Bob Booker, the veteran writer and producer whose crowning achievement was the hugely popular 1962 comedy album The First Family, which poked fun at President John F. Kennedy and won the Grammy for album of the year, has died. He was 92.
Booker died Friday of heart failure at his home in Tiburon, California, his family announced. He spent 75 years working in the recording industry and in radio, film and television.
Booker also teamed with George Foster to write the cult film The Phynx (1970), about a rock band who goes to Albania to rescue celebrities (among them Colonel Sanders and Leo Gorcey of The Bowery Boys) taken captive by communists.
He wrote and produced five seasons (1987-91) of the syndicated sitcom Out of This World, which starred Donna Pescow, Maureen Flannigan and friend Burt Reynolds, who as a favor agreed to voice the extra-terrestrial father on the show.
Booker and partner Earle Doud...
Booker died Friday of heart failure at his home in Tiburon, California, his family announced. He spent 75 years working in the recording industry and in radio, film and television.
Booker also teamed with George Foster to write the cult film The Phynx (1970), about a rock band who goes to Albania to rescue celebrities (among them Colonel Sanders and Leo Gorcey of The Bowery Boys) taken captive by communists.
He wrote and produced five seasons (1987-91) of the syndicated sitcom Out of This World, which starred Donna Pescow, Maureen Flannigan and friend Burt Reynolds, who as a favor agreed to voice the extra-terrestrial father on the show.
Booker and partner Earle Doud...
- 7/18/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TV producer/writer Bob Booker, who spent 75 years working in television, radio, film, and the recording industry, died July 12 at his home in Tiburon, California, at age 92 from heart failure, according to his daughter, Laura Booker.
Booker was best known for the Grammy Award-winning album, The First Family,
In 1963, Booker, with partner Earle Doud, wrote and produced The First Family, a lampoon of President John F. Kennedy and his family starring Vaughn Meader. The album became the largest- and fastest-selling record in the history of the record industry, selling one million copies per week for the first six weeks and ultimately selling 7.5 million copies. The First Family went on to win the Grammy for Best Album that year.
JFK was known to have enjoyed parody, and when asked about the album, he replied, “I listened to Mr. Meader’s record, and frankly, I thought it sounded more like Teddy than it did me.
Booker was best known for the Grammy Award-winning album, The First Family,
In 1963, Booker, with partner Earle Doud, wrote and produced The First Family, a lampoon of President John F. Kennedy and his family starring Vaughn Meader. The album became the largest- and fastest-selling record in the history of the record industry, selling one million copies per week for the first six weeks and ultimately selling 7.5 million copies. The First Family went on to win the Grammy for Best Album that year.
JFK was known to have enjoyed parody, and when asked about the album, he replied, “I listened to Mr. Meader’s record, and frankly, I thought it sounded more like Teddy than it did me.
- 7/18/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
America doesn’t have a system of knights or dames, as Britain, Australia and New Zealand do. If there were such a system, Cicely Tyson would have undoubtedly been honored. But Tyson, who died on Thursday, a month after her 96th birthday, didn’t need any government-sanctioned titles: Admirers such as Ava DuVernay, Tyler Perry and Shonda Rhimes call her Queen Cicely, which was much more appropriate for her.
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
- 1/29/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
It sort of irks me that too many people think that black cinema started with Spike Lee. True, I admit that may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but the basic idea that black cinema is a relatively “recent” is far from the truth. As you well know (or should), black films and filmmakers have been around since the silent era. Some, such as Oscar Micheaux, Noble and George Johnson and Spencer Williams, are well known while others have been forgotten. Among those for whom time seems to have passed by is film producer Ike Jones who passed away two weeks ago at the age of 84 to very little attention from the media, which is a shame since Jones was a true pioneer in many ways. ...
- 10/16/2014
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
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