some episodes. The show fronted by Adam West and Burt Ward never was a ratings success but gained camp-classic status in reruns. Strangis then moved to Paramount Studios, where he was head of production and guided such memorable series as The Odd Couple ; The Brady Bunch ; Love, American Style ; Mannix ; Mission: Impossible ; Happy Days and its spinoff Laverne & Shirley.
With his then-producing partner Don Boyle, Strangis left Paramount to produce Universal’s ambitious new ABC .
