Thad Mumford, Emmy-winning black TV writer who blazed a trail writing for white shows in the 1970s, dies at 67

The New York Times

Mumford wrote for M*A*S*H and Maude in the 1970s, when black writers in white writers' rooms were extremely rare. Mumford, who won an Emmy for The Electric Company, also wrote for black shows like Good Times and A Different World, as well as white shows like Coach and ALF. "I don’t want to be called a black writer or a black producer,” he once said. “I’m a producer and a writer who happens to be black.”