Way back in 1972, the fine comedian George Kirby starred in a short-lived syndicated comedy series entitled Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour. According to The Internet Movie Database, I was one of the writers on this show. This is not so and I've told them as much. Let's see how long it takes them to change the listing. Actually, I did work with George Kirby many years later, on a project that never got off the ground. If you don't recall him, he was a very gifted black comedian who did incredible impressions.
He headlined in Vegas and for a time, was a regular on all the talk shows. He also starred in a few other short-lived series, such as The Copycats and Rosenthal and Jones. In 1977, he was caught trying to sell heroin to a man who turned out to be an undercover narcotics officer. This is not a smart thing to do and Kirby was sentenced to ten years in prison. Paroled after three and a half, he never quite got his career going again, and was reduced to playing some pretty humiliating, low-paying bookings.
In the mid-eighties, he came up with an idea for a cartoon series based around Michael Jackson's pets (the llama, Bubbles the Chimp, etc.), and Michael liked the idea. Mainly though, The King of Pop liked the idea of helping a fellow entertainer who was down on his luck, and so he gave the project his blessing. I was brought in to try and make something out of the idea. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a concept, especially when Michael declined to be animated…and at least one of the networks was uncomfortable at the idea of letting a convicted drug dealer become involved in the production of a kids' show. (He wouldn't have been the first but for some reason, at that moment, it bothered them.)
No one ever bought the show but Kirby didn't care too much, as he suddenly fell into a flurry of decent performing jobs. I wish this story had a happier ending but soon after, he took ill and had to stop working. He was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and passed away in 1995. He was a very funny man and I hope someone interviewed him extensively before he went…because he'd worked with everyone and boy, did he have stories.