{"id":2075770,"date":"2025-10-07T22:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2075770"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:05:07","slug":"nancylee-myatt-night-court-and-living-single-writer-dies-at-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/nancylee-myatt-night-court-and-living-single-writer-dies-at-68\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancylee Myatt, \u2018Night Court\u2019 and \u2018Living Single\u2019 Writer, Dies at 68"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Nancylee Myatt, a writer and Emmy-winning producer with credits including <em>Night Court<\/em>, <em>The 5 Mrs. Buchanans<\/em>, <em>Living Single<\/em> and lots of shows about teens, has died. She was 68.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Myatt chose to \u201cend her life peacefully and with dignity\u201d in Basel, Switzerland, on Sept. 23 \u2014 her birthday \u2014 her wife and writing partner, Paige Williams Bernhardt, announced. She had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in 2021 and with Alzheimer\u2019s disease in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Early in her career, Myatt was the only female writer on the staff of <em>The Powers That Be<\/em>, a 1992-93 political comedy for the USA Network that was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and executive produced by her mentor, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/norman-lear-sitcom-genius-citizen-134435480.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Norman Lear;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">Norman Lear<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Myatt later launched and served as a co-executive producer, showrunner, writer and director on the first two seasons (2005-06) of <em>South of Nowhere<\/em> for Nickelodeon\u2019s Noggin network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For the original <em>Night Court<\/em> on NBC, she wrote for the last two seasons of its nine-season run (1990-92), including the series finale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She also wrote and produced for the 1994-95 CBS comedy <em>The 5 Mrs. Buchanans<\/em>, starring Judith Ivey and Eileen Heckart, and for the fifth season (1997-98) of the Fox sitcom <em>Living Single<\/em>, starring Queen Latifah, Kim Coles and Erika Alexander (she won an NAACP award for her work on the latter).<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Myatt created and produced the 1997 UPN boarding school-set sitcom <em>Social Studies<\/em>, starring Julia Duffy, for Dolly Parton\u2019s Sandollar Productions. And from 1999-2002, she wrote and\/or produced for the Disney animated kids series <em>Recess, Lloyd in Space<\/em> and <em>Teacher\u2019s Pet<\/em>, winning a Daytime Emmy in 2001 for that last one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A member of the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma, Myatt earned a degree in Fine Arts from the University of California at Irvine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She wrote the plays <em>Two on the Aisle for Murder<\/em>, <em>Slumber Party<\/em>, <em>Afterlife<\/em>, <em>Nothing So Simple as Love<\/em> and <em>Wet Paint<\/em>, all of which were produced in Los Angeles, before she joined the writers workshop program at Warner Bros., graduating in 1990.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She also worked on such \u201990s network series as\u00a0<em>Life With Roger<\/em>, starring Mike O\u2019Malley; <em>Cleghorne!<\/em>, starring Ellen Cleghorne; and\u00a0<em>Muddling Through<\/em>, starring Stephanie Hodge and Jennifer Aniston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In 2004, Myatt wrote, produced and ran a cop show pilot set in New Orleans about two women, partners in work and life, called <em>Nikki &amp; Nora<\/em>.\u00a0It was not picked up, but the pilot was leaked online, where it found a dedicated fan base and led to a 2013 web series, <em>Nikki &amp; Nora: The N&amp;N Files<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pilot also birthed a partnership with Barry Sonnenfeld, and the two created a sci-fi dramedy pilot, <em>Trackers<\/em>, for Sony TV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More recently, she co-wrote a pilot for ABC Family called <em>Cupidity<\/em>, starring Ralph Macchio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She and Williams Bernhardt moved to <em>Nikki &amp; Nora<\/em>\u2018s home of New Orleans in 2010. \u201cWhen I\u2019m blocked or need to work something out,\u201d she said in a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/gomag.com\/article\/seven-minutes-in-heaven-with-writer-producer-director-nancylee-myatt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2017 interview;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">2017 interview<\/a>, \u201cI walk in the neighborhoods, cemeteries, Audubon Park or the French Quarter. It\u2019s all visually inspiring, and if you sit in a bar long enough in this city, someone will always tell you an amazing story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donations in her memory can be made to the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alz.org\/louisiana\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Louisiana chapter of the Alzheimer\u2019s Association;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Louisiana chapter of the Alzheimer\u2019s Association<\/a> or to the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalspayalliancesavannah.com\/donate.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:National Spay Alliance Foundation (NSAF Savannah);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">National Spay Alliance Foundation (NSAF Savannah)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sign up for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cloud.email.hollywoodreporter.com\/signup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:THR's Newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">THR&#8217;s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/31XsHSx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TkcoeG\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>, and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TntOHq\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nancylee Myatt, a writer and Emmy-winning producer with credits including Night Court, The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, Living Single and lots of shows about teens, has died. She was 68. Myatt chose to \u201cend her life peacefully and with dignity\u201d in Basel, Switzerland, on Sept. 23 \u2014 her birthday \u2014 her wife and writing partner, Paige [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2075771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[389682,34395,389679,389681,389680,389683],"class_list":["post-2075770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-hollywood-reporter","tag-nancylee-myatt","tag-night-court","tag-paige-williams-bernhardt","tag-williams-bernhardt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Nancylee-Myatt-\u2018Night-Court-and-\u2018Living-Single-Writer-Dies-at.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2075770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2075772,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075770\/revisions\/2075772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2075771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2075770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2075770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2075770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}