Gary Belkin, 78, Writer for Sid Caesar and Carol Burnett
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Gary Belkin, a comedy writer who honed his skills on Sid Caesar’s “Caesar’s Hour” and went on to work for such television classics as “The Carol Burnett Show” and “Sesame Street,” died July 28 in Los Angeles. He was 78.
Belkin was born in the Bronx and got into comedy by suggesting ideas for cartoons for the New Yorker magazine and writing jokes for radio comedians. He soon broke into television on Caesar’s variety show, which aired from 1954 to 1957.
He worked as part of a large team of writers, many of whom had written for Caesar’s earlier “Your Show of Shows,” which ran from 1950 to 1954.
Belkin went on to write variety-show scripts for “The Danny Kaye Show” and spent eight years with “The Carol Burnett Show,” in addition to sitcoms and celebrity specials for Anne Bancroft, Frank Sinatra, and Doris Day (“The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special”).
He was awarded an Emmy for his PBS sex-education program “VD Blues” and an Emmy nomination for “Sesame Street” in 1985. He also shared an Emmy nomination for “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in 1987.
