It's hard to not feel a little melancholy when you're working on a year-end obit package.

Assembling a list of notables who died during a 12-month time span is like taking stock of how much the world you once knew is disappearing. Although I don't often admit it in the company of non-journos, I (usually) like working on obits. It's challenging work, usually against a tight deadline, and I feel a certain responsibility to do right by the person. I often hear Mrs. Loman's famous command in my head: "Attention must be paid."

In that spirit, here is an electronic chronicle of those who left their mark on the TV biz. 2007 saw the  passing of industry titans the likes of Jack Valenti, Merv Griffin, Tom Snyder  and Roger King; influential hyphenates including Sidney Sheldon, Mel Shavelson, Martin Manulis, Mel Tolkin and Bob Carroll, Jr.; and a local TV news icon in Hal Fishman.

It was a tough year for "Match Game" fans, with Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers heading in to the blank hereafter. And no obit in the pages of Variety this year was more heartbreaking than that of Cartoon Network exec Jennifer Davidson, 38, who was a charter member of the cabler's staff and a mother of three.

(Here's the link to part one if you're just joining us.)

AUGUST

Hal Fishman, 75, news anchor who was a fixture of L.A.'s airwaves for 40 years, primarily on KTLA-TV. Fishman was known for his rat-tat-tat delivery style, his occasional conservative-leaning editorials and his interest in aviation. Here's the tribute to Fishman that ran on KTLA's 10 p.m. newscast on the day Fishman died, Aug. 7.

Merv Griffin, 82, multihyphenate who began as a band singer and died a billionaire real estate mogul. In between, Griffin hosted a popular syndicated talk show for more than 20 years and created two of the most successful shows in history in "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy." Merv, as he was known to all, was one of those ubiquitous entertainers who was seemingly everywhere when I was a kid, as I waxed on about in this remembrance. And here's a fun clip of Merv and Don Rickles going at it on "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1985.

Melville Shavelson, 90, prolific film and TV scribe whose credits include "The Danny Thomas Show." Also a three-time prexy of WGA West. Here's a link to part 1 of his nine-part Archive of American Television interview from 1999.

SEPTEMBER

Alice Ghostley, 81, actress, a Tony-winner best known for her nervous-housewife persona exemplified by her role as the ditsy Aunt Esmerelda on "Bewitched."

Martin Manulis, 92, producer, creative steward of CBS' "Playhouse 90" who was responsible for such landmark TV drama productions as "Requiem for a Heavyweight" and "The Miracle Worker." Manulis was a guy Rod Serling respected, and that's saying something. Here's a link to part one of his 11-part Archive of American Television interview.

Brett Somers, 83, stage actress known for her long stint on "Match Game." She played Oscar Madison's ex on "The Odd Couple" and was Mrs. Jack Klugman for a time in real-life too. Here's a representative clip featuring Somers parrying with "Match Game" host Gene Rayburn.

OCTOBER

Joey Bishop, 89, the stone-faced, cool cat comic who was the last surviving member of the Rat Pack. Bishop made a number of stabs at TV, including a domestic comedy and a bid to challenge Johnny Carson's dominance of latenight with show that ran on ABC from 1967-69. Below are two great clips, and more Nehru jackets than you can shake your love beads at, from the latenight "Joey Bishop Show."

In the first, Sammy Davis Jr. tries to teach Joey to tap dance. The second is a nice long monologue clip that also features Bishop's sidekick, Regis Philbin.

Gary Franklin, 79, L.A. TV reporter and film reviewer for KABC-TV Los Angeles and KCBS-TV Los Angeles, who was known for rating films on his "Franklin scale of 1-10, 10 being best."

NOVEMBER

Mel Tolkin, 94, writer-producer who had the formidable job as head writer on Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows." He was a guy who could make Caesar laugh, and corral a room that featured such wits as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbert, Lucille Kallen and Woody Allen. Here's a link to part one of his eight-party Archive of American Television interview from 1997.

