Alan Sacks, Co-Creator of ‘Welcome Back Kotter’ and TV Producer, Dies at 81

Film and TV writer-producer Alan Sacks, who had an eclectic career that included co-creating the popular 1970s series “Welcome Back, Kotter” and working on projects set in the 1980s L.A. punk scene, died of complications from lymphoma on Tuesday in New York. He was 81.

Sacks was born in Brooklyn and started his career in the research department of ABC Television. After moving to Los Angeles, he continued working at ABC as a program executive. Along with Gabe Kaplan and Peter Meyerson, he helped develop and co-create “Welcome Back, Kotter,” basing the sitcom on his high school friends in Brooklyn and on Kaplan’s stand-up routine.

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He also worked on “Chico and the Man,” created by “Welcome Back, Kotter” executive producer James Komack.

In 1991, Sacks created and produced a Saturday morning children’s show, “Riders in the Sky,” for CBS, which replaced the “Pee-Wee Herman Show.”

During the 1970s and ’80s, he produced made-for-TV movies including “Women at West Point,” “Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story” and “A Cry for Love.”

In 1984, after working on a project about L.A. band The Runaways that didn’t come to fruition, he incorporated the footage into the film “Du-Beat-e-o,” set against the L.A. punk scene. The film, about a director working on a tight deadline to finish a movie starring Joan Jett, starred Ray Sharkey and Derf Scratch of the band Fear.

Sacks also wrote and produced the skateboarding film “Thrashin’,” starring Josh Brolin, Robert Rusler and Pamela Gidley, featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers in their first appearance in a movie.

Among the documentaries he produced were “Elko: The Cowboy Gathering” and “His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Compassion as a Source of Happiness.”

Sacks moved into producing films for the Disney Channel, starting with “Smart House.” The Emmy-winning 2000 “The Color of Friendship” received awards from Humanitas and the NAACP. He was also the executive producer of “Camp Rock” and “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam,” starring Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers. Also for Disney Channel, he worked on “The Other Me,” “Pixel Perfect” and “You Wish.” He produced the TV series “Jonas” and the film “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience,” and went on to work at the Jonas Brothers company.

He also wrote, directed and co-produced the Off Broadway production “Lenny Bruce (In His Own Words).”

While producing for Disney Channel, Sacks began teaching at Los Angeles Valley College, and taught film, TV and broadcasting until his retirement in 2007.

His final production was the podcast “Peter & the Acid King” about the unsolved 1984 murder of his friend Peter Ivers, host of the series “New Wave Theatre.” For the 2023 podcast, he interviewed more than 70 people looking for answers about Ivers’ death.

Sacks is survived by his wife, talent agent Annette van Duren, daughters Samantha Sacks and Shannon Sacks, a son, Austin and a sister, Jodi.