Sherry Coben, best known for creating the award-winning 1980s sitcom "Kate & Allie," died Wednesday of cancer at the age of 71 in Milford, New Jersey.
She grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and attended Swarthmore College and Cornell University.
Coben started out as a set designer and animator in Philadelphia before moving to New York City and becoming a writer on the children's television show "Hot Hero Sandwich," for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award.
She moved on to writing for the soap opera Ryan's Hope as the 1980s began, but transitioned to "Kate & Allie" in 1984.
The sitcom ran for the rest of the 1980s and was a top hit for CBS.
It featured Jane Curtin and Susan St. James as divorced mothers raising their children together, and it won several Emmys during its six-season, 122-episode run.
It was rare at the time to have a television show that focused mainly or solely on women's lives. According to Cohen, it's still rare.
In 2017, Cohen said about the show,
Three decades have passed, and it’s still rare for network execs to see there’s a huge audience hungry for shows about women expressly for women. You can count on two hands the number of female-driven shows since. I’d hoped to set more of a trend.
According to Deadline, Cohen also mentored other writers and artists. Her husband, Patrick McMahon is also a film producer of mostly reality shows, and the couple has two daughters.
Cohen worked on other projects, too.
She wrote a screenplay in 1985, “Love, Long Distance,” about a couple navigating a commuter marriage.
This work was based on her own marriage to McMahon. It was made into a TV movie in 1985.
She also created and wrote the web series, “Little Women, Big Cars.”
Her contribution to the entertainment world will not soon be forgotten.
