Stan Berenstain

Stan Berenstain, who with his wife, Jan, wrote and illustrated the best-selling Berenstain Bears children's books -- soft-sell morality plays that revel in poking fun at and safely solving the everyday travails of family life -- has died. He was 82. Berenstain died of complications from cancer Saturday in Bucks County, Pa., said his publisher, HarperCollins Children's Books.

Sit down, kids, Papa has some bad news. Stan Berenstain, the man who created the Berenstain Bears children's books with his wife, Jan, has died at the age of 82. Dying is bad, children, because people miss the deceased and feel sad. OK, now go to bed. And that, in effect, is Stan Berenstain's legacy: The retailing of simple moral declarations, pat and amusing lessons for the "Sesame Street" set, all dressed up with colorful ready-for-Saturday-morning-TV cartoons.

Sit down, kids, Papa has some bad news. Stan Berenstain, the man who created the Berenstain Bears children's books with his wife, Jan, has died at the age of 82. Dying is bad, children, because people miss the deceased and feel sad. OK, now go to bed. And that, in effect, is Stan Berenstain's legacy: The retailing of simple moral declarations, pat and amusing lessons for the "Sesame Street" set, all dressed up with colorful ready-for-Saturday-morning-TV cartoons.

Stan Berenstain, who with his wife, Jan, wrote and illustrated the best-selling Berenstain Bears children's books -- soft-sell morality plays that revel in poking fun at and safely solving the everyday travails of family life -- has died. He was 82. Berenstain died of complications from cancer Saturday in Bucks County, Pa., said his publisher, HarperCollins Children's Books.

Among the enduring mysteries of the universe, there is this stubborn perplexity: Why is Papa Bear such a doofus? "But he's not!" protested Stan and Jan Berenstain, with the cheery tone of unison that inhabits every one of their hundreds of "Berenstain Bears" stories. Sure, they admitted, he's a klutz, a buffoon, a hothead and a hopeless incompetent when it comes to anything domestic. As for Mama Bear, breathes there a more rigid, uptight and demanding dervish of household efficiency?

Writers whose TV scripts this last season were notable for their "humanizing" values have been named as finalists for the 1987 Humanitas Prizes. A total of $70,000 will be awarded to the winners at a luncheon July 7, and the winning writers and clips from their shows will be featured the next morning on the "Today" show.

Among the enduring mysteries of the universe, there is this stubborn perplexity: Why is Papa Bear such a doofus? "But he's not!" protested Stan and Jan Berenstain, with the cheery tone of unison that inhabits every one of their hundreds of "Berenstain Bears" stories. Sure, they admitted, he's a klutz, a buffoon, a hothead and a hopeless incompetent when it comes to anything domestic. As for Mama Bear, breathes there a more rigid, uptight and demanding dervish of household efficiency?