After spending some time in the advertising industry, he began his television career as a writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and in 1969 won his first prime time Emmy. He went on to write for the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and the Canadian sketch comedy show, Bizarre. But his second Emmy came in 1977, as a producer for Van Dyke and Company....There are so many great clips of Einstein. I'll just highlight the role that first made me love him — Officer Judy on The Smothers Brothers:
Einstein played a slew of oddball characters on many of the variety shows he wrote for and produced, but it was Super Dave Osborne, an accident-prone stuntman who was a send-up of Evil [sic] Knievel, that made the writer-turned-actor a star. And it eventually led to his own TV show from 1987 to 1991 on Showtime called simply Super Dave. He revived the character for Spike TV (now called Paramount Network) in 2009 for Super Dave's SpikeTacular.
In more recent years, he developed a new fan base appearing as Marty Funkhouser, Larry David's self-proclaimed best friend on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Larry Middleman, a surrogate for the family patriarch on Arrested Development.
January 3, 2019
Goodbye to Officer Judy, Super Dave Osborne, Marty Funkhouser — Bob Einstein.
The comic actor who entertained us for half a century has died at the age of 76.
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45 comments:
That's 3: The Captain, Super Dave, and Mean Gene Okerlund
Never heard of this guy. I see all of his shows were strictly on cable channels. That probably explains it.
Mean Gene Okerlund died! And the media was silent :( Grrrrr
without his objective reporting, Professional Wrestling will now become plagued with fake news
I forgot how great the Smothers Brothers were. A small clip reminded me.
I love the great character actors — the ones with long careers and many roles, who you might watch for decades and still not know their names.
Like who was that guy who played Heckles on "Friends" and was also the guy that got cast to play Kramer in the show within the show on "Seinfeld"?
Answer to my question. It's Larry Hankin. Click to see all the roles he's had over an immense length of years.
And I'll probably still forget his name again.
I was never able to remember Bob Einstein's name. But I remember "Officer Judy" and "Super Dave Osborn."
And I just noticed, The Captain, Super Dave, and Mean Gene all died at the age of 76.
Bob Einstein is the brother of another comedic talent: Albert Brooks, (whose real last name is Einstein).
The bit didn't seem funny but the music was good, I assume Judy Collins.
"Curb" is a great show. Very funny. Rich idle Hollywoos folks battling phantom problems in the glorious Westsode of LA.
Marty Finkhouser was a nice supporting character and he will be missed.
For a kid, Super Dave was a revelation. The anticipation in his "King of the Road" stunt was almost unbearable.
Sad news.
I recently watched a bunch of Super Dave episodes on YouTube that I had never seen before. They were all funny even though you knew how every episode would end (or perhaps they were funny because you knew how they would end). He was also great as Marty Funkhouser.
Evil Knievel?
Goodbye to Officer Judy, Super Dave Osborn...
Osborne with an "e." Almost made the same mistake myself. (Even though it's not a real person, so...)
Bob Einstein is the brother of another comedic talent: Albert Brooks, (whose real last name is Einstein).
Their Dad was Harry Parke, a comedian and actor, who voiced the Greek-dialect character Parkyakarkus on radio.
The Smothers Brothers show was a single-joke snoozer. No wonder I never heard of Bob Einstein. In any case, I hope he rests in peace.
The Smothers Brothers show was a single-joke snoozer. No wonder I never heard of Bob Einstein.
He was also a regular guest on the Tonight Show and David Letterman.
The character actor I noticed was Pete Postlethwaite, in Brassed Off (1996) as a band leader, and then turned up in The Usual Suspects (1995) as a bad guy. Hey he looks familiar. Same manner different vocation.
I think the Captain carried more weight on the scales of fame than he did, and the Captain was semi-obscure. What a sad fate. Overshadowed in life by his brother, Albert Brooks, and now, on the day of his death, he has to take second billing to the Captain......I wonder which obscure celebrity will die next.
Bernie and Sid said consider the blow to Imus if Howard Stern dies in the same week Imus does.
Another That Guy™ is Fred Stoller.
Never heard of him, but then I never watched any of the shows he was involved in. I did watch an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm once and found the comedy just lousy and unfunny.
He did have a long and successful career in entertainment, so his passing is notable. RIP.
I discovered him when he did the Super Dave stuff, genius. He was great on Curb, and the joke scene with Jerry Seinfeld is maybe the funniest thing ever.
It annoys me that all the articles about his death say that he was "best known" for his role on "Curb Your Enthusiasm", as opposed to being Super Dave.
It annoys me that they're saying it, and it annoys me even more that it may very well be true.
I liked Super Dave.
CJinPA said...
For a kid, Super Dave was a revelation. The anticipation in his "King of the Road" stunt was almost unbearable.
That one is my favorite. So many elements — the repeated “he thought of everything” (except the obvious thing), the seat belt on the piano bench, the upright piano, blissfully singing “King of the Road” as the physics lesson approaches — it’s just wonderful.
We can add Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show (Cover of the Rolling Stone) to the list. Sad start to the year.
"It annoys me that all the articles about his death say that he was "best known" for his role on "Curb Your Enthusiasm", as opposed to being Super Dave.
It annoys me that they're saying it, and it annoys me even more that it may very well be true."
Recency bias.
That one is my favorite. So many elements — the repeated “he thought of everything” (except the obvious thing), the seat belt on the piano bench, the upright piano, blissfully singing “King of the Road” as the physics lesson approaches — it’s just wonderful.
The overpass still caught me off guard. I laughed for 4 days and 3 nights. As a boy, that humor was right in my wheelhouse.
I loved the Super Dave routine. I didn't know much about his history prior to that, though.
I look at George W. Bush and see a little of Tommy Smothers.
I remember him on “Comedians in Cars”. It seemed like he and Seinfeld couldn’t wait to get away from each other.
I remember him on “Comedians in Cars”. It seemed like he and Seinfeld couldn’t wait to get away from each other.
Don't think that's the case. Einstein was the first one to do CiC twice.
The person that Sienfeld couldn’t wait to see the backside of was Ellen Degeneres. What a tool she was.
I never thought “Super Dave” was funny, but then my brothers assured me that Curly, Larry, and Moe were really funny too.
Maybe I just never saw enough of Super Dave, IDK. I don’t remember him from Curb, either.
" and was also the guy that got cast to play Kramer in the show within the show on "Seinfeld"?
Who was also the guy in the cell next to Clint Eastwood - and didn't make it out - in Escape from Alcatraz.
A funny guy. I remember when he would appear as a guest on the Steve Allen show (one of Steverino's later shows, saying outrageous things in a perfectly flat voice and a deadpan expression. I was in on the joke because I recognized him as Officer Judy, but it was still funny.
Seat belt on a piano bench sounds like a cross of Terry Southern (the gourmet) and Hoffnung (organist pursued by a police car in the choir mirror).
Loved the transgressiveness of The Smothers Brothers and their off-beat writers and comedians, although, I truly believe you had to be stoned to appreciate the jokes.
I remember he was on Fox on Sundays back in the early 90s. Pretty funny humor to a kid.
I liked the Super Dave bits, but the Officer Judy (which I had heard about but never saw) and the Curb masturbation sketch left me cold.
Still, he had a career and props for that.
As for "a sad start," for me it was a couple years back when we lost Bowie and Rickman. That was sad, especially because they were both still working when they died. I still think about John Lennon and what he would have done if not for that sick asshole.
Seinfeld has nanaged to kill a number of the guests on his car show. The wrong ones.
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