Verity Lambert, 71, pioneering femme British TV exec and producer. Lambert was the first female and youngest exec to work for the BBC in the early 1960s. She also was the first producer of the worldwide cult fave "Dr. Who." Here's a fan video tribute that hits the highlights of her remarkable career.

DECEMBER

Jennifer Davidson, 38, who was one of the first 15 people hired at Cartoon Network in the early 1990w, rising to senior veep of programming and scheduling. She was part of the team that spearheaded the launch of Adult Swim in 2001. Here's a link to a story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution featuring remembrances from family and friends.

Roger King, 63, leader of King World Prods. and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in TV history. King World prospered with enduring hits, "Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show," that spurred the growth of the first-run syndie biz in the 1980s and '90s. As King World grew, so did Roger's reputation as a master salesman with an encyclopedic knowledge of TV stations and local markets. Here's a link to part one of his three-part Archive of American Television interview, and here are links to the remembrances posted here in the days after his death. 

Stu Nahan, 81, longtime broadcaster and sports reporter for various L.A. outlets who earned the nickname "Skipper Stu" after hosting a kidvid show of the same name early on in his career.

Floyd Red Crow Westerman, 71, actor and activist, Westerman was a passionate advocate of Native American causes and filmmakers and recognized for his work on "Dances with Wolves" and "Northern Exposure," among many other movies and TV skeins. Here's a video interview with Westerman from 2004 that illustrates the depth of his intelligence and dedication to advancing the cause of Native Americans in all fields.

Ch-ching: "Law & Order" is back. The two segs on tap for Wednesday's two-hour premiere are as strong any the show has delivered in years. Linus Roache is a great addition to the cast as the driven chief assistant district attorney Michael Cutter. Jeremy Sisto is intense but low-key as Det. Cyrus Lupo, the new partner of Jesse Martin's Det. Ed Green.

After hitting a ratings slump during the past few years, "Law & Order" hasn't been treated too well by NBC. The show was exiled to the Friday 10 p.m. berth last season, and then it was in limbo about a pickup (for an astounding 18th season) until the last minute prior to this year's upfronts. And then it was left off the fall sked as a bench show for the post-football period.

But the tide may have turned for the Peacock's war horse. "Law & Order" boss Dick Wolf is glad to see the show landing back in its old familiar time slot of Wednesday 10 p.m., which it owned from 1992-2006. And he is optimistic that the infusion of new thesps the return of Rene Balcer as showrunner will put the show in good stead for many more seasons to come. Show hasn't seen so many on- and off-screen changes in one year since the 1993-94 period, when key cast members Michael Moriarty, Dann Florek, Richard Brooks departed and stalwarts like Sam Waterston and S. Epatha Merkerson arrived, Wolf notes.

"It's changing the whole zeitgeist of the show," Wolf sez of the new cast lineup. "It was getting to be an older show in terms of the age of the cast and in the literal number of years it had been on. Now, it's the same show, but it's a very different six-person ensemble."

She was not a household name in this country, but cable news junkies knew her well.

Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan who was killed along with at least 20 others by a suicide bomber Thursday morning, had been on a non-stop media tour during the past few months after she decided to return to Pakistan in October to run once again for prime minister.

On American TV news programs, the telegenic, articulate Bhutto, who was 54, played the part of a reformer who was eager to modernize Pakistan and prevent it from being taken over by Islamic extremists. She had the made-for-Hollywood backstory of being the daughter of the country's first democratic leader, Zulfikar Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979 after a military coup when she was 25.

Bhutto was dogged by charges of corruption during her term in office in the 1990s, specifically regarding misappropriation of United Nation aid funds. But on American television, for all her flaws, Bhutto was an important voice of moderation out of a region that mystifies, and often terrifies, many of us. Her assassination only reinforces the worst of those fears about a part of the world that seems increasingly far removed from the West's sociopolitical comfort zones.

