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Doc Severinsen was a snitch.

After a night off, Johnny Carson was back in his Tonight Show chair, and it didn’t take him long to notice something was off. A cigarette box that had been a mainstay on his desk for years was broken. “What the hell happened to this?” Carson asked the bandleader. “You know how long I’ve had this cigarette box? I brought this out from New York. What on earth?”

“Rickles!” came the shouts from offstage, either from the audience, stagehands or both. “Don Rickles,” Doc clarified in case Carson thought some other Rickles was the perpetrator.

Carson wasn’t happy. “What the hell did he do with it?” he wondered. “The wood is broken! That’s an heirloom!”

It was an easy explanation. He was screwing around with guest host Bob Newhart, banging Johnny’s desk and accidentally busting Carson’s box.

This indignity would not stand.

Coslough Johnson, the Emmy-winning writer who worked with his late older brother, Arte Johnson, on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and wrote for two variety shows toplined by Sonny and Cher, has died. He was 91.

Johnson died March 23 of prostate cancer at a nursing facility in the Thousand Oaks area, his wife, Mary Jane, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Johnson also worked on sitcoms including The Monkees, Bewitched, That Girl, The Partridge Family, Good Times, Flo, Operation Petticoat and Cpo Sharkey and on cartoons featuring Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, The Flintstones, Voltron and He-Man.

He wrote on the first three seasons (1968-70) of NBC’s Laugh-In, the final three seasons (1971-74) of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and the lone season (1976-77) of The Sonny and Cher Show, those last two for CBS.

Other variety shows on his résumé included The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show...

David Landsberg, an actor, screenwriter and producer who appeared opposite Don Rickles on CPO Sharkey and penned and produced episodes of Bill Cosby’s CBS sitcom, has died. He was 73.

Landsberg died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications that arose from surgery for esophageal cancer, his daughter, Caryn O'Neill, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Landsberg also wrote and/or produced episodes of Blossom, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Herman's Head, Fantasy Island, The New Love Boat and The John Larroquette Show and co-created with Brenda Hampton (7th Heaven) a 1994 CBS sitcom called Daddy's Girls, starring Dudley Moore, Harvey Fierstein and Keri ...

Los Angeles – With the flourish of trumpets in “The Bullfighter’s Song,” a pugnacious man would strut on stage and launch a volley of hilarious insults on some unsuspecting targets. That act was Don Rickles, whose show business nicknames included “The King of Zing,” “The Merchant of Venom” and the magnificently ironic “Mr. Warmth.” Rickles died in Los Angeles on April 6th, 2017. He was 90.

In his early career, Rickles was a throwback to the cocktail and burlesque joints of the 1950s and ‘60s, where a burgeoning stand up comic would do anything to engage the audience and keep a gig. With a quick wit and rat-a-tat delivery, Rickles developed a persona that would keep him working virtually all the way to the end. He went from the “Rat Pack” era, through comedy roasts of the 1970s, to the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the “Toy Story” series, and never...

The Hollywood community is in morning once again, with another iconic performer passing away. Don Rickles, the legendary insult comedian and actor, died at the age of 90, in his Los Angeles home. The actor/comedian's publicist, Paul Shefrin, confirmed that his client had succumbed to kidney failure earlier today.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the funeral services will be private, and that donations can be made in the late comedian's name to his son's organization, the Larry Rickles Endowment Fund at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Don Rickles was born May 8, 1926 in New York City, raised in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens. He graduated from Newtown High School and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, after which, he returned home and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Don Rickles got his start in the entertainment business by performing as a stand-up comedian for several years.

Legendary insult comic Don Rickles, known to his fans as “Mr. Warmth,” has died at the age of 90.

Rickles died of kidney failure in his Los Angeles home on Thursday, our sister site Variety reports. The news was confirmed by his publicist Paul Schrifin.

The comedian is perhaps best known for his frequent appearances on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, which ran on NBC throughout the 1970s and ’80s, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He was also the star of the sitcom Cpo Sharkey, which ran from 1976-78, and the short-lived Don Rickles Show in 1972. Additional TV credits included Daddy Dearest and Foul-Ups,...

On May 22, 1992, Johnny Carson ended his 30-year reign as the host of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." Twenty years after his final broadcast, Carson remains unmatched as an American television icon.

Carson's abilities as a television host set the prototype for all late-night hosts who would come after him. Effortlessly likable, quick on his feet and always present, his monologue and guest interviews were a staple of the American cultural diet. In the new PBS documentary "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night," his one-time permanent guest host Joan Rivers called Carson "the ultimate straight man," praising his ability to let his guests have the spotlight during interviews.

One of his successors, Conan O'Brien, said in the documentary that his forebear's greatest slight of hand was to simultaneously appear innocent as well as "the coolest guy in the room."

"Johnny is to comedy what Walter Cronkite was to news,...

On May 22, 1992, Johnny Carson ended his 30-year reign as the host of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." Twenty years after his final broadcast, Carson remains unmatched as an American television icon.

Carson's abilities as a television host set the prototype for all late-night hosts who would come after him. He was effortlessly likable, quick on his feet and always present; his monologue and guest interviews were a staple of the American cultural diet. In the new PBS documentary "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night," his one-time permanent guest host Joan Rivers called Carson "the ultimate straight man," praising his ability to let his guests have the spotlight during interviews.

One of his successors, Conan O'Brien, said in the documentary that his forebear's greatest slight of hand was to simultaneously appear innocent as well as "the coolest guy in the room."

"Johnny is to comedy what Walter Cronkite was to news,...