Three years later, he moved to Honolulu with his mother after his older brother was assigned to Naval Station Pearl Harbor.

[1] He attended Punahou School and illustrated a cartoon that featured several times a week in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

[2] During this time, Burns co-wrote the unaired version of the 1965 pilot episode of The Smothers Brothers Show.

[6] Burns also worked as a writer and producer on the shows FM,[3] The Duck Factory,[7][8] Eisenhower and Lutz, and Cutters.

[11] Burns died at his home in Los Angeles on January 30, 2021, aged 85, from Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.