Biography
Stuart Shostak began his career in television in 1974 as a studio audience procurer and became a warm-up comedian in 1982 when the regular comic for the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" was late in arriving to the studio. Shostak did fill-in work for a while on other Embassy Television shows ("The Jeffersons", "Gloria"), and was then made permanent warm-up on "Silver Spoons" from 1983 until 1985. He then did warm-up on other series outside of the Norman Lear company - "Mama's Family", "Amen", "The Pat Sajak Show", "Goode Behavior", "Fired Up", and "The Trouble With Normal".
Shostak has been a respected TV historian since the late 1970s, and in 1981, he went to work for Lucille Ball as her personal film archivist, a position he held until her death in 1989. He made his on-camera acting debut in an episode of Ball's short-lived "Life With Lucy" series, and also sold a story concept to the producers.
In 2006, Shostak began hosting a live Internet talk program, "Stu's Show", in which he interviews classic TV stars as well as writers, producers, directors, and authors from the "baby boomer" generation. Previous guests have included Dick Van Dyke, Ed Asner, Rose Marie, Jonathan Winters, Shirley Jones, Bob Barker, Carl Reiner, Alan Young, and Shelley Berman, plus full cast reunions of "Leave it to Beaver", "My Three Sons", and "Dennis the Menace".
In 2009, Shostak began working as a co-producer with Shout! Factory. He licensed two of his "Stu's Show" audio broadcasts with Alan Young and Connie Hines for the "Mister Ed-Season Two" and "Mister Ed-Season Three" DVD sets. In 2010, he wrote, produced, and directed "Ken Osmond and Frank Bank Remember", a 30-minute documentary for the "Leave it to Beaver - The Complete Series" DVD set. Later that year, Shostak co-produced the "Dennis the Menace" TV series on DVD, appearing on camera hosting an interview with former series stars Gloria Henry (Alice Mitchell) and Jeannie Russell (Margaret). He supervised the releases of the subsequent three seasons of the series on DVD, as well as the "Dobie Gillis" series box set in 2013.
