Losing Patty

I'm so sorry to hear that actress Patty Duke has passed away at age 69. She was a fixture of TV reruns during my childhood.



READ MORE: “R.I.P., Patty Duke,” by Ken Levine; “Godspeed Patty Duke,” by Terence Towles Canote (A Shroud of Thoughts); “The Hat Squad—Remembering Patty Duke,” by Toby O’B (Inner Toob); “Disastrous Demise: Patty Duke, 1946-2016” (Poseidon’s Underworld).

Batgirl Hangs Up Her Cowl

This is very sad news, coming from The Catacombs:

On Monday actress Yvonne Craig lost her grueling two-year battle with breast cancer. Of course everyone knew her as “Batgirl” from the classic 1960s television series, but she made memorable impressions on other well-loved series such as Star Trek, The Mod Squad, 77 Sunset Strip, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, and many others. She appeared twice on film with Elvis Presley. Her trained dancer’s figure made her a popular glamour, pin-up and ad model during her heyday, and her long film and television resume belies the fact that she did not originally pursue an acting career.

READ MORE: “Yvonne Craig, TV’s Sexy Batgirl of the 1960s, Dies at 78,” by Mike Barnes (The Hollywood Reporter); “Yvonne Craig, TV’s Batgirl, Dies at 78,” by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command); “The Late Great Yvonne Craig,” by Terence Towles Canote (A Shroud of Thoughts); “Yvonne Craig, 1937-2015” (Tor.com); “Yvonne Craig, R.I.P.,” by Mitchell Hadley (It’s About TV!); “Batgirl and the Batman Phenomenon” (Television Obscurities).

Good-bye, Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)

READ MORE: “Leonard Nimoy, Spock of Star Trek, Dies at 83,” by Virginia Heffernan (The New York Times); “Star Trek Is Great, and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock Was the Greatest Thing About It,” by Matthew Yglesias (Vox); “Leonard Nimoy, R.I.P.,” by Michael Hadley (It’s About TV!); “Mort: Mr. Spock,” by Don Herron (Up and Down These Mean Streets); “A Word About Leonard Nimoy,” by Jeri Westerson (Getting Medieval); “The Iconic ‘Live Long and Prosper’ Hand Gesture Was Originally a Jewish Sign,” by Daven Hiskey (Today I Found Out); “How Leonard Nimoy Made Spock an American Jewish Icon,” by Matthew Rozsa (Salon); “Leonard Nimoy Dies at 83, Dabbled in Spy Entertainment,” by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command); “R.I.P., Leonard Nimoy: We’ll Always Have Paris,” by Matthew Bradford/Tanner (Double O Section); “Leonard Nimoy, You Will Be Sorely Missed,” by Paul Morris (Little Things); “‘I Have Been--and Always Shall Be--Your Friend,’” by Josh Marshall (Talking Points Memo); “Remembering Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015” (StarTrek.com).

Robin Williams, Signing Off

The scene above comes from Dead Poets Society (1989)

Sad news from the Los Angeles Times:

Oscar-winning actor and comic Robin Williams died Monday at 63 of an apparent suicide, the Marin County Sheriff's Office confirmed.

Around 11:55 a.m. Monday, sheriff’s officials said, a 911 call came in about a man who was unresponsive in his home in Tiburon. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Williams “has been battling severe depression of late,” his publicist Mara Buxbaum said. “This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.”

“I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul,” fellow actor-comedian Steve Martin said on Twitter.

You’ll find the full Times piece here.

SEE MORE: “13 Amazing Robin Williams Moments We’ll Never Forget,” by Sarah Gray (Salon); “An Elegy for Robin Williams and a Plea for Compassion,” by Edward Champion (Reluctant Habits).

He Made Acting Look Easy

In case you haven’t heard yet, acclaimed film and TV actor James Garner died last night at age 86. I posted a brief, initial obituary in The Rap Sheet early today. And later I uploaded a much longer post--complete with video clips of Garner’s work--in that same blog. Meanwhile, in my art-oriented Killer Covers blog, I recalled the two novels Stuart M. Kaminsky wrote in the 1990s featuring one of Garner’s best-loved protagonists, Los Angeles private investigator Jim Rockford.

