Bud Yorkin | TV producer, director, 89

Bud Yorkin, 89, a producer and director who teamed with Norman Lear to create the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Sanford and Son, which brought a fresh sense of social urgency and forever changed the landscape of prime-time TV, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. His death was announced by a publicist, Jeff Sanderson. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Mr. Yorkin had been treated for complications from dementia.

Mr. Yorkin began his career in the early days of television as a stage manager and Emmy Award-winning director before joining forces with Lear in 1958. He later directed films, including Come Blow Your Horn and Divorce American Style, with scripts by Lear before revolutionizing the situation comedy in the '70s.

Alan D. Yorkin served in the Navy during World War II and received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1948 from what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He began working as a stage manager in television and by the early 1950s was directing episodes of NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour. He produced variety shows in the 1950s and made a splash in 1958 as the director and producer of An Evening With Fred Astaire.

The Astaire special - the first TV program preserved on color videotape - won nine Emmy Awards.

Mr. Yorkin's first marriage, to Peg Diem Yorkin, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 26 years, actress Cynthia Sikes Yorkin; four children; two sisters; and four grandchildren. - Washington Post