Obit: Comedy writer Pat McCormick @ 78

[CrankyYankee]

(From the L.A.Times)

Pat McCormick, a veteran comedian and comedy writer who made scores of appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, was a regular guest on "The Gong Show" and appeared in three "Smokey and the Bandit" movies, died Friday at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills. He was 78.

(Read the article, however registration may be required)

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-mccormick30jul30,1,1465158,print.story?coll=la-news-obituaries<P ID="signature">______________
"Be seeing you..."</P>

 

[studiotwenty]

> (From the L.A.Times)
>
> Pat McCormick, a veteran comedian and comedy writer who made
> scores of appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny
> Carson, was a regular guest on "The Gong Show" and appeared
> in three "Smokey and the Bandit" movies, died Friday at the
> Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills. He
> was 78.
>
> (Read the article, however registration may be required)
>
>
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-mc> cormick30jul30,1,1465158,print.story?coll=la-news-obituaries
>

Ironic how CMT is running "Smokey and THe Bandit" several times this weekend.
(McCormick played southern rich man "Big Enos Burdette"...with his diminutive compadre composer/actor Paul Williams as "Little Enos"). Funny stuff from a funny man.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I didn't know Pat McCormick has passed away until reading this board.

Didn't he originally work behind-the-scenes at the "Tonight Show" as a writer, first for Jack Paar, then for Johnny Carson, before embarking on a career in front of the camera??

Wasn't there some sort of skit McCormick did on the December 31st, 1975 New Year's Eve edition of "Tonight" in which he first appeared just before 12 Midnight (EST) wearing a peacock costume since NBC was about to drop the peacock (although it would come back in late 1979 in a modernized version), and then just after Midnight, showing up dressed as the new (and as it turned out, short-lived) red and blue "N" logo??

I do know that NBC began using that ill-fated "N" logo on-the-air on January 1st, 1976.

 

[KingDaevid]

> Didn't he originally work behind-the-scenes at the "Tonight
> Show" as a writer, first for Jack Paar, then for Johnny
> Carson, before embarking on a career in front of the
> camera??

...before that, he was a production assistant for "I've Got a Secret" -- as I understand it, the opening he took there was as a direct result of creator/producer Allan Sherman quitting the show on less-than-amicable terms with Goodson-Todman...<P ID="signature">______________
King Daevid MacKenzie. How Radio is done. No brag, just fact.
WLSU, Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
http://ultimajock.blogspot.com
"Fear and God do not inhabit the same space." DICK GREGORY</P>

 

[bpatrick]

> > Didn't he originally work behind-the-scenes at the
> "Tonight
> > Show" as a writer, first for Jack Paar, then for Johnny
> > Carson, before embarking on a career in front of the
> > camera??
>
> ...before that, he was a production assistant for "I've Got
> a Secret" -- as I understand it, the opening he took there
> was as a direct result of creator/producer Allan Sherman
> quitting the show on less-than-amicable terms with
> Goodson-Todman...
>
I remember a variety show Don Rickles did in 1968 that lasted
thirteen weeks. McCormick was his sidekick, and on the last
episode he and some stagehands picked up Rickles and carried
him off the stage on their shoulders.

BTW, speaking of the ill-fated NBC "N" logo, Johnny Carson
used to take a lot of potshots at it. I remember once he
said, "It's not NBC anymore. It's just 'N'." The peacock
was so identified with NBC that it had to come back; you can't
replace it any more than you could the CBS eye.