Frankly, these are posts I wish I’d never had cause to write. As a longtime fan of Garner’s performances, this is a very sad day.

Pete Seeger, 1919-2014

At age 90, American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger joined musician Bruce Springsteen at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to perform one of Woody Guthrie’s signature songs, “This Land Is Your Land.” It was part of a huge concert on January 19, 2009, to celebrate the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Seeger died in his sleep last night at age 94.

Lauding Leonard

Much of my time this last week was spent assembling a considerable collection of comments about Elmore Leonard, the Detroit, Michigan-area crime novelist (Get Shorty, LaBrava, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, etc.) who died last Tuesday at age 87.

I solicited remarks from about 60 mystery and thriller authors, as well as critics and bloggers, and was e-mailed responses--some of them funny, others heartfelt, a few relating personal anecdotes involving the deceased--from more than 50 of them. Among those offering their comments and memories were Ace Atkins, Robert Crais, Kelli Stanley, Peter Robinson, Linwood Barclay, Lee Goldberg, Mark Billingham, Alafair Burke, Gary Phillips, Robert J. Randisi, Libby Fischer Hellman, Robert Wilson, and Mike Ripley.

You will find Part I of The Rap Sheet’s 15,000-plus-word Leonard tribute here, while Part II can be enjoyed here.

The public reception given this tribute has been wholly positive. It’s clear that many readers, and still more writers, appreciated Leonard’s deft skills with plotting, dialogue, and humor. However, my favorite remarks on the feature come from prolific Iowa wordsmith Ed Gorman, who opined in his blog:

Jeff Pierce at The Rap Sheet has written so many amazing pieces over the years. Not to mention conducting dozens and dozens of extraordinary interviews. I, as a blogger myself, have no idea how he is a) so productive and b) maintains his blog as the true voice of the mystery field. Nobody else could have written and collected and edited this definitive collage of comments on the life and times of Elmore Leonard. I’ve probably read twenty or so attempts to do something like this but none have come close.

He added in a subsequent post:

Rich, deep, by turns somber, funny and even wise, the posts here by various writers demonstrate why The Rap Sheet has become the the most important of all mystery blogs.

To say I’m flattered is an understatement. But I didn’t put together The Rap Sheet’s tribute to win personal praise. I did it because--even though I knew that the modest Mr. Leonard would have hated it, had he been forced to read it during his lifetime--he deserved the accolades. And many more besides.

No More Future for Anderson

Opening and closing titles for UFO

Oh, damn! British producer and writer Gerry Anderson--who gave TV watchers such science-fiction classics as Stingray, Thunderbirds, Space: 1999, and (my personal favorite) UFO--has passed away at age 83.

UPDATE: A German TV version of the UFO opening is here.

READ MORE: “Gerry Anderson, British Creator of Thunderbirds, Dies at 83” (Associated Press); “Fireball XL5/R.I.P., Gerry Anderson,” by Steve Thompson (The Booksteve Channel).

Death of a Prairie Populist

I was sorry to hear this morning that George McGovern, a former U.S. senator from South Dakota and the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, died Sunday morning. According to The New York Times, he had been “treated for several health problems in the last year.” McGovern was 90 years of age.

