One of television's most prolific talents, Howard Leeds literally grew up in the entertainment industry: After a childhood acting career that landed him numerous film roles, Leeds signed on as a mailroom boy at MGM Studios to learn the behind-the-scenes craft of television and quickly moved up through the ranks.
Over the past thirty years, Leeds has been involved with television's most successful series, producing and writing hundreds of shows for both film and tape. For six years he served as executive producer and head writer for The Brady Bunch, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, developed the hit series Facts of Life, and co-created Silver Spoons. A veteran of television's most popular and longest-running series, Leeds has written for Barney Miller, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Bewitched and The Phil Silvers Show, among many others. He has produced and written variety specials for many top name stars, including Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Mary Martin, George Gobel, Red Skelton, Andy Williams, Tom Jones, Benny Hill, Paul Anka and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Leeds' work spans the fields of drama, mystery, comedy and musical variety, and he's worked extensively both in the United States and abroad, including projects in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia and Australia.
From 1976 to 1978, Leeds served as executive producer of drama and comedy for television and motion pictures for Reg Grundy Productions of Australia; prior to that affiliation, he was responsible for the development of new projects, both comedy and drama, for MGM Studios. Instrumental in many successful prime-time television projects, Leeds has been affiliated with all three networks during the course of his career.
Leeds' ability to incorporate contemporary themes into his television projects can be readily seen in Small Wonder. "The idea of a child robot dropped into a comedy situation is a natural evolution for today's video generation. Vicki the robot is more fun than computer games!" says Leeds.