Nancylee Myatt, Creator of UPN’s ‘Social Studies’ and TV Producer, Dies at 68

Nancylee Myatt, a television writer and producer who created NBC’s teen sitcom”Social Studies” and won a Daytime Emmy Award for her writing on the animated series “Teacher’s Pet,” died on Sept. 23 in Basel, Switzerland. She was 68. Her death was confirmed by her wife, Paige Williams Bernhardt.

Myatt was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment in 2021, a condition that ran in her family. The disease progressed to Alzheimer’s dementia in 2023. Myatt elected to “end her life peacefully and with dignity,” per a statement from Bernhardt.

Myatt was born in 1957 and was a card-carrying member of the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine and acted on stage and in commercials as she began her career as a playwright. She penned the Los Angeles-produced plays “Two on the Aisle for Murder,” “Slumber Party,” “Afterlife,” “Nothing So Simple as Love” and “Wet Paint” before graduating from the Warner Bros.’ writers workshop in 1990 and turning to television.

As a mentee of Norman Lear, Myatt was the only female staff writer on the early-’90s sitcom “The Powers That Be.” She later wrote on the last two seasons of “Night Court,” including the show’s finale. She was a writer and producer on CBS’s “The Five Mrs. Buchanans” and Fox’s “Living Single.”

Myatt created and produced the short-lived sitcom “Social Studies,” which premiered in 1997 and hailed from Dolly Parton’s Sandollar Productions. Her other TV writing credits include episodes of “Recess,” “Lloyd in Space” and “Teacher’s Pet” for Disney TV Animation and ABC, “Trackers” for Sony TV and the pilot for “Nikki & Nora,” which went unaired but later leaked and inspired the webseries “The N&N Files.”

She also wrote TV adaptations of the teen novels “Annie on My Mind” and “A Time for Dancing” and served as the showrunner, co-executive producer, writer and director on “South of Nowhere.” Her other TV producing credits include “Life with Roger,” “Cleghorne!,” “Muddling Through” and “South of Nowhere.” Later in life, she was co-writing a teen pilot called “Cupidity” with Ralph Maccio.

Myatt is survived by her wife and writing partner, Paige Williams Bernhardt, and friends and family. Donations can be made in Myatt’s memory to the Alzheimer’s Association Louisiana Chapter or the National Spay Alliance Foundation(NSAF Savannah).