As it happened, I first tuned into American presidential politics in 1972, the year that McGovern ran against Richard M. Nixon, the incumbent Republican Oval Office-holder, in a tumultuous campaign energized by anti-Vietnam War fervor but undermined by both ugly, right-wing allegations that McGovern stood “for amnesty [for draft evaders], abortion, and legalization of pot,” and the mini-scandal that erupted from McGovern’s choice of Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate. Only after that year’s Democratic National Committee did Eagleton admit to McGovern and the press that he’d undergone electroshock therapy as a treatment for depression. He was subsequently replaced on the ticket by former Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver, but the scandal had already raised doubts about McGovern’s judgment, and Nixon went on to win re-election in a landslide--though he quit just two years later, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

There are many things being said on the Web today about the life and career of George McGovern (see here, here, here, and here, for instance). But one of the best remembrances, I think, comes from Salon editor-at-large Joan Walsh. She looks back at the ’72 race as a time when Democrats and organized labor brought their own dreams of political success crashing down; also, though, as a time when rules changes for Democratic elections opened them up to “young and diverse forces” within the party that would help Barack Obama become the Democratic nominee--and eventually the 44th U.S. president--in 2008.

You can (and should) read all of Walsh’s piece here.

READ MORE: “R.I.P. George McGovern, 1922-2012,” by Ryan Cooper (Washington Monthly); “The Year Was 1972,” by Ron Beasley (The Moderate Voice); “George McGovern, the Man Who Never Gave Up,” by Bob Dole (The Washington Post).

Closing the Book on Gore Vidal

My brief remarks on the passing of renowned American novelist, essayist, and political commentator Gore Vidal were posted today on the January Magazine Web site.

And Patches Pals Weep

I was sorry to hear that Chris Wedes, who played Seattle’s favorite TV clown, J.P. Patches, for half a century, died on Sunday at age 84. As Rachelle Robins of Blatherwatch recalls:

The Emmy Award-winning J.P. Patches Show was one of the longest-running locally produced children’s television programs in the United States, appearing on Seattle TV station KIRO channel 7 from 1958 to 1981.

J.P. was the “Mayor of the City Dump,” where he lived in a shack and welcomed frequent guests: Seattle Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, various local and national celebrities. Among his more well-known guests were Colonel Sanders, Jacques Cousteau, Slim Pickens and Tiny Tim.

He also had a beloved cast of supporting characters--Gertrude, Boris S. Wort, Grizwold, Esmerelda and Tikey Turkey.

Many children signed up to be “Patches Pals,” and J.P. announced some of their birthdays by “viewing” them on his “ICU2TV” set (a cardboard prop that created the appearance that J.P. was looking at you from inside your television).

J.P. Patches (the J.P. stood for Julius Pierpont) also made frequent fundraising appearances for local charities. He was a common sight at Children’s Hospital, visiting sick kids and promoting the work of the hospital.

There’s more on Wedes at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Web site.

Griffith’s Tough Second Acts

As every Limbo reader undoubtedly knows by this point, American actor Andy Griffith died earlier today at age 86. He was best known for starring in two very different TV series, a half-hour comedy called The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968) and the legal drama Matlock (1986–1995). But in between those, Griffith started his own production company and appeared in several considerably less-successful series: The Headmaster, The New Andy Griffith Show (1971), Adams of Eagle Lake (1975), Salvage 1 (1979), and The Yeagers (1980). I don’t remember much about those short-lived programs. But thanks to the wonders of the Web, we can revisit most of them, if only briefly.

Headmaster (1970-1971, CBS): As Wikipedia explains, this was a half-hour comedy-drama in which Griffith played “Andy Thompson, ... the headmaster of a prestigious California private school, the Concord School. His wife, Margaret (Claudette Nevins), was an English teacher; his best friend was the school’s main athletic coach, Jerry Brownell (Jerry Van Dyke). Mr. Purdy (Parker Fennelly) was the school’s caretaker.” Below, Griffith talks about The Headmaster in a 1970 CBS Fall Preview Special:



The New Andy Griffith Show (1971, CBS): Tumbling ratings for The Headmaster convinced both its star and CBS to replace it with this program, a situation-comedy notably akin to The Andy Griffith Show, in which Griffith played Andy Sawyer, a family man who returns to his hometown of Greenwood, North Carolina, and “instantly becomes the town’s new mayor pro-tem.” Lee Meriwether (who would later go on to portray Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie, Dr. Ann MacGregor in The Time Tunnel, and widow/private detective Betty Jones in Barnaby Jones) played Griffith’s wife, Lee. The opening sequence from The New Andy Griffith Show is embedded below:



