Richard Eustis, an Emmy-award winning screenwriter and co-creator of 1986 ABC sitcom “Head of the Class,” died Oct. 30 at the age of 86 in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Eustis served as one-half of the writing team Eustis and Elias, along with writer and director Michael Elias, who together created the high school sitcom, which ran for five seasons from 1986 to 1991. The show followed a group of gifted high school students in the Individualized Honors Program at a fictional Manhattan high school called Millard Fillmore, along with their history teacher Charlie Moore, who was portrayed by Howard Hesseman. The actor left the show before its fifth season and was replaced by Billy Connolly, who played a teacher named Billy MacGregor. Connolly’s efforts netted him a spin-off show in 1992 for the network called “Billy,” which Eustis and Elias co-created and which ran for 13 episodes.
The original show received the revival treatment in 2021 through HBO Max, developed by Amy Pocha and Seth Cohen. The reboot series ran for one ten-episode season on the streamer, releasing the entire season all at once on Nov. 4, before HBO announced in December last year that it would not be moving forward with a second season.
Elsewhere, Eustis wrote episodes of shows such as “Scrubs,” “Tall Hopes,” “Eye to Eye” and others. He got his start in television writing on variety shows for musicians Dean Martin and John Denver before eventually pairing up with creative partner Elias. Eustis won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding PvNew, Music or Comedy Special for “An Evening with John Denver” in 1975.
Eustis was born on November 21, 1935 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Growing up, he was touted as a football star and previously worked as a journalist before moving to Los Angeles to start his career in television.
Eustis is survived by his wife, Tiana, sons John and Ronald, daughter Madeleine, son-in-law Marcel Samek, grandson Julian Eustis Samek and granddaughters Colette Eustis Samek and Linh Eustis. His daughter-in-law, Oanh Ly, is also a television writer and producer. He is preceded in death by his eldest daughter Sandy Eustis, who was a script supervisor.
