Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, Sleeper, and Manhattan, died on Nov. 29. He was 85. Brickman started his career as a folk singer in the New Journeymen with John and Michelle Phillips, before segueing into writing. He did comedy material for Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett, and wrote for the New Yorker before meeting up with Allen. Besides films with him, Brickman wrote (and sometimes directed) such film and TV projects as Off Campus, Simon, Lovesick, and Bette Midler’s For the Boys. With Rick Elice, Brickman wrote the book for the Broadway musicals Jersey Boys and The Addams Family. Of his gig as head writer for Johnny Carson, he said, “One of the things that I’ll go to my grave having to apologize for is having invented the Carnac Saver. Every time Johnny’s character Carnac the Magnificent told a joke that bombed, he would have a line that would save him. Like a ‘heckler-stopper.’ And we would give Johnny a page of these jokes: ‘May the Great Camel of Giza leave you a present in your undershorts.’ I can’t believe we were paid for this.”
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