Our esteemed synagogue president, Lee Miller, was part of a recent panel at the PaleyFest Rewind Event at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, celebrating television’s first musical situation comedy, “That’s Life,” for which he served as a producer.  Also participating on the panel were the show’s stars Robert Morse (who starred in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Sugar,” among others on Broadway and who now stars in television’s “Mad Men”) and E. J. Peaker (“Hello Dolly”) and the show’s producer director, Stan Harris and writer, Bob Ellison.

 A unique series of the 1960s, and yet somehow unjustly forgotten with the passing years, ABC’s “That’s Life” combined the sensibilities of both a situation comedy and a musical variety show. Created by Marvin Marx, the hour-long program followed the life of a newly married couple, played by Robert Morse and E.J. Peaker, through comedy sketches, monologues, songs, and dances, while hosting such guest stars as Sid Caesar, the Muppets, Louis Armstrong, Liza Minnelli, Tony Randall, and Ethel Merman. An episode of the ground-breaking series was screened followed by a hilarious panel discussion.

Photos (from left) Lee Miller, Bob Ellison, Stan Harris, E.J. Peaker, Robert Morse and moderator Rene Reyes, program coordinator for the Paley Center for Media: