Jack Burns
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jack Burns (born November 15, 1933) is an American comedian.
He launched his career as part of a short-lived double act with George Carlin. Longer lasting was a later teaming with Avery Schreiber, who he met when they were both members of The Second City. Burns and Schreiber were best known for a series of routines in which Burns played a talkative taxicab passenger, with Schreiber as the driver.
Burns played the dedicated but inept deputy sheriff Warren Ferguson during the first half of the 1965-66 season of The Andy Griffith Show, as Barney Fife's replacement after Don Knotts left the cast. His character was not popular and was dropped without explanation, and the series did not have a deputy after Burns left the cast.
Burns was the head writer for the first season of The Muppet Show. His comedy partner Avery Schreiber appeared on an episode of the first season. He also co-wrote The Muppet Movie (with Jerry Juhl, his successor as head writer of The Muppet Show).
In the early 1980s, he was a writer and performer on the comedy series Fridays.
He was teamed with Lorenzo Music to provide the voices for a pair of crash test dummies in a series of public service announcements on car safety. In 1993, Burns starred in the cartoon-series Animaniacs, as the voice of Sid the Squid, giving the character a raspy, Daffy Duck kind of voice.
[edit] External link
- Jack Burns at the Internet Movie Database
- The Revenge of Warren Ferguson on the Andy Griffith Show
http://www.henrybwalthall.com/JackBurnsWarrenFergusonRevenge.html
- Part One of a two-part Jack Burns Biography http://www.henrybwalthall.com/JackBurnsBiographyPartOne.html
