Howard Michael Leeds (June 27, 1919 – February 11, 2017) was a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and series creator.
Leeds was born on June 27, 1919, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and as a youth, he and his family re-located to Los Angeles, California.
Leeds graduated from Fairfax High School in 1938, and later enlisted in the United States Army during World War II, rising to the rank of sergeant before being honorably discharged in 1946.
[1] Upon returning to Los Angeles after his Army service, Leeds worked in a variety of jobs at MGM Studios before becoming a writer on several early television series.
After The Brady Bunch concluded production for good in 1974, Leeds joined Tandem Productions as a writer and producer for several of their series, including first working on the Sanford and Son spinoff, Grady, and then became one of the lead producers of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, when the series debuted in 1978.