“Forgotten Hollywood”- An Everyman of Comedy…

Posted on September 1, 2017 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

“`Shelley Berman won gold records and appeared on top television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, delivering wry monologues about the annoyance of everyday life. He was a pioneer of a brand of comedy that helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, and other standup comedians,  who wrote routines around the frustrations of modern living. Mike Nichols and Elaine May were early influences to his career.

“`He made the first of many appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1959. That year, he issued his first album, Inside Shelley Berman. It won a gold record, and received the first-ever Grammy Award for the Spoken Word. Two more albums achieved gold status.

“`Humor was not his first ambition. Berman trained as an actor, with the Goodman School of Drama in his native Chicago, and with prestigious actress Uta Hagen in New York.  Keeping a hectic schedule in nightclubs, Shelley fulfilled his first ambition to be an actor. He initially appeared on Broadway – The Boys Against the Girls in 1959, and A Family Affair  in 1962. He continued on stage in Where’s Charley?Damn Yankees, The Odd CoupleFiddler on the RoofPrisoner of Second Avenue, La Cage aux Folles, and Guys and Dolls.       SHELLEY BERMAN –>

“`His movie debut came in 1964 in the adaptation of Gore Vidal’s political stage drama, The Best Man, starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Other films include Divorce American Style, Teen Witch, Meet the Fockers, and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.

“`He stayed busy on television, appearing in Rawhide, The Twilight Zone, Peter Gunn, Bewitched, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Walker Texas RangerAdam-12, Friends, Emergency!, Night Court, MacGyver, L. A. Law, The King of Queens, Boston Legal, Grey’s AnatomyCSI: NY, and the latest version of Hawaii Five-0. Shelley appeared as Larry David’s aged father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, a role for which he received a 2008 Emmy Award nomination.

“`He was the first standup comedian to perform at Carnegie Hall. He also taught humor in a Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California, where he was a Lecturer Emeritus.

“`Shelley Berman was 92.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2017 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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