Jess Oppenheimer

Jess Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer with Vivian Vance, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz at an I Love Lucy press party, 1955.
Born	Jessurun James Oppenheimer (1913-11-11)November 11, 1913 San Francisco, U.S.
Died	December 27, 1988(1988-12-27) (aged 75) Los Angeles, U.S.
Education	Stanford University
Occupation	radio, television writer, producer, director, and producer, head writer of I Love Lucy
Years active	1934-1987
Spouse(s)	Estelle Weiss, 1947-1988, his death
Children	Gregg Oppenheimer, Jo Oppenheimer Davis

Jessurun James "Jess" Oppenheimer (November 11, 1913 – December 27, 1988) was an American radio and television writer, producer, and director, was producer and head writer of the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.

Lucille Ball called Oppenheimer “the brains” behind I Love Lucy. As series creator, producer, and head writer, “Jess was the creative force behind the ‘Lucy’ show,” according to I Love Lucy director William Asher. “He was the field general. Jess presided over all the meetings, and ran the whole show. He was very sharp.”

He was born in to a secular Jewish family in San Francisco, where in the third grade he was chosen as a subject of Stanford University professor Lewis Terman's study of gifted children. His assistant noted in Oppenheimer's file, "I could detect no signs of a sense of humor."

During his junior year at Stanford during the 1930s, Oppenheimer visited the studios of radio station KFRC in San Francisco, and soon started spending all his spare time there. He made his broadcast debut performing a comedy sketch he'd written on the station's popular coast-to-coast comedy-variety radio program, Blue Monday Jamboree.

In 1936, Oppenheimer moved to Hollywood, where in his first week he was hired as a comedy writer on Fred Astaire's radio program. When Astaire's show ended the following year, Oppenheimer landed a job as a radio gag writer for Jack Benny. He later wrote comedy for such other variety programs as the "Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy," "The Lifebuoy Program starring Al Jolson," "The Gulf Screen Guild Show," and "The Rudy Vallee Program." As a staff writer on those programs, Oppenheimer wrote sketch comedy for many Hollywood stars, including Fanny Brice, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Bob Hope, and Ginger Rogers.