‘Reba’, ‘Santa Barbara’ Producer & L.A. Activist Was 62
Eric Preven, a writer-producer on the sitcom Reba who produced hundreds of episodes of the daytime drama Santa Barbara, worked on several other shows and was a Los Angeles journalist, died November 8 in Studio City. He was 62.
The local news outlet CityWatch LA confirmed the news, writing, “It is with deep sorrow that we at CityWatch LA announce the passing of our longtime contributor, Eric Preven, who died suddenly on Saturday of an apparent heart attack.”
Preven got his start as an assistant producer on the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara in 1988 and later became an associate producer. He was promoted to coordinating producer in 1992 and served in that role until the following year.
He launched his writing career on the Fox sitcom Partners in 1995, penning three episodes of the series starring Jon Cryer, Tate Donovan and Maria Pitillo during its single-season run. From there, Preven moved to writing episodes of the NBC comedy Boston Common from 1996-97, the 1996-98 ensemble comedy Something So Right — who first season aired on NBC and second on ABC — and the short-lived Fox sitcom Holding the Baby.
By the late ’90s, Preven was writing for The WB dramedy Popular, co-created by Ryan Murphy and starring Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope. He penned about a half-dozen episodes and produced two others from 1999-2001.
In 2002, he joined The WB comedy Reba as a consulting producer about halfway through its freshman season. He was upped to supervising producer for Season 2 and also wrote a pair of episodes before leaving the show in 2003. His final credit was as a producing on the 2009 telefilm A Year with Freeway Rick Ross, about the notorious Los Angeles drug kingpin.
Preven also was well known in L.A. for his civic activism, often calling out local politicians on such issues as spending, transparency, homelessness policy and municipal reforms. He ran a longshot candidate for mayor in 2017, taking part in a candidates’ debate that year.
Preven is survived by a brother, Joshua Preven; a sister, Anne Preven; his parents Ruth and David Preven; and children Isaac Rooks Preven and Reva Jay Preven.