Norman Abbott
Directing
Born 1922-07-11
Died 2016-07-09
New York City, New York, USA
43 credits
Read biography
Norman Abbott (July 11, 1922 – July 9, 2016) was an American vaudevillian, actor, producer and television director.
Abbott was born in New York City, where his uncle, comedian Bud Abbott, and his mother raised him. His early experience in entertainment was as a vaudeville performer, including summers working the 'borscht circuit" in resorts in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
In the early 1940s, he and Pat Costello (brother of Lou Costello) worked as stand-ins for the better-known act during filming of Who Done It? (1942).[3]
During World War II, Abbott served as a member of the original United States Navy SEALs team.
After the war, Abbott became a dialog director on the Abbott and Costello films and was mentored by the team's director, Charles T. Barton. Abbott later directed episodes of The Jack Benny Program, Leave It to Beaver, Get Smart, The Munsters, Welcome Back, Kotter, Dennis the Menace, and Sanford and Son.
Abbott's obituary in The Hollywood Reporter described him as "the brainchild behind the Broadway sensation Sugar Babies, the comeback vehicle for Mickey Rooney in the late 1970s". He conceived the idea of a Broadway musical based on burlesque after inheriting his uncle's "treasure trove of burlesque material, including written gags, props, music and posters".[4] Despite his having originated the concept, Abbott was fired as director of the show after two weeks of rehearsing.
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Filmography
Directing
31 credits
Alice
Love, American Style
Adam-12
Get Smart
Leave It to Beaver
Charles in Charge
Room 222
The Munsters
The Brady Bunch
Sanford and Son
Dennis the Menace
McHale's Navy
Bachelor Father
Nanny and the Professor
Welcome Back, Kotter
That's My Mama
When Things Were Rotten
Fish
Angie
Blondie
I'm Dickens, He's Fenster
Working Stiffs
California Fever
Karen
Nobody's Perfect
The All-Star Christmas Show
Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas
Jack Benny's Bag
The Last of the Secret Agents?
Once Upon a Tour
A Love Letter to Jack Benny
Acting
12 credits
The Colgate Comedy Hour
Film '72
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
Who Done It?
Rio Rita
Walking My Baby Back Home
NBC: The First Fifty Years
The Affairs of Martha
Empire of the Censors
Keep 'Em Slugging
Grand Central Murder
Anything Goes
Producing
2 credits
Writing
1 credit
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