Jack Burns is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and
voice actorVoice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
.
Biography
In 1959, he began his career as a comedy team with
George CarlinGeorge Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
when both were working for radio station
KXOLKMNY KMNY KMNY (1360 AM, is a radio station in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, which broadcasts on 1360 kHz and is under ownership of Multicultural Broadcasting...
in
Fort Worth, TexasFort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
. After successful performances at Fort Worth's beat coffeehouse, The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960 and stayed together for two years as a team before moving on to individual pursuits. An album containing some of their material was released in 1963, titled
Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club TonightBurns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight is the 1963 debut album by the comedy duo of Jack Burns and George Carlin. The album was actually recorded at a club named Cosmo Alley in Hollywood, California and not at the Playboy Club...
.
Longer lasting was a later teaming with
Avery SchreiberAvery Lawrence Schreiber was an American comedian and actor. He was a veteran of stage, TV, and film.-Biography:...
, whom he met when they were both members of
The Second CityThe Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
, a live comedy and improv club based in Chicago. Burns and Schreiber were best known for a series of routines in which Burns played a talkative
taxicabA taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
passenger, with Schreiber as the driver.
Burns played the dedicated but inept deputy
sheriffA sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
Warren FergusonWarren Ferguson is a fictional character in the American television program The Andy Griffith Show . Warren Ferguson is portrayed by Jack Burns.-Overview:...
during the first half of the 1965-1966 season of
The Andy Griffith ShowThe Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
, as
Barney FifeBernard "Barney" Fife is a fictional character in the American television program The Andy Griffith Show, portrayed by comic actor Don Knotts. Barney Fife is a deputy sheriff in the slow paced, sleepy southern community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
's replacement after
Don KnottsJesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
left the cast. His character was not popular and was dropped without explanation after eleven appearances. The series did not have a deputy after Burns left the cast, though
Goober PyleGoober is a fictional character in the American TV sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and its later sequel series Mayberry RFD. He was played by George Lindsey. Lindsey initially read for the part of Gomer Pyle, which went to singer Jim Nabors...
was available in an emergency.
Burns voiced Harry Boyle's (Tom Bosley) right-wing maniac neighbor Ralph Kane in the short-lived syndicated primetime cartoon
Wait till Your Father Gets HomeWait Till Your Father Gets Home was an animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera that aired in first-run syndication in the United States from 1972 to 1974...
. The series was a forerunner in the adult-animation comedies.
Burns was the head writer for the first seasons of both the popular
Hee HawHee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being...
and
The Muppet ShowThe Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
. His comedy partner Avery Schreiber appeared on an episode with The Muppets during the first season. He also co-wrote
The Muppet MovieThe Muppet Movie is the first of a series of live-action musical feature films starring Jim Henson's Muppets. Released in 1979, the film was produced by Henson Associates, Children's Television Workshop and ITC Entertainment....
(with
Jerry JuhlJerome Ravn "Jerry" Juhl was an American television and movie writer, best known for his work with Jim Henson's "Muppets".Juhl was born in St. Paul, Minnesota; his family moved to Menlo Park, California, when he was 14...
, his successor as head writer of
The Muppet Show).
In 1967, he was cast as the 'Candy Butcher' in "The Night They Raided Minsky's", a movie about
burlesqueBurlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
.
Jack Burns hosted a 1977 episode of
Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, which became the first episode to carry this title, after
Saturday Night Live with Howard CosellSaturday Night Live with Howard Cosell was a program that ran on ABC from September 1975 to January 1976, hosted by Howard Cosell and executively produced by Roone Arledge. The series ran for 18 episodes before being cancelled...
was canceled.
In the early 1980s, Burns became a writer, announcer and sometimes-performer for the ABC sketch show
Fridays (which was modeled heavily after SNL in format). He and comedian
Michael RichardsMichael Anthony Richards is an American actor, comedian, writer and television producer, best known for his portrayal of the eccentric Cosmo Kramer on the television sitcom Seinfeld....
were involved in a staged on-air fight with
Andy KaufmanAndrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman was an American entertainer, actor and performance artist. While often referred to as a comedian, Kaufman did not consider himself one...
, later re-created in the Kaufman biopic
Man on the Moon.
He teamed with
Lorenzo MusicLorenzo Music was an American actor, voice actor, writer, television producer and musician. His best-known roles include voicing the animated cartoon cat Garfield, and Carlton the doorman on the CBS sitcom Rhoda...
to provide the voices for a pair of
crash test dummiesCrash test dummies are full-scale anthropomorphic test devices that simulate the dimensions, weight proportions and articulation of the human body, and are usually instrumented to record data about the dynamic behavior of the ATD in simulated vehicle impacts...
respectively named Vince and Larry in a series of
United States Department of TransportationThe United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...
public service announcementA public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
s that promoted the use of
seat beltA seat belt or seatbelt, sometimes called a safety belt, is a safety harness designed to secure the occupant of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result from a collision or a sudden stop...
s. Distributed by the
Ad CouncilThe Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including non-profit organizations and agencies of the United States government....
, the
advertising campaignAn advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
ran from 1985 to 1998. In 1993, Burns starred in the cartoon-series
AnimaniacsSteven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
, as the voice of Sid the Squid, giving the character a raspy,
Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
kind of voice. Former partner Avery Schreiber also appeared on the show as Beanie the Bison.
Burns also provided a guest voice for a 1999 episode of
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
,
Beyond Blunderdome"Beyond Blunderdome" is the 11th season premiere of The Simpsons, and the last episode produced for the tenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 26, 1999. Homer test drives an electric car because it will get him a gift. The gift is that Homer and Marge get...
.
External links