Ken Shapiro was a writer, director, producer and performer best known for his work on The Groove Tube, a 1974 film that spoofed television and marked the movie debuts of Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer.
The film also served as an inspiration for Saturday Night Live, according to director Gus Van Sant, who once served as Shapiro's assistant.
Shapiro later directed Chase in another comedy feature, the sci-fi fantasy Modern Problems.
As a performer, Shapiro appeared on an episode of The Great American Dream Machine, and in the 1966 film A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine.
He began his career in entertainement as a child, appearing in commercials and on seven episodes of Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater as "The Kid."
He died November 18, 2017, in Los Cruces, New Mexico. He was 76.
