Bud Yorkin, R.I.P.

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We sadly note the passing of Bud Yorkin, a fine gentleman and also a fine director, writer and producer. He was 89 and had been in poor health for some time. The obits hail him for his work — with partner Norman Lear — giving the world such ground-breaking situation comedies as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times and Sanford and Son. I was equally impressed with the movies the two of them produced together which included Divorce American Style, Cold Turkey, Start the Revolution Without Me and one of my favorites, The Night They Raided Minsky's.

Minsky's was one of Mr. Yorkin's favorites, too. It's somehow missing from his IMDB listing but he worked on it and every time I ran into him somewhere, he was pleased that I knew of it and asked him about it. His hair and mine apparently grew at the same rate because we had the same stylist and every time I went in for a trim, he was there for a trim.

One time while we waited, he gave me a long explanation of the troubles the picture encountered when in the midst of shooting, Bert Lahr — who had a key role — passed away. They decided it would be wrong to scrap his last performance and bring in someone else so they trimmed the part down to pretty much what Lahr had filmed.

They augmented it with a few moments of a double shot from the rear and Will Jordan dubbing in Lahr's voice but they left Bert Lahr in the picture. It was one of many problems the film had but Yorkin said he was glad they didn't take the easy way out and dump all that footage.

The hair stylist wasn't the first time I met Bud Yorkin. I met him when he didn't hire me to write on his series, What's Happening? and again when he didn't hire me to write on his series, Carter Country. These two examples show you have a wise producer he was. I'm going to miss running into him. He was a nice man and he made a lot of great movies and TV shows.