Larry Gelbart, Comic Voice of 'M*A*S*H'
He brought the Roman Forum to Broadway and then made a Korean War medical unit into one of the most successful and ambitious situation comedies, "M*A*S*H."
Larry Gelbart, who died Friday at 81, may have written longer and more comedically than anybody in show business, and he did it in every medium available.
Mr. Gelbart produced his first professional gags for Danny Thomas's radio show in the 1940s while still a high school student. He got his start in show business because his father was Mr. Thomas's barber.
After writing radio material for Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, and Jack Paar, Mr. Gelbart moved to television, where he wrote for Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour."
After television came Broadway, where Mr. Gelbart's first foray bombed. But his second show, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," ran for two years starting in 1962. The show won him a Tony for best author along with Burt Shevelove.
Mr. Gelbart lived much of the 1960s in England -- a period he described as "semi-retirement." He returned to the U.S. in a less slapstick mode, as the co-writer of M*A*S*H, a sitcom based on Robert Altman's 1970 hit film.
Read entire article at The Wall Street Journal
Larry Gelbart, who died Friday at 81, may have written longer and more comedically than anybody in show business, and he did it in every medium available.
Mr. Gelbart produced his first professional gags for Danny Thomas's radio show in the 1940s while still a high school student. He got his start in show business because his father was Mr. Thomas's barber.
After writing radio material for Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, and Jack Paar, Mr. Gelbart moved to television, where he wrote for Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour."
After television came Broadway, where Mr. Gelbart's first foray bombed. But his second show, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," ran for two years starting in 1962. The show won him a Tony for best author along with Burt Shevelove.
Mr. Gelbart lived much of the 1960s in England -- a period he described as "semi-retirement." He returned to the U.S. in a less slapstick mode, as the co-writer of M*A*S*H, a sitcom based on Robert Altman's 1970 hit film.