"Right now the Islamists are threatening the unity and integrity of my country," Bhutto told "BBC World News America" in an interview with anchor Matt Frei on the program's inaugural Oct. 1 broadcast (pictured above). "We have suicide bombers taking lives of people, we have the army being attacked by militants, so I think there is a real need for the nation to come together and undermine the forces of extremism and militancy before, God forbid, Pakistan breaks up."

In an interview to be published in the Jan. 6 edition of Parade magazine, Bhutto was chillingly, prophetically blunt about the risks she faced and the volatility in her homeland.

"I am what the terrorists most fear,” she told writer Gail Sheehy, “a female political leader fighting to bring modernity to Pakistan. Now they’re trying to kill me."

Call it a post-holiday treat. More "Lost" goodies have shown up on ABC.com, and at long last, some fresh images from the new season have been posted on ABC's press site. No obvious spoilers, natch, but intriguing all the same.

ABC.com has posted a longer trailer for season four, which bows Jan. 31 with a two-hour opening salvo. The trailer drops some big hints and makes it very clear that the cavalry that Jack, Kate et al think are coming for them are not on their side. (Ben may be rotten to the core but he's usually truthful in his malevolence.)

There's also a very good eight-minute "Lost" series recap vid that just popped up. It's a good primer for anyone who hasn't been infected with island fever yet, and it's a nice refresher course even for us maniacs. After all, this show has laid a lotta story threads during the past three and a half years. In parts the recap vid plays like a "Saturday Night Live" parody of a "Lost" recap vid, but on the whole it works really well.

Once again, the only bittersweet part of indulging in all the pre-premiere hype is knowing that A) "Lost" gurus Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are, like every other WGA member, on strike against the studio and thus not eager to help ABC/ABC Studios prosper on the back of their labors; and B) barring a significant, immediate breakthrough in the WGA-major studios standoff, we're going to get eight or so episodes in and wham! by late March-early April, our run of fresh segs will be cut off artificially by the real-world drama that has engulfed this town. Even Jacob couldn't have plotted a scenario this cruel.

(More pics are posted below.)

It's that wonderful time of year, time for repeated viewings of the holiday pic that never, ever gets old, 1983's "A Christmas Story."

TBS is obliging with its annual 24-hour marathon of the pic, starting Monday, Christmas Eve, at 8 p.m. ET. My family's "Christmas Story" DVD is well-worn  -- no matter how many times we've seen it, we crack up at the scene where Darren McGavin unpacks his "fra-gi-le" major award. We can pretty much recite this movie from start to "you'll shoot your eye out" finish.

But this year the fun of the pic that perfectly balances the sweet 'n' sour 'n' silly of the season comes with a tinge of sadness for the memory of "Christmas Story" helmer Bob Clark, who died tragically in April along with his 22-year-old son Ariel following a head-on collision with a drunk driver along Pacific Coast Highway. The driver pleaded no contest to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in August. "Senseless" doesn't even begin to describe this crime.

Clark, who was 67, delivered his share of other movies during his lengthy career -- most notably the raunchy "Porkys" comedies of the early 1980s -- but nothing that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as "Christmas Story."

ABC.com has more fish biscuit crumbs for "Lost" freaks. There's a short trailer for season 4, now that it's been skedded for Jan. 31.

But the better new item is a roughly two-minute vid with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that teases some of the story threads that we'll be picking up at the start of season 4. Top of that list seems to be a return to the mystery of Michael, now that Harold Perrineau's back for a recurring role, and his departure, after grave treachery, with Walt on that boat at the end of season 2.

He liked it so much last week he's doing it again this week.

David Milch, oracle of all kinds of interesting thoughts on writing, the subconscious, the conscious and the unconscionable, will hold another three days of rap sessions, dubbed "The Idea of the Writer: A Writing Discussion with David Milch," with anyone who cares to listen at the WGA Theater today, tomorrow and Thursday from 2:15 p.m.-4 p.m. Admission is free on a first-come, first-serve basis, with limited parking available at the Bev Hills theater.

Milch held two such sessions at the WGA Theater last week, on Wednesday and Thursday. According to Milch associate Scott Willson (who alerted me to this week's seshes), there were about 60 people who turned out on Wednesday and about 120 on the next day.

The discourse last week generally focused on the writer's idea of themselves, how to stay connected to your art in the midst of the current strike angst. Milch also talked about an online writers college which he would endow and use to encourage and teach other writers. In the spirit of the season, Milch made mention of some series ideas that anyone can tackle. "Basically, (it was) the kind of learning opportunity that until this point only those of us fortunate enough to have been around David during the development of previous shows has been privy to," Willson sez.

This just in: "Lost" is coming back to ABC's sked sooner rather than later, even if it won't be in the straight 16-consecutive-week thrill ride we'd hoped for before the strike blues hit. It's bound for a new night, taking over "Grey's Anatomy's" Thursday 9 p.m. slot as of Jan. 31. (Click here for the rundown on ABC's midseason-because-there's-a-strike-sked from Variety's Michael Schneider.)

That's going to make things tough for fans of NBC's "The Office," but I suppose that's what DVRs are for, and sadly, it doesn't look like there's going to be any new "Office" visits for a while, at least not by the time "Lost" bows for what's believed to be an eight- or nine-episode run of segs completed by the time the scribes walked on Nov. 5.

New ABC drama "Eli Stone" gets a big boost by debuting the same night as "Lost" in the 10 p.m. slot.
"Eli Stone," starring Jonny Lee Miller (pictured right) as a young corporate lawyer who suddenly starts hearing things and  seeing things, which leads him to believe he's a prophet. Overall the show has a fantasy-light, kinda feel-good touch that may be right in tandem with "Lost." Goodness knows, ABC's had no luck pairing "Lost" with dark-and-brooding dramas, so maybe a 90-degree turn is the way to go. Tip for TV insiders: Note how Miller's Eli Stone character channels some of the mannerisms and speaking patterns of UTA's Dan Erlij (who is a friend of On the Air's) who reps series co-creator/exec producer Marc Guggenheim. Very charming.

In the meantime, as the warm up for full-blown "Lost" fun, check out the "Lost: Missing Pieces" minisodes. They're ultra-cool, full of interesting plot points and intriguing backstory bits, and they're WGA, DGA and SAG approved under deals with the guilds that were cut a long time ago.

At this tough juncture for the TV biz, it might help the collective spirit to remember all of the good that people who prosper in this biz have done for the world at large.

One of the most inspiring examples I know of is Danny Thomas and his legacy with the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. The story has been oft-told. Early in his career when Thomas was a nightclub comic with a family to support and only a few bucks in his pocket, he found himself standing outside of a Detroit church looking up at a statue of St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. In his despair, Thomas prayed to the statue to show him the way in life. Days later, he got a job offer that led to some steady coin, which was a welcome relief for the Thomas clan. Thomas vowed he would one day build a monument to St. Jude.

By 1953 his career was on fire with the success of laffer "The Danny Thomas Show" on ABC, which in turn allowed him to form a really, really successful production partnership with actor-turned-producer Sheldon Leonard (think "Andy Griffith Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "I Spy," etc. And he's the reason why the lead characters on CBS' new sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" are named Sheldon and Leonard.)

By the mid-1950s, Thomas began to make good on his promise to St. Jude. He took a whole bunch of his profits from the TV shows, raised money from other sources and through innumerable fundraisers that he and his pals hosted, and founded a children's research hospital, not in Hollywood or Gotham but in a part of the country where infant mortality at the time was still tragically high.

St. Jude opened its doors in 1962. It's one of those merciful medical institutions that by its charter treats whoever comes in the door -- regardless of their ability to pay. It's also funded a ton of ground-breaking, life-saving research into a host of diseases and medical issues involving children.

Thomas' lifelong commitment to St. Jude is evidenced by the fact that he is buried on the hospital grounds. Perhaps most impressive is the level of dedication that Thomas' three children -- Marlo, Terre and Tony -- have demonstrated to the hospital -- and not just for photo ops. (I rang up Tony Thomas not too long ago for an interview about something or other, and we spoke on a crackly cell connection as he was driving to an airport outside Memphis. He'd just finished attending a St. Jude board meeting.)

The whole heart-warming story is here in greater detail on the St. Jude website. Let it stand as a lesson, a guide and a challenge to all of us who make good livings in this town.

(Pictured right: Marlo Thomas and pal at a St. Jude fundraiser held Thursday at Brooks Brothers in New York. Spotting this pic on WireImage.com inspired this post.)

We should've seen this coming. There's nothing Golden Globes voters like better than big stars in new clothes, and that's what FX served up this year in "Damages."

Legal murder-mystery thriller led the TV noms tally with four Globes chits, one for drama series, for star Glenn Close (pictured left) and costars Ted Danson (pictured right) and Rose Byrne.

It was a given that AMC's "Mad Men" would get some traction this year -- Globes voters rarely snub the buzz -- snaring a bid for best drama series and a richly deserved nod for its handsome star Jon Hamm. Same goes for ABC's "Pushing Daisies," a contender for comedy series and for stars Lee Pace and Anna Friel.

Back to the stars we-know-and-love derby, no surprise that Showtime's "Californication" made a good stand with a bid for best comedy and for star David Duchovny. Donald Sutherland of ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" made the cut in the supporting drama actor; so did Christina Applegate as lead comedy actress for ABC's "Samantha Who."

And in the spirit of the giving season, there was even a little something in the Globes stocking for 90-year-old Ernest Borgnine (pictured left), a telepic lead actor contender for Hallmark Channel's sweet-'n-sentimental "A Grandpa for Christmas." The last time Borgnine was nommed for a Golden Globe, he won -- for lead actor in 1955's "Marty," in which he played a less-than-handsome guy who's convinced he'll never meet Mrs. Right. (With all due respect to Borgnine, and I do mean all due, he was good in the bigscreen rendition of Paddy Chayefsky's telepic, but it's Rod Steiger in the original TV version of "Marty" who reaches down your throat, rips your heart out, pounds it into mush and then puts it back in just in time for him to find happiness with a young Nancy Marchand.)

Why, oh why, do I have to work?!

I'm told that David Milch is holding one of his discourses on writing today and tomorrow at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. Having attended one of his seminars on scribing years ago, I can tell you it is a journey to the center of a mind that functions in ways us mere mortals can barely grasp. And I can only imagine where his brain is at in these post-"John from Cincinnati," strike-angsty times.

Thursday's 2:15-4 p.m. sesh is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'm told these events were fairly impromptu affairs that grew out of a discussion Milch and others had at WGA's HQ just a few days ago. I'm told it will be videotaped for the WGA library so us working stiffs can catch up with it at some point.

(Pictured above: David Milch on the set of "John from Cincinnati" with co-star Ed O'Neill)

With everything that's gone on in the TV biz during the past two months, the uproar over CBS' reality skein "Kid Nation" shortly before the show's September premiere seems like such a tempest in a teapot.

All the overheated talk about "investigations" by the New Mexico state attorney general's office petered out barely a week after the show premiered. A complaint from one parent about the show's treatment of her daughter stirred up a media tsunami about the propriety of the show and whether it violated child labor laws with its premise (40 kids ages 8-15 are sent to a ghost town to live the rugged pioneer life with, ostensibly, no adult supervision) and filming sked.

Interestingly, the advance hubbub never did goose "Kid Nation" ratings. It opened modestly on Sept. 19 and has maintained an average of about 6 million-7 million viewers per week -- not great but not a total bomb, either.

The "Kid Nation" finale is set to air tonight at 8 p.m. The denouement is about one contender claiming a cash prize but about a hands-on civics lesson to see if the their community will actually be able to function under the rules and systems that they've established through the weekly Town Council governing process.

Most important to "Kid Nation" creator/exec producer Tom Forman is the fact that none of the other families came forward with horror stories, and all the scrutiny of the show's operations yielded nothing in the way of tangible evidence that he or the show did anything terribly wrong by its young stars.

"It’s a bizarre experience to open the New York Times and read that the newspaper of record is calling you a child abuser. It was head-spinning," says Forman, who is a former journalist himself, and a father. "We knew what we had shot. We knew once people saw it they’d realize that it was much ado about nothing....We're all really proud of the show. It's what we said it would be all along -- a show that will get kids thinking and talking about social issues."

"He was my partner in everything," Michael King said on Sunday morning, his voice catching every so often as he spoke of his older brother, Roger King, the industry titan who died unexpectedly on Saturday at age 63.

The brothers worked shoulder to shoulder for nearly 30 years to build King World Prods. into the preeminent syndie distrib of the 1980s and '90s as the home of power hitters "Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and more recently "Dr. Phil" and "Rachael Ray."

Roger King knew just about everyone in the broadcasting biz, but Michael knew Roger in a way that only a brother and trusted business partner could. (Michael is pictured at right, Roger at left.)

"The King brothers always hung out together, before there was a King World, back when we lived on what was basically a farm on the Jersey shore. Our whole family always did fun stuff together, and we were always talking about the business we revered and how we were going to grow in it," Michael said.

As Roger was always quick to state, the King clan's success was rooted in the lessons they learned from their father, Charles King, who also worked in radio and TV sales. Charles preached integrity and honesty to his six kids (two other brothers, Robert and Richard, and two girls, Diana and Karen), and the importance of always looking out for the long-term relationship over the short-term gain. Charles' fortunes in showbiz never matched that of his sons, but he was "a great salesman. So entertaining. He had a big laugh," Michael recalls.

"My dad said, 'Make a deal that both parties can walk away from smiling, and then give 'em a little more. You will do business with them your whole career.' He said you have to remember that you come in to the room with your integrity and it's the only thing you leave with. Taking every dime off the table in a deal is bad business. It's really short-sighted. We learned from that."

Congrats to San Diego State's Kevin King for snaring the top student pic prize at the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors' 25th annual awards dinner held Friday night at the BevHills Hotel.

King's entry, "Dark and Bloody Ground," will receiving some finishing coin as well as production equipment from Panavision and a high-def post-production package from Illuminate. UCLA's Hezekiah Lewis came in second for entry "Warrior Queen."

In the other Caucus heats, Paul Attanasio and Katie Jacobs of Fox's "House" took the top producing honor; Larry Gelbart was the poll winner for writer of the year; Michael Zinberg ("Aliens in America," "The Unit") scored the director trophy; and "CSI: NY" star Gary Sinise prevailed in the thesp/hyphenate category.

Marshall Herskovitz, busier than ever these days as the purveyor of the innovative Internet drama "quarterlife" and as prexy of the Producers Guild of America, was awarded the Caucus' inaugural New Vision award.

Other honors at the ceremony hosted by "Entertainment Tonight's" Jann Carl went to Paley Center for Media prexy Pat Mitchell (chair award); Anne Hopkins (Caucus lifetime achievement); Byron Allen (diversity): Sally Hampton (Caucus distinguished service); and Leonard Maltin (journalism).

(Pictured above, from left: Caucus Foundation prexy Chuck Fries, Marshall Herskovitz, Pat Mitchell and Caucus chair Vin Di Bona. Pictured right: Fries, Kevin King, Hezekiah Lewis and Caucus student filmmaker chair Bonny Dore. Pics by Steve Cohn.)