Ken Shapiro, writer and director of Chevy Chase’s debut film “The Groove Tube,” died of cancer at age 76, TheWrap has learned.
Released in 1974, “The Groove Tube” was a cult hit indie comedy that satirized TV with a series of lewd skits and parodies of commercials. Among them was the skit “Koko The Clown,” a parody of “Bozo The Clown” in which Shapiro, in full clown attire, reads erotica during the show’s “Make-Believe Time.” The film launched the careers of Chase and Richard Belzer, the latter of whom appeared alongside Shapiro in another famous skit from the film called “The Dealers,” about a pair of sleazy pot dealers who are introduced with a send-up of 70s TV show intros.
Born in Newark, NJ, Shapiro got his start in showbiz at a young age as a part of Milton Berle’s “Texaco Star Theater.” Later, in 1967, Shapiro laid the groundwork for “The Groove Tube” with an off-Broadway comedy show called “Channel One,” which he created with Chase that became the basis for the film’s news broadcast skit, “Channel One Evening News.” That skit, in turn, inspired the long-running “Saturday Night Live” segment “Weekend Update.” The “Weekend Update” sign-off catchphrase, “Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow,” came from the film and was adopted by Chase.
After Chase found mainstream success with “SNL,” he reunited with Shapiro to make the 1981 comedy “Modern Problems,” in which Chase plays a down-on-his-luck air traffic controller who gets telekinetic powers from a nuclear waste spill and uses it to strike back at those who wronged him.
Shapiro died at his home in Las Cruces, NM, and is survived by his wife, Kelly, as well as two daughters, a stepdaughter, and four grandchildren.