TV treasures who are still with us (and some now sadly saying goodbye since this thread began)

[hawing]

If you enjoy this thread and use Twitter, you might also enjoy following @TVGuideArchives. Someone (not from TV Guide) posts images from old issues of TV Guide.

[1992casey]

Thank you, Norman Lear, TV genius. 91.

 

One might forget that [cite]Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman[/cite] had more episodes produced than any other Norman Lear show. 325 episodes of the soap opera parody aired in a sixteen month span between January 1976 and May 1977. The series was just released on DVD. Given that it's a 38 disk set, it's pricey.

 

Much lesser known is Lear's [cite]All that Glitters[/cite], a soap spoof set in a world of complete role-reversal, i.e. women were the stronger sex and men were the weaker. Linda Gray played a transgender fashion model on the series, which lasted for 65 episodes between May and July 1977.

 

Mary Hartman: "I have actually taken a human life with my chicken soup."

 

[whizkid]

Speaking of Alan Young(94) (Mr. Ed), here's an interview with him primarily about knowing Marilyn Monroe before she was famous. He looks great for 94.

 

http://celebrity.yahoo.com/video/yo-marilyn-monroes-mister-ed-003454063.html

[Mass Haas]

Inevitably, we knew we'd have to start saying goodbye to the folks in this thread.

 

Goodbye, Professor.

[brewmann04]

Don Rickies still going strong who can forget CPO Sharkey

[brewmann04]

Russell Johnson has passed away today.

[whizkid]

Not mentioned in this thread but Dave Madden, Laugh-In and Partridge Family, passed today also at 82.

[Mass Haas]

Reuben Kincaid and the Professor, yikes, tough day.

 

Via the Associated Press report --

 

“The Partridge Family,” which ran on ABC from September 1970 to March 1974, revolved around a widowed mother and her five children who form a band. Towering and rumpled, Mr. Madden played Reuben Kincaid, the agent who managed the band and regularly clashed with its impish preteen bassist, played by Danny Bonaduce.

 

The series starred Shirley Jones, with her real-life son David Cassidy as the resident heartthrob. But it was Mr. Madden and the freckle-faced Mr. Bonaduce who were the reigning comic duo.

 

“His relationship with Danny Bonaduce is what made the show work,” Ms. Jones said of Mr. Madden on Thursday, “this strange, mad little boy and the grown man who was even worse as a father figure.”

 

Though Mr. Madden played a man bedeviled by the youngsters surrounding him, off camera he “loved kids,” Ms. Jones said.

 

Mr. Bonaduce later wrote that during his troubled youth Mr. Madden served as his surrogate father.

[hawing]

I get a big kick that both Mr. and Mrs. Oleson of Little House on the Prairie (Richard Bull, Katherine McGregor) are still with us, 89 and 88, respectively. Guess Nellie and Willie weren't bad for longevity after all.

Aww, we have to amend this statement too.

 

Richard Bull, TV's Mr. Oleson, dies

 

Recently I was watching a very early episode of Little House on the Prairie, and marveled over how, um, witchy they made both Nellie and Mrs. Oleson. I don't know how Mr. Oleson (the character) endured living on the prairie with them and Willie.

[hawing]

More of a movie treasure than a TV treasure, but Shirley Temple has moved from the "still with us" to the "no longer with us" overnight: Link

 

Even if you never caught her movies (and her heyday predates just about everyone here, I suspect), you've probably seen the TV commercials for the DVD collection of her movies. I had to stop watching the commercials after seeing one scene which was mostly but not completely colorized. The colorizers forgot her teeth, so when she broke out into a big grin, her teeth looked hideously gray in comparison to the rest of her colorized face. Yeah, sadly, that's my Shirley Temple memory.

[whizkid]

Her movies were staples on TV in the 50s and 60s, particularly on Sunday afternoons. I'm sure I saw every one at some point. Remember there were only 3-5 channels depending on where you lived. Because of that she was probably still considered as big a star then as when the movies first played in the theatres.

[Mass Haas]

Sid Caesar dies at 91, quite the biography here.

 

He pre-dated my viewing timeline, but certainly deserves a mention here. Despite my initial pronouncement that this wasn't a death-watch thread, it has become a bit of one. I'm still glad that many were celebrated on this thread while still with us.

[MadScientist]

The Doctor, Tom Baker, turned 80 in January. The first Doctor to reach 80, and his mind and voice are still clear enough to let him reprise his old role, if only for a scene, last year.

[Mass Haas]

Goodbye Ralph Waite of the Waltons (and much more)....

 

Or should we say Goodnight, Daddy

 

 

Wikipedia -- Ralph Waite was reluctant to audition for the part of John Walton because he didn't want to be tied to a long-running TV series, but his agent persuaded him by saying, "It will never sell. You do the pilot. You pick up a couple of bucks and then you go back to New York."

[hawing]

As a self-professed huge nerd for The Waltons, I find this awfully sad - though I admit I hadn't realized Ralph Waite was 85.

[MJLiverock]

I watched an episode of Hawaii Five-0 off the DVR last night and immediately thought of this thread when I saw Carol Burnett (80) on the show and still acting well. My Grandma loved the Carol Burnett show when I was a kid so ended up watching it and thought it was funny even though I probably didn't get half the jokes. Also had the late great Harvey Korman, who was an awesome "villian" in Blazing Saddles.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

“She’s sweet, she’s nice, real nice,”

 

Mary Grace Canfield passed away at 89. She was on Green Acres as Ralph, and an episode of The Andy Griffith Show as Thelma Lou's cousin.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/mary-grace-canfield-actress-in-green-acres-dies-at-89/2014/02/19/8d53f174-998a-11e3-80ac-63a8ba7f7942_story.html

[hawing]

On Friday (2/28), character actor Gavin MacLeod turned 83. You might remember him from such classic TV roles as Murray Slaughter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, or as Captain Merrill Stubing on The Love Boat.

[1992casey]

Doris Day's 90th birthday is being celebrated on Thursday (although some sources say she'll be 92). She's better known for movies and recordings than TV; she was kind of forced into doing TV against her will. She turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Her son, Terry Melcher, had some creepy encounters with the Manson family.

[1992casey]

Ann B. Davis, who played Alice Nelson, the maid on [cite]The Brady Bunch[/cite] and who won two Emmy Awards for her role as Schultzy, the secretary on [cite]The Bob Cummings Show[/cite], passed away this past Sunday at age 88.

[Mass Haas]

Hoping it doesn't take this thread too off-topic, but:

 

CNN Feature Article: One-third of babies born in the UK in 2013 are expected to live to 100, according to their Office of National Statistics. In the United States, the population has seen similar trends.

 

Wow.

[TURBO]

Ann B. Davis, who played Alice Nelson, the maid on [cite]The Brady Bunch[/cite] and who won two Emmy Awards for her role as Schultzy, the secretary on [cite]The Bob Cummings Show[/cite], passed away this past Sunday at age 88.

 

This one truly saddens me. The Brady's will always hold a special place in my heart, they remind me of growing up back in the 70's...

[Mass Haas]

I know this thread began as an honor to the 85+ crowd, but I was so disheartened to read about the loss of Welcome Back, Kotter's Marcia Strassman after a seven-year battle against breast cancer, at age 66.

 

Time racing too quickly - many will remember M*A*S*H (first season), and the "Honey, I Shrunk..." movies.

 

So pretty and sweet, goodbye to another childhood crush...

 

My wife is aware and flattered that one of her immediate redeeming qualities to me upon meeting her as my future wife in '84 was her resemblance to Ms. Strassman (I married up ).

[1992casey]

We missed the passing of Don Pardo, who died in August at the age of 96. He was best known as the announcer on [cite]Saturday Night Live[/cite], a job he held from the show's premiere in 1975 until his death. He was also the announcer for the [cite]NBC Nightly News[/cite] and the original incarnation of [cite]Jeopardy![/cite].

[Patrick425]

I always heard stories that her and Gabe Kaplan did not exactly get along on the set of "Welcome Back Kotter"