Mitzi McCall, Comedian and Sitcom Writer, Dies at 93

Comedian and sitcom writer Mitzi McCall, who had a historic connection to The Beatles, has died at age 93.

McCall’s family said she died on Thursday, August 8, at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

McCall and her husband Charlie Brill made up the sketch-comedy duo McCall & Brill, and they made their national TV debut on February 9, 1964, on an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show.

But the duo was overshadowed by another act booked for the same episode: The Beatles, who were making their U.S. television debut on the show.

Seventy-three million Americans, about 40 percent of the country, tuned in, but the in-studio audience was mostly teen girls wanting to see the Fab Four of The Beatles and reacting to McCall and Brill’s antics with silence. “They didn’t have this expression then, but we sucked,” McCall told NPR’s This American Life in 2005.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1930, and brought up at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, McCall made her movie debut in 1955’s You’re Never Too Young, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

And it was at the Jerry Lewis Comedy Workshop that she met Brill, whom she married in 1960. The couple took their comedy act to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, as well as the game shows Tattletales and Match Game.

When McCall and Brill prepared for their big moment on The Ed Sullivan Show, Sullivan warned them they had a tough crowd.

“What you’re doing is lovely, but not for tonight,” Sullivan told them, as McCall recalled. “My audience tonight is 14-year-old kids.”

Even though their act went over like a lead balloon — so much so that their agent didn’t talk to them for six months — the episode at least gave them stardom by association. “People would come up to us and say, ‘Wasn’t that you that was on The Beatles show?’” McCall said. “And we said, ‘Yes, yes,’ waiting for them to say, ‘Boy, did you suck.’ And they went, ‘Oh my God, you’re famous.’”

Later in life, McCall wrote for sitcoms like Eight Is Enough, One Day at a Time, ALF, and Charles in Charge. She also guest-starred on Seinfeld, recurred on Life Goes On and Silk Stalkings, and starred in the 1990s WB series Alright Already.

McCall was also a seasoned voice actor; her most recent screen credit is voice work for the 2015 film Crimson Peak.

McCall is survived by Brill, their daughter, and their two godchildren, Melissa and Sara Gilbert.