I saw him interviewed last year, and thought he looke really frail, and didn’t realize he was well into his 70’s.
Died today at 76 of cancer.
Also didn’t realize (or forgot I knew) he was Albert Brooks’s brother (you can sort of understand why Albert changed his name…)
Einstein did two episodes on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and I really enjoyed them, even though I wasn’t ever a Super Dave fan. (Larry Middleman and Marty Funkhouser, however, I adored.)
Oh man, that’s sad. I didn’t realize he had cancer. He’s incredible on Curb.
Ah, very sad. While I enjoyed him on Curb, I have a special place in my highschool era brain for all the ridiculous Superdave Osborn stunts.
Was just reminiscing about the old Bizarre show (with John Byner) where Super Dave was “born.” That was some funny, irreverent, early-80s stuff.
Super Dave has long been a favorite of mine. I did try a couple years ago to find a version of his hat, but surprisingly it wasn’t available anywhere, even though there is some SD merch out there.
Holy shit. I loved Super Dave. Loved. I am so sad.
Reading Einstein’s bio, looks like his first big gig was as a member of the writing team for The Smothers Brothers show. One of the other main writers there was Steve Martin.
He sure had some memorable characters. Sorry to see him go, RIP Bob.
This is going to sound kind of crazy, but I thought he had died some time ago, and in fact I was certain he had died onstage. But after googling around, I must be thinking of a story he or Albert Brooks told about their father, who did in fact die onstage in fact mid-joke, prompting Milton Berle (seated next to him) to joke, Is there a doctor in the house?
Anyway, I remember watching Super Dave way back in the days of Bizarre also, I used to have to sneak that one because I remember it having the occasional bare breasted woman too. The guy was always a riot, and I loved that he turned up again on Arrested Development.
Oh, no! I’m currently rewatching all of Curb and he’s just hilarious. I also loved Super Dave on Letterman.
No idea how they both kept a straight face through this scene…
At one point maybe 2-3 years ago he was a regular on the Dan Lebatard ESPN Radio show. He would pick NFL football teams during the season. Well the show had a string of pickers die (some famous wrestler, the father from The Facts of Life) and Einstein refused to do the show anymore.
He worked with some legends of comedy too:
Einstein first made his name as a writer. His career dates to the 1960s, when he won his first Emmy as part of the writing team for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, whose staff also included Steve Martin. Einstein went on to earn Emmy noms as a writer on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in 1972 and 1974 and two more for writing on Dick Van Dyke’s mid-‘70s series Van Dyke and Company . Einstein also won his other Emmy as a producer for that show, sharing the 1977 award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Bob Einstein passed away, he is survived by his brother. That man? Albert Einstein.
RIP
I had no idea he and Albert Brooks were related until reading the article above.
Starting to think I put the first post in invisible ink by mistake again…;)
I read the article above before reading your post, if that helps. Saw the title and sought out confirmation.
I still remember this line from Super Dave while he was on Bizarre. He was on a spinning wheel while the stunt was for an Indian to shoot arrows at him:
May the great eagle fly over your house and shit on it!
I was busting up at the time (due to the character and setup), and it still cracks me up, 35 years later.
Little Orphan Funkhouser
And something else I didn’t know: comedy – as you might suspect – runs in the family.
Here’s dad:
Rip Super Dave. Watching his appearance on the first Norm MacDonald podcast as tribute, he killed it the whole time. He tells lots of stories about his career in the episode, which are hilarious and really interesting. Some of the shows he mentions are not in his wiki: