Noticias

Alan Sacks, a longtime television producer who co-created the popular 1970s sitcom “Welcome Back Kotter” and later had a long affiliation with The Disney Channel, died on Tuesday following a battle with lymphoma. He was 81.

In a statement provided to Deadline, Sacks’ talent agent Annette van Duren said his cancer “was treated for him to dance at our daughter’s June wedding and walk her down the aisle. After that, the chemotherapy stopped being effective. He started hospice last week. He died peacefully listening to Tibetan music for the final few days and nights at age 81.”

Born Dec. 9, 1942, Sacks was best known for helping to co-create “Welcome Back Kotter” with star Gabe Kaplan in 1975. The show ran from 1975 to 1979 and today is most remembered for launching John Travolta to stardom. During this period Sacks also worked on “Chico and the Man.”

Decades later he executive produced several Disney Channel projects,...

Alan Sacks, who teamed with stand-up comic and fellow Brooklynite Gabe Kaplan to create the popular 1970s ABC sitcom Welcome, Back, Kotter, has died. He was 81.

Sacks died Tuesday of complications from lymphoma in New York while on a visit there, his wife, talent agent Annette van Duren, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was first diagnosed 22 years ago but spent several years in remission before the cancer returned.

In the 1980s, after a project involving the iconic L.A. band The Runaways never got off the ground, Sacks took the footage and incorporated it into a plot about a director working on a tight deadline to finish a movie starring Runaways member Joan Jett.

The resulting film, Du-Beat-e-o (1984), which he also helmed, was set against the background of the hardcore L.A. punk scene and featured Ray Sharkey and Derf Scratch of the punk band Fear.

He also wrote and...

Alan Sacks, known for co-creating Welcome Back, Kotter and producing several Disney Channel projects, has died. He was 81.

The producer’s wife, talent agent Annette van Duren, tells Deadline that Sacks died Tuesday morning in New York City after his mantle cell lymphoma took an “aggressive” turn in recent weeks.

“It was treated for him to dance at our daughter’s June wedding and walk her down the aisle,” she said. “After that, the chemotherapy stopped being effective. He started hospice last week. He died peacefully listening to Tibetan music for the final few days and nights at age 81.”

Actor Robert Rusler, who starred alongside Josh Brolin in the 1986 Sacks-written skateboarding romance Thrashin’, remembered the “writer, producer, teacher and connector of people” in a statement on Instagram.

Listing some of his standout credits, Rusler noted, “Where I got to know him from was working with him on the movie #Thrashin.

Film and TV writer-producer Alan Sacks, who had an eclectic career that included co-creating the popular 1970s series “Welcome Back, Kotter” and working on projects set in the 1980s L.A. punk scene, died of complications from lymphoma on Tuesday in New York. He was 81.

Sacks was born in Brooklyn and started his career in the research department of ABC Television. After moving to Los Angeles, he continued working at ABC as a program executive. Along with Gabe Kaplan and Peter Meyerson, he helped develop and co-create “Welcome Back, Kotter,” basing the sitcom on his high school friends in Brooklyn and on Kaplan’s stand-up routine.

He also worked on “Chico and the Man,” created by “Welcome Back, Kotter” executive producer James Komack.

In 1991, Sacks created and produced a Saturday morning children’s show, “Riders in the Sky,” for CBS, which replaced the “Pee-Wee Herman Show.”

During the 1970s and ’80s,...

It's the beginning of the end for the "Fast & Furious" franchise, with "Fast X," the first half of the two-part conclusion of the series, speeding its way into theaters later this year. As was announced in 2022, Academy Award-winner and Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson, is joining the "Fast" family as the mysterious new character, Tess. While little has been made known about her new character, Larson's past performances make her a perfect addition to the action franchise centering on fast cars, heists, spies, and loyalty.

Larson has been acting since she was just a child, with her breakthrough performance on the sitcom "Raising Dad" occurring when she was only 12 years old. She would go on to appear in bit parts in films like "13 Going on 30" as one of the Six Chicks, or in "Sleepover," where she plays an 8th grader with a driver's license because she's been held back so many times.

Kayti Burt Nov 14, 2019

Wondering which Disney Channel Original Movies have made it onto the Disney+ platform? We've got you covered.

Zoom, zoom, zoom. Make my heart go boom boom. Disney+ is here.

Much of the focus around the launch of Disney's new streaming service platform has been on its flashiest of assets—your Star Wars and your Marvel movies and TV shows. But Disney is a massive media conglomerate with more assets in one of its mouse ears than most media companies have in their whole being. Yes, we're talking about Disney Channel Original Movies (affectionately known as Dcom).

You've got your Zenon (Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, Zenon: The Zequel, and Zenon: Z3). You've got your High School Musical (the original, High School Musical 2, and Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure). You've got your Luck of the Irish. If you are an older millennial or anyone who enjoys earnest,...

For those of you who have signed up or plan on signing up for Disney+, we now have a full list of TV shows and films that will be available to watch on the day the service launches. While there’s not as much here as the services like Netflix or Hulu, there’s still a lot here that I’m excited about watching!

This is the list of shows and films that were included in the trial run for the streaming service that’s currently available in The Netherlands. So, you’ll notice that that upcoming titles such as The Mandalorian, Lady and the Tramp, Noelle and The World According to Jeff Goldblum aren’t on this list. But, they will be available when the service launches on November 12th.

I’ve already signed up for Disney+. I’m locked in for three years and with all of the...

I happened to catch the High School Musical spin-off Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure while watching a friend’s kid sister last weekend, and I have to say, once and for all, that I’m totally and completely over Disney Channel Original Movies… and it’s about time. Even toward the end of what I consider the Golden Era of Disney Originals — starting in 1999 with Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and coming to a screeching halt in 2003 with The Even Stevens Movie — I was probably a little too old to be watching them. I remember joking about the latest cheesy Domp (Disney Original Motion Picture…...