Adams of Eagle Lake (1975, ABC): As Marty McKee explains in the International Movie Database (IMDb), this hour-long police drama cast Griffith as Sam Adams, the “sheriff of the bucolic ski-resort town of Eagle Lake, California, where, despite gorgeous mountain scenery and a homespun atmosphere, murder, escaped cons, hidden gold, and other sinister threats reared their evil heads.” It was the modified offspring of a 1974 television movie called Winter Kill, which had been a series pilot. “When it failed to sell,” Wikipedia says, “the main character of Sheriff Sam McNeill was renamed and used as the lead character in Adams of Eagle Lake.” Unfortunately, Adams was cancelled after only two episodes. Griffith didn’t abandon the concept easily, though; in 1977, he came back with two teleflicks--The Girl in the Empty Grave and Deadly Game--in which he played essentially the same character, this time named Abel Marsh. I haven’t found any videos from Adams of Eagle Lake, but I did discover this NBC promo for Deadly Game:



Salvage 1 (1979, ABC): This is certainly the most unusual series for Andy Griffith. He played Harry Broderick, who “owns the Jettison Scrap and Salvage Company, and is a specialist in reclaiming trash and junk in order to sell that as scrap.” The well-received, January 20, 1979, pilot film found him building “a space ship from his scrap pile in order to retrieve valuable parts left on the moon by American astronauts.” According to this site, subsequent episodes of Salvage 1 had Broderick’s Southern California-based enterprise involved “in such exotic missions as retrieving old B-52s from a jungle, oil from dried-out oil wells, diamonds from an active volcano and icebergs from the polar ice cap (which he could steer to a drought-stricken island).” Isaac Asimov was heralded as a technical adviser on this show, so you have to figure the scientific details were spot-on. Below is a teaser for one of the episodes (in which you’ll see that gasoline in 1979 cost 34 cents a gallon!), plus the series’ introduction:



The Yeagers (1980, ABC): A YouTube user gives this brief synopsis of the series: “Set in MacKenzie County, Washington, [it] follows the life of Carroll Yeager (Andy Griffith), the owner of the Yeager Logging and Mining Company, and his family, as they struggle to operate and maintain the family business.” It’s hard to tell how many episodes of The Yeagers were broadcast. At most there were four, though it’s just the first one, “Only the Strong Survive,” that earns any kind of attention on the Web. The TV Guide site provides this brief synopsis: “Carroll (Andy Griffith), his daughter-in-law and grandsons are stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash.” If anyone out there in Limboland can say more about The Yeagers, please leave a note in the Comments section of this post. For now, here’s the series’ opening:



After watching all of these videos a few times, I’m glad Matlock was a hit. Griffith sure needed one by the mid-1980s.

READ MORE: “Warner Archive: The Girl in the Empty Grave,” by Stacia Jones (She Blogged by Night).

I Remember Nora

This is extremely sad, not to mention surprising, news: Journalist, essayist, novelist, and playwright Nora Ephron has died in New York at age 71. The cause of her demise is said to have been pneumonia brought on by acute myeloid leukemia.

READ MORE: “Writer and Filmmaker With a Genius for Humor,” by Charles McGrath (The New York Times); “5 Unforgettable Movie Scenes by Nora Ephron” and “Nora Ephron’s 27 Best Quotes on Love, Life, and Death” (BuzzFeed); “Remembering Nora Ephron, and How Her Essays Made Her Movies Better,” by Alyssa Rosenberg (Think Progress).

Goodnight to You, Too, Mr. Rich

In honor of American TV producer Lee Rich, who died today in Los Angeles at age 93, I’m posting here the opening sequences from a couple of his various series that I remember most fondly.

Monkees Business

When I was in the third grade, back in the late 1960s, several friends of mine and I auditioned for an annual school talent show. If I recall correctly, I was joined in that venture by David Grassle, Eric Hoffman, and Stanley Monroe. Should my memory be at fault here, however, I hope that those three former friends will forgive my implicating them in this fiasco.

In any event, most of us had participated together in the previous year’s talent demonstration, performing the novelty hit “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.” Although we didn’t win that contest, we received enough encouragement that we tried out again the next year. This time we sang The Monkees’ 1966 chart smasher, “I’m a Believer.” Once more, we poured our hearts into the number, accompanying it with tambourines and other noisemakers, but we weren’t good enough to make the talent cut for a second time in a row. We had to watch later as others (considerably less gifted, we believed) entertained the talent show audience in our stead.

I was reminded of that episode as I read that Englishman Davy Jones, once The Monkees’ lead singer, died today of a heart attack in Florida at age 66. As Entertainment Weekly recalls,

Jones joined the Monkees in 1965 along with Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork. Their hits include “I’m a Believer,” “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” “Daydream Believer,” and “Last Train to Clarksville.”

Jones left the band in 1970, according to their Web site. He went on to land a solo hit, “Rainy Jane,” the next year, and also made several TV appearances, including a late 1971 episode of The Brady Bunch.

Jones reunited with Tork and Dolenz for a tour in the mid-1980s, and in 1987 they released a new record, Pool It.

It’s said that Al Roker, co-host of NBC-TV’s Today Show, who interviewed Jones and his bandmates last summer, posted a note to his Twitter page--after hearing of the singer’s demise--that read simply, “A little bit of my youth just died.” I feel the same way.

So in Jones’ memory, I am embedding a video of The Monkees singing “I’m a Believer” at the top of this post, with another of them belting out “Last Train to Clarksville” below.



UPDATE: This coming weekend will offer two televised tributes to Davy Jones. Antenna TV stations across the United States will celebrate the actor-singer’s life on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. ET with a showing of Head, the 1968 comedy-adventure film starring The Monkees, and follow that with a 58-episode marathon of the TV show The Monkees. (Click here to see if there’s an Antenna station in your area.) Then on Sunday, Me-TV will recap Jones’ career some more, beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET, with episodes of The Brady Bunch and Love, American Style in which Jones guest starred.

READ MORE: “Davy Jones: Four Zany Moments, from Brady Bunch to SpongeBob,” by Joy Press (Los Angeles Times); “Hard to Believe: The Death of Davy Jones,” by Mercurie (A Shroud of Thoughts); “Davy Jones Dead: Monkees Singer’s Greatest Movie Moments” (Moviefone); “Oh, What Can It Mean?,” by Dave Knadler (Dave’s Fiction Warehouse); “Davy Jones: When It Came to Monkee Business, He Showed Up Smiling,” by Robert Lloyd (Los Angeles Times); “Davy Jones and the Monkees: The Irresistible Connection,” by Michael Carlson (Irresistible Targets); “The Late Great Davy Jones,” by Mercurie (A Shroud of Thoughts); “The Monkees: The Revenge and Resurrection of Tin Pan Alley,” by Kevin Courrier (Critics at Large).

He Laughed Last

I bow my head today in appreciation of American screenwriter, director, and producer Blake Edwards, who died yesterday at age 88. In addition to his many big-screen pictures--Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Pink Panther (1963), The Great Race (1965), 10 (1979), and Victor Victoria (1982)--Edwards was responsible for two memorable mid-20th-century TV detective dramas: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957-1960), starring David Janssen; and Peter Gunn (1958-1961), with Craig Stevens.

There are plenty of worthy tributes to Edwards appearing on the Web, including obituaries in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the blog Edward Copeland on Film. Rather than duplicate their information, I’d like to celebrate the man by showcasing some of the work he brought to the silver screen. Below, I have embedded the trailers from three of my favorite Edwards films: the original Pink Panther; Victor/Victoria (in which he directed his wife, singer-actress Julie Andrews); and a less-well-known picture, 1988’s Sunset, which teamed Bruce Willis (playing early western film star Tom Mix) with James Garner (as onetime lawman Wyatt Earp) in an adventure/crime drama about prostitution, movies, and murder in 1920s Hollywood.

Edwards died in Santa Monica, California, apparently from “complications of pneumonia.” But thanks to his abundant film and TV work, and despite some negative reviews of his later work, he’s unlikely to be forgotten.

And because any day that offers helpings of both Audrey Hepburn and composer Henry Mancini has to be considered worth living, here’s a bonus clip from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, featuring the song with which that romantic flick is most closely associated (even though--amazingly--it wasn’t included in the trailer.)



READ MORE: “The Late Great Blake Edwards,” by Mercurie (A Shroud of Thoughts); “Blake Edwards and Crime,” by Michael Carlson (Irresistible Targets).

A Wag’s Tale

Bad news is said to come in threes, so let’s hope this is the final passing of a famous person I have to mention this week. According to The New York Times, former NBC-TV newsman Edwin Newman died on Monday in Oxford, England, at age 91. His cause of death is said to have been pneumonia. The Times recalls that

Mr. Newman, recognizable for his balding head and fierce dark eyebrows, was known to three decades of postwar television viewers for his erudition, droll wit and seemingly limitless penchant for puns--like the one about the man who dried his wet shoes with newspapers, explaining, “These are The Times that dry men’s soles.” He began his association with NBC in the early 1950s and was variously a correspondent, anchorman and critic there before retiring in 1984.

An anchor on the “Today” show in the early 1960s and a familiar presence on the program for many years afterward, Mr. Newman also appeared regularly on “Meet the Press.” He won seven New York Emmy Awards for his work in the 1960s and ’70s with NBC’s local affiliate, WNBC-TV, on which he was a drama critic and the host of the interview program “Speaking Freely.” ...

Mr. Newman’s best-known books, both published by Bobbs-Merrill, are “Strictly Speaking: Will America Be the Death of English?” (1974) and “A Civil Tongue” (1976). In them, he declared what he called “a protective interest in the English language,” which, he warned, was falling prey increasingly to windiness, witlessness, ungrammaticality, obfuscation and other depredations.

During the early 1980s, I had the memorable opportunity to interview Newman in his office at Rockefeller Center in New York City. (That was the same visit during which I literally ran into NBC film critic Gene Shalit, as he was exiting an elevator at a run and I was trying to enter.) I remember that we talked mostly about his years as a broadcaster, but also about the decline of the English language. Newman was a gracious man, very helpful to a young and ambitious journalist. And I remember that he poked fun at his storied stature in the broadcasting biz.

Until reading in the Times today about Edwin Newman’s death, I hadn’t realized that he was still alive. I’m glad to know that he had many more years after our meeting to cast his wit and erudition upon the world.

(Hat tip to Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.)

READ MORE: “Edwin Newman,” by Tony Figueroa
(TV Confidential); “NBC Newsman Edwin Newman Passes On,” by Mercurie (A Shroud of Thoughts).

“An Equal-Opportunity Offender”

Quadriplegic artist and musician John Callahan, best known for the trouble-making cartoons he drew for Portland, Oregon’s Willamette Week newspaper for more than two decades, passed away last weekend at the tender age of 59.

There’s more on his unusual legacy here.

Thank You for Your Service, Senator

Democrat Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving member of Congress in American history and a man whose 57-year career on Capitol Hill carried him through 12 U.S. presidencies, died today at age 92. You can read more about Byrd’s life and legislative priorities here, here, and here.

READ MORE: “The Post-Byrd Senate,” by Ezra Klein (The Washington Post); “Byrd, Despite Dark Past, May Have Been the Last Great U.S. Senator,” by Steve Kettman (The Huffington Post); “Byrd’s Life of Learning” (Think Progress).

“He Taught Me That Nothing Is Impossible”

As stirring as President Barack Obama’s eulogy of Senator Edward Kennedy was this morning, the most moving remembrance may actually have come from Ted Kennedy Jr., the late solon’s 47-year-old investment banker son:



More coverage of today’s Kennedy tributes can be found here.