Sci-Fi Storm

Thomas Meehan, who wrote many various Broadway productions and book adaptations, passed away on Monday at the age of 88.

Meehan was best known as the writer of the musical Annie with songwriter Charles Strouse, was also a collaborator with Mel Brooks and helped to bring the latter’s 1967 movie The Producers to Broadway. He also worked on the book for Hairspray, making him the only person to have written three productions that each ran for more than 2,000 performances.

Another collaboration with Brooks resulted in the screenplay for Spaceballs, the standard for science fiction spoofs. He won three Tony Awards for Best Book from a Musical.

“Somewhere Dirk is waiting for us to find him, and he’ll know how to fix this…”

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency returns October 14th at 9/8c on BBC America!