Cynthia Littleton On The Air

Requiem for heavyweights lost in '07 -- part one

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.

Requiem for heavyweights lost in '07 -- part two

(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.

Martin Manulis: Requiem for a TV heavyweight

"Playhouse 90" -- what a legacy. If Martin Manulis had only produced Rod Serling's "Requiem for a Heavyweight," he would forever have earned his place in TV history books.

But as the creator and chief steward of CBS' high-end dramatic anthology series, Manulis, who died last week at the age of 92, presided over many more great hours of television, most of them live, though "Playhouse 90" also ran "filmed presentations" about once a month. (Click here for Manulis' Variety obit.) Thanks to the Archive of American Television, click here for vid of a comprehensive 11-part interview of Manulis in 1997.

It's maddening that those of us born long after the skein ended its 1956-61 run have had scant opportunities to see these smallscreen gems. I've seen a kinescope of the original "Requiem," and it lived up to every inch of its advance billing. (With all due respect to Anthony Quinn and the 1962 feature version, once you've seen Jack Palance as the hard-luck boxer, you can't never go back.) I've also seen a beat-up copy of another breathtakingly good Rod Serling teleplay, "The Comedian," helmed by John Frankenheimer with a fearless perf from Mickey Rooney. And that's about it.

I'd love to see the original "Days of Wine and Roses" starring Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie. I'd love to see Serling's "A Town Has Turned to Dust," with Rod Steiger and James Gregory. And I'd like to see at least some of the "Playhouse 90" segs that I've never heard a thing about. If I can turn on the tube any time day or night and find a repeat of the Ultimate-Fighting-Xtreme-Street-Skate'n'Spandex-Challenge semi-finals from 1997, why can't we have the Ultimate-Badass-TV-Dramatists-Showdown airing once a week or so on an artsy channel? Or how about a comprehensive, anotated DVD set? A "Playhouse 90" download-on-demand website?

(Pictured above: "Requiem" stars Keenan Wynn, Jack Palance and Ed Wynn. Pictured right: Manulis in 2004.)

Alice Ghostley: Oooooohhhh!

There was a heartfelt "awwwww" at the breakfast table in my house this morning when we read the news of Alice Ghostley's passing. Ghostley was one of TV's great character-actress soldiers, known for being a regular on "Bewitched" -- her role as housekeeper and good witch Esmeralda on that show cemented her on-screen persona as the ditsy-nervous housefrau type -- and "Designing Women," plus a few thousand one-offs in which she always scored. (Peruse her IMDB listing right here, it's like a tour of TV from the early 1960s through the present day.)

Ghostley also did her share of supporting turns in movies, some of them classics including "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Graduate," and plenty of theater in the 1950s and '60s. (Click here for her AP obit.)

Whatever the forum, Ghostley was one of those actors who was just plain fun to watch, and listen to -- the distinctive nervous timbre of her voice was often a feature of her roles. (Even if you haven't caught a "Bewitched" rerun in 15 years, can't you just picture Esmeralda saying "Oooooohhhhhhh" and fiddling with her fingers?) R.I.P., Miss Ghostley, we'll miss you.

(Pictured: Alice Ghostley with her character-actor compadre Charles Nelson Reilly at a 1993 Friars Club event. Pic by Ron Galella/WireImage.)

"The Farnsworth Invention": Coming soon

I'm curious to finally see how Aaron Sorkin will handle the Birth of a Television saga on stage in his play "The Farnsworth Invention," which is set to begin its previews at Broadway's Music Box Theater on Oct. 15.

I think the historical story of how vacuum tubes, radio waves, ionoscopes and various transmitters, circuits and receivers were mashed together to create radio with pictures is a fascinating techno-thriller that should be more widely appreciated. It's got all the dramatic elements -- heroes and villains, endearing underdogs and larger-than-life overlords, examples of pure ingenuity, gumption and genius and ultra-high stakes for profit and glory among the (mostly) men who raced to stake their claim to having "invented" television.

Philo T. Farnsworth is a Steinbeck-ian character, the Utah farm boy who had an epiphany of how radio waves could be channeled to make pictures fly through the air as a teenager working in the field and studying rows of corn (I think it was corn). There's no question he got hosed in the credit department by the institutional machine of RCA, its mega-titan David Sarnoff and Sarnoff's genius-inventor-in-chief, Vladimir Zworykin.

But from the books I've read on the subject (one of the best is Michael Ritchie's "Please Stand By" -- click here to check it out via Amazon.com), it's a little too simplistic to paint the story as RCA stealing it all from the struggling little-guy Farnsworth. So I'm anxious to see how Sorkin handles it. Play directed by Des McAnuff stars Jimmi Simpson as Farnsworth and Hank Azaria as Sarnoff. I'm guessing there's a role for Philo's beloved wife, Pem, who was at his side in the lab and stuck with him through his unhappy end in 1971, and then worked hard to make sure the industry didn't completely forget about her husband's accomplishment.

(Pictured above, from left: Sorkin, Azaria, Simpson and McAnuff from Tuesday's photