Saul Turteltaub, an Emmy-nominated writer/producer who teamed up with Bernie Orenstein on several hit sitcoms from the 1960s through the 1990s, has died. Turtletaub was 87. He died April 9 at his home in Beverly Hills of natural causes. Born and raised…
Continue ReadingSaul Turteltaub, an Emmy-nominated writer/producer who teamed up with Bernie Orenstein on several hit sitcoms from the 1960s through the 1990s, has died. Turtletaub was 87. He died April 9 at his home in Beverly Hills of natural causes. Born and raised…
Continue ReadingOther MAD magazine illustrators may have been flashy or more memorable for their eccentricities (see Sergio Aragonés and his “Spy vs. Spy” or Al Jaffee for his Fold-In features), but Mort Drucker may have been the most accessible of them al…
Continue ReadingMichael Clayton McCarthy achieved the comedy dream and proved you could do it going in the opposite direction. McCarthy (no relation) became a staff writer for Saturday Night Live at age 24 in 1983, followed that up with two years writing for Sesame St…
Continue ReadingHal Willner, the longtime musical guru behind Saturday Night Live who also brought musicians together for cross-genre tributes and movie soundtracks, and who won a Grammy for his efforts, died on April 7. Although he was never formally diagnosed with C…
Continue ReadingEddie Large, the bigger, brasher half of the British comedy duo Little and Large, died on April 2 from coronavirus. He had been in the hospital in Bristol, England, receiving treatment due to heart failure. He was 78. Born Edward Hugh McGinnis in Glasg…
Continue ReadingKen Shimura, Japan’s most famous comedian, died on March 29 from a pneumonia brought upon by coronavirus. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 24. Shimura was 70. Born Feb. 20, 1950, Shimura was a fixture on Japanese television for decade…
Continue ReadingClint Nohr’s website bio describes stand-up comedy as coming from a “warped and twisted, yet somehow always relatable point of view.” Nohr proved that once more last month. He worked a two-week gig at Jokers Wild, the comedy club insi…
Continue ReadingBrian Baron might not have started his comedy career until middle age, but he managed to touch the hearts of many stand-up comedians in New York City over the past decade. The city’s young and up-and-coming comics all knew of Baron, as he hosted …
Continue ReadingJimmy Smith, a comedian and musician who hosted the Comedy Connection open mic during the Boston comedy boom of the early 1980s and who himself opened for some of the biggest names in music for 30 years, died on March 11. Smith was 66. In June 2017, wh…
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