Just a quarter of a century ago, you could see gay comedians on TV but never really knew they were gay. Then came Bob Smith. Smith was the first openly gay man to perform stand-up on The Tonight Show, as well as star in his own HBO half-hour comedy special. Smith died last week from […]
Continue ReadingHe could have been Gilligan, but Jerry Van Dyke wanted to be his own comedic self. That self, the younger banjo-playing happy-go-lucky, stammering brother of Dick Van Dyke, Jerry (six years Dick’s junior) managed to enjoy a lengthy TV career that started in the 1960s, peaked in the early 1990s with his Emmy-nominated portrayal of […]
Continue ReadingDanny Breen made his mark in front of the camera as a cast member for eight seasons on HBO’s sketch comedy series, Not Necessarily The News. But Breen also won multiple Emmys for his work behind the scenes on a producer for Ellen and The Wayne Brady Show. An alum of The Second City, he made […]
Continue ReadingRose Marie, a vaudeville star at 3 and hit radio singer at 5, who performed opening night at Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingto resort in Las Vegas and is best known now for her co-starring role as TV comedy writer Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show, has died. She was 94. It is with broken […]
Continue ReadingIt’s rather remarkable that most all of the funny nonagenarians profiled in this year’s HBO documentary, If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast, managed to make it through 2017 unscathed. But several other comedy legends passed away in 2017, old and not-so-old. Let us take one more look back at the comedians we still […]
Continue ReadingJim Nabors, best known in his younger years for playing country bumpkin Gomer Pyle on two different hit TV sitcoms, and in his later years for singing — particularly at the opening of every Indy 500 — has died. He was 87. Nabors died in his home in Hawaii, his longtime partner and husband, Stan […]
Continue ReadingJim Nabors, best known in his younger years for playing country bumpkin Gomer Pyle on two different hit TV sitcoms, and in his later years for singing — particularly at the opening of every Indy 500 — has died. He was 87. Nabors died in his home in Hawaii, his longtime partner and husband, Stan […]
Continue ReadingBefore Saturday Night Live, before The Groove Tube even, Ken Shapiro was making funny faces on television with Chevy Chase when nobody knew their faces. Shapiro and Chase performed sketches together on Channel One, then on PBS as the first people seen on-air on The Great American Dream Machine, before making sketch comedy movie The […]
Continue ReadingBefore Saturday Night Live, before The Groove Tube even, Ken Shapiro was making funny faces on television with Chevy Chase when nobody knew their faces. Shapiro and Chase performed sketches together on Channel One, then on PBS as the first people seen on-air on The Great American Dream Machine, before making sketch comedy movie The […]
Continue ReadingIrish comedian Sean Hughes was only 24 when he won the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s top prize for his 1990 showcase, “A One Night Stand with Sean Hughes.” Hughes returned to Edinburgh this past August with friends for an improvised showcase, “Sean Hughes’s Blank Book.” Hughes broke through young, and he has died far too young, […]
Continue Reading