Rita Lakin

Rita Lakin (née Weisinger; January 24, 1930 – March 23, 2023) was an American screenwriter, active from around 1962 to 1981.^[1] She has credits for 474 produced television scripts spanning 30 productions. She was also a novelist and author of The Only Woman In The Room, a memoir of her life as one of the first female show runners and one of the first women in television (released October 2015, Applause publishing). In fiction, Lakin created the Gladdy Gold Mystery seven-book series (published by Bantam Books), including Getting Old Is Murder, Getting Old Is The Best Revenge, and Getting Old Can Kill You.

Rita Weisinger was born in The Bronx, New York on January 24, 1930.^[2] She began writing regularly during the early 1960s for such television shows as The Doctors, Dr. Kildare and Peyton Place.

In 1968, she began working as story editor and head writer of The Mod Squad. In 1972, she created The Rookies. In 1977, she served as executive producer of the CBS TV adaptation of the 1954 film Executive Suite. She wrote numerous "Movies of the Week" including Women in Chains, and such miniseries as Strong Medicine and Voices of the Heart. In 1981, she developed the TV series adaptation and served as show-runner of Flamingo Road. In 1989, she co-created the medical drama Nightingales. She also wrote or co-authored two original theatrical plays, No Language But a Cry and Saturday Night at Grossinger's.^[3]

Rita Weisinger was first married to Hank Lakin, who died from leukemia due to exposure to radiation in the Santa Susana SRE Nuclear Reactor meltdown (1959) in 1961. She was later married, from 1972 to 1980, to director-producer Robert Michael Lewis, who predeceased her. Rita Lakin died in Novato, California, on March 23, 2023, at the age of 93.^[2] She was survived by her three children: Howard (b. 1952), Susan (b. 1956), and Gavin (b. 1960) and her four grandchildren: Alison, Megan, James, and Amara.

Rita Lakin won nominations and awards for her writing including the Writers Guild of America Award,^[4] the Edgar Allan Poe Award^[5] and the Avery Hopwood Award from the University of Michigan.^[3]

Rita Lakin wrote 464 episodes, eight movies of the week, and two miniseries, spanning 30 television productions. She was also the creator of the crime drama series The Rookies and the prime time soap Flamingo Road, and co-creator, with Howard Lakin and Frank Furino, of the medical drama Nightingales produced by Aaron Spelling.^[6]

• Rita Lakin at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Rita Lakin papers at the American Heritage Center