Originally from the small city of Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, Spiva was the son of Hubert Spiva, Senior (1899-1939), a former foreign correspondent, and the former Lilla Ellenor Stewart (1906–1959), who married in 1929. Lilla Spiva, a scion of a prominent Webster Parish family, was a daughter of Minden attorney Daniel Webster Stewart, Senior
(1857-1935), and his wife, the former Alice Leona Reagan (1871-1954).
They operated the Webster Printing Company and the former The Minden Herald and The Webster Review newspapers, forerunners of the Minden Press-Herald. She was a niece of William Green Stewart, a farmer and a former president of the Webster Parish School Board, for whom the since defunct William G. Stewart Elementary School in Minden is named. Lilla is interred with other Stewart relatives at the historic Minden Cemetery.
There are hence four living Spiva children, including Danielle.
Spiva graduated from the defunct Western Military Academy in Alton in Madison County in western Illinois, near Saint Louis and then Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, near Chicago. He also studied at the London School of Film Technique.
His early free-lance writing was rewarded in the script for the 1965 film Island of the Lost. In addition to The Brady Bunch and Gentle Ben, Spiva garnered credits for two other American Broadcasting Company series, The Federal Bureau of Investigation starring Efrem Zimbalist, Junior., and Dan August starring Burt Reynolds.
Here is a list of programs written by Spiva for The Brady Bunch:
"Peter and the Wolf"
"Tiki Caves"
"Pass the Tabu"
"A Fistful of Reasons"
"The Slumber Caper"
"Grand Canyon or Bust"
"The Brady Braves"
"Hawaii Bound"
"The Big Sprain"
and for Gentle Ben:
"Jennifer"
"Mama Jolie"
"The Wayward Bear, Participant 1"
"The Wayward Bear, Participant 2"
"Fire in the Glades".
Another uncle, East. L. Stewart, was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives at the time of her birth. Known as "Babe", Lilla Spiva managed the papers after her husband"s death at the age of forty and was herself publisher and society editor of the Minden Herald and a member of the Louisiana Press Association.
