They Come In Three’s, Don’t They?

Late yesterday afternoon the word came out that famed TV comedian Harvey Korman had died at age 81.  Back in January he was successfully operated on for a non-cancerous brain tumor.  But a couple of days later he suffered an aneurysm and despite several operations to fix it, he passed away yesterday.

For years he was a struggling comedian, trying to find success in New York and then later in Hollywood where he finally caught on with Danny Kaye and did sketches on his TV show in the early 1960’s.  The cancellation of Kaye’s show in 1967 was a Godsend for Korman because he bounced right onto the regular cast of the Carol Burnett show during its first season that same year.

His memorable roles on the Burnett show with co-stars Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence are too numerous to try and list.  The spontaneous skits with Conway had millions of people literally doubled over in laughter every week.

And who could forget his movie role as the crooked politician Hedley Lamarr in “Blazing Saddles,” one of the true film classics?

Korman’s death followed by only four days the passing of another stand-up comedian who helped shape television comedy in the 1970’s, Dick Martin.

Martin was the zany half of the team Rowen & Martin, an established nightclub act that had perfected their joke lines and timing over the years.  In 1968 they were tabbed to headline a new type of TV comedy show, “Rowen and Martin’s Laugh-In.”

It was an instant success that broke all the established rules of television comedic production.  It relied on a fast-paced track of one-liners and mini-skits that made stars of people like Goldie Hawn, Lili Tomlin and Ruth Buzzi.  Their clever development of catch-phrases left our culture with lines that are still heard today, “Sock it to me!”, “You bet your Bippie,” and “Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall’s.”

Each week, Dan Rowen (l.) and Dick Martin (r.)
would award the Fickle Finger of Fate to
a hapless recipient who had made the news recently.

Rowan and Martin amicably dissolved their act in 1977 and went wherever fortune would take them.  Dan Rowan died in 1987 of complicatins from diabetes.  Dick Martin started a new career as television director, most notably on the “Bob Newhart Show.”

Martin had lost a lung at age 17 and suffered severe respiratory distress all of his life.  It was that problem that hastened his passing on Saturday, May 24.

For a while anyway, let’s hope that they just come in “two’s” this time around.

Ok, let’s get this equipment checked out.  I’ve got to start the coffee.

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