'Family Guy' creator to give modern spin to 'Flintstones'

May 16, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/sns-rt-television-us-flinttre74f7z3-20110516,0,948505.story

Los Angeles — "The Flintstones" are heading back to television, courtesy of irreverent "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, Fox television said on Monday.

MacFarlane will give a 21st century spin to the classic 1960s animated comedy series about the lives of Fred Flintstone, his wife Wilma, and their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble.

"The very first cartoon character I drew at age two was Fred Flintstone," MacFarlane said in a statement.

"So it's appropriate that events have come full circle, allowing me to produce the newest incarnation of this great franchise. Plus, I think America is finally ready for an animated sitcom about a fat, stupid guy with a wife who's too good for him," he added.

The new animated series will feature MacFarlane's modern-day take on the lives of the Flintstones and the Rubbles, two hard-working middle-class families living with contemporary conveniences in the dinosaur-era town of Bedrock.

Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said the network hoped to introduce the prehistoric characters to a "whole new generation."

"Fox has long been home to iconic families like the Simpsons and the Griffins, so I have no doubt that the Flintstones and the Rubbles are going to fit right in on our air," Reilly said.

Fox said production would start in the fall of 2011 and would likely air some time in 2013. "The Flintstones" will be a joint production between 20th Century Fox Television and Warners Bros. Television, the owners of the Hanna-Barbera collection of animated titles.

"The Flintstones" first appeared on U.S. television in the 1960s and have inspired numerous television specials, three Hollywood movies and videogames.

'Carol Burnett Show' veteran Harvey Korman dies

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-05-29-korman-obit_N.htm

'Carol Burnett Show' veteran Harvey Korman dies at 81
By Jim Cheng, USA TODAY

Harvey Korman was proud of his training at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where he performed Shakespeare, Shaw and Ibsen.

But the versatile actor and comedian will forever be known for raising being "second banana" into an art of the highest order, especially during his 10 years on The Carol Burnett Show.

Korman died Thursday in Los Angeles of complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said. He was 81.

Korman, a native of Chicago, was a character actor from the beginning, playing the butler in a seventh-grade production of Heidi. In high school he was active in drama club, and after graduating, he enlisted in the Navy during World War II. After the war, Korman returned to Chicago, where his high school drama teacher recommended him for further study at Goodman.

He gained his first extended TV exposure as a regular for four seasons on The Danny Kaye Show in the early '60s. His also did voice-over work on Tom and Jerry and as the Great Gazoo on The Flintstones.

But he came into his own in 1967, when he joined Burnett's CBS variety show. He won four Emmys and a Golden Globe for his work and became famous for trying, and usually failing, to keep a straight face when confronted with the antics of his frequent sketch partner Tim Conway.

"You learn to work fast," Korman once said, describing the art of sketch comedy. "Yet, it has to have two elements: It has to have truth to it, and it has to be funny."

Burnett and Korman spoofed classic movies such as Gone With the Wind and soap operas such as As the World Turns, which they dubbed As the Stomach Turns. They also teamed up as Ed and Eunice, a bickering married couple who were at odds with the wife's mother (Vicki Lawrence).

Although he never found the same success on TV once he left Burnett in 1977, Korman worked steadily in a number of TV series. He hosted The Harvey Korman Show in 1978 and was a regular on The Tim Conway Show in 1980-81. In the mid-'80s, he reprised his Burnett Ed role in the NBC comedy Mama's Family.

Korman was a favorite of Mel Brooks and worked with the director in four films, including his memorable turn as the leering Hedley Lemarr in 1974's Blazing Saddles.

His other film credits include 1979's Americathon and 1982's The Trail of the Pink Panther.

"It takes a certain type of person to be a television star," he said in an interview in 2005. "I didn't have whatever that is. I come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright.

"Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I'm fine."