TV and movie writer David Steven Cohen, 58, died of cancer, it was announced on March 17. Cohen’s breakthrough project was the animated 1995 film Balto, he also wrote for such TV series as Alf, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and Living Single. His style was goofiness with an edge, and in 1999 Cohen got what would be his best-remembered show, Courage the Cowardly Dog, about a ZaSu Pitts-like fretting dog who lives in Kansas and is constantly deluged with disasters. Cohen was also a lyricist and composer whose work was featured in Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. He said, “I went to a huge Brooklyn school, surrounded by brilliant, inspiring teachers and students. It was a creative playground. During those years, I discovered how much I really did want to be in the arts, to write stories and songs, to create images, to perform – and to share the glorious experience in collaboration with like-minded pals and colleagues – and then to celebrate it all with the unvarnished elation of teenagers after a school show.”
Related Posts
