Jack Burns: 1933-2020

The news broke earlier today while I was sleeping (I'm a night-owl that works overnights but I'm on vacation but keep my routine) but the news broke that comedy writer/actor, Jack Burns, had passed away this past Sunday at age 86 but the news didn't become public until today. I first became aware of him by way of his appearance as Warren in episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. I used to watch the repeats of the show on TBS in the early to mid 1990s. However, I didn't realize I had been hearing Jack's voice prior to that...he was the voice of a Crash Test Dummy, along side Lorenzo Music, in a long series of television commercials about seat belts. In my youth I wasn't as focused on detecting voices as I feel that I am now...but yet I immediately realized the other dummy was being voiced by 'Garfield' (even though I had no idea of the voice actor's name at the time). 

I'm not familiar with Jack's comedy with George Carlin although I've learned of the comical pairing. I am way more familiar with the Jack Burns you'll see in the video clips below showcasing the lengthy pairing between him and the actor with the wild mustache, Avery Shreiber. For those interested YouTube has the comedy album that Jack Burns and George Carlin recorded together in 1960.  

In the video clips below you'll see Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber performing variations of their taxicab routine...





In the memorial/tribute articles I've read, so far, the authors always bring up his being a part of Hee Haw but there's no specifics actually given and so I'll supply some specifics. He was a member of the show's writing staff when it was on network television for two and a half seasons (1969-1971) but had no further involvement in the series after it began it's syndication run in the fall of 1971 until he began showing up, non-credited, in a series of sketches with George Lindsey in which Jack's character is a con-artist trying to peddle an assortment of junk and sometimes stolen items onto Goober. Those sketches were hilarious but I don't know the exact years those sketches appeared but my guess is some point in the early 1980s. 

It was in this time period that Jack became a writer, co-producer, and announcer of a sketch comedy show called Fridays. The sketch that's remembered from this two season, 58 episode series happened to involve Andy Kaufman. He pulled an elaborate stunt in which he and the cast/crew got into a wild fight on stage...on live television no less. The key to having it appear as if it were real and spontaneous is the fact that nobody, except a few key figures involved with the show (which included Jack Burns), knew it was being staged. The audience in the studio and home viewers believed it to be real. In an effort to further keep it believable, on the very next episode, Andy Kaufman apologized for the incident.

Although I couldn't find any video footage of Jack Burns and George Carlin, at the moment, I came across a brief video of Jack and Dick Cavett. Almost immediately after the routine begins Dick Cavett nearly loses his composure as the 'straight man' and holds back laughter...but from then on he lets loose several giggles for the remainder of the brief banter.



The sketch shows two things: First, that the super-serious reputation/image of Dick Cavett can be chiseled into every now and then and second, it shows just how incredible Avery Shreiber was as a straight-man to Jack Burns and how valuable a straight-man happens to be in a comedy team. Jack lent his distinctive voice to a variety of narration and voice over roles. The two most notable include his vocalization of Ralph Kane on the animated series, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. In this role his character was a super exaggerated Conservative who lived next door to a moderate Conservative, Harry Doyle, voiced by Tom Bosley. The animated series ran for two seasons in syndication, 1972-1974, and a total of 48 episodes. The other most notable vocalization is his contribution to the Crash Test Dummies. In a long running series of television commercials for seat belt awareness and safety the two dummies, Vince and Larry, are shown getting into crashes and the effects of wearing a seat belt. The co-star in these commercials was Lorenzo Music. The catchphrase in those commercials was "you can learn a lot from a dummy".

In the early 1990s he lent his voice the Animaniacs animated series in the role of villainous Sid the Squid while former comedy partner, Avery Shreiber, voiced the dimwitted Beanie the Bison. Sid and Beanie appeared in the same episodes together: "Hurray for Slappy", "Scare Happy Slappy", "Rest in Pieces", "Macadamia Nut", and "Star Warners". If any of you reading this aren't familiar with the work of Jack Burns, or if you think his only claim to fame was portraying Deputy Warren for a few episodes on The Andy Griffith Show, you can easily seek out Jack's lengthy career on YouTube and other video hosting sites and see what you've missed.

Jack Burns: November 15, 1933 - January 26, 2020