Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of television shows The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, has died at the age of 94.

Schwartz's shows were not well received by critics, but audiences loved his jokes. And although the New Jersey-born writer may have only had two hit shows, he turned both into landmarks.

Gilligan's Island, which featured seven travellers stranded on a Pacific island, ran for three years and was later revived as a cartoon, several TV films and, in 2004, a reality series.

While The Brady Bunch - a story about a widow with three daughters who married a widower with three sons - had a cartoon, a variety show, the TV movies, and two ill-fated series with the Brady kids all grown up.

When in the nineties, Paramount rebooted Bradys with a big-screen movie adaptation that recast the original clan but kept their characters (emotionally) stuck in the seventies, the fun family that he'd created was brought to a whole new generation.

For many viewers it was their first look at flares, platforms, clashing colours and big hair on the big screen, and it went down a treat.

The last Brady movie, in which the gang took over the White House, came out in 2002, nearly 30 years after the original series went off the air.

Schwartz was still producing TV into his 90's and his nephew, Douglas Schwartz, creator of Baywatch, said the seasoned TV producer had recently been working a big-screen version of Gilligan's Island.

He told the Guardian: "Sherwood is an American classic, creating Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, iconic shows that are still popular today."

Schwartz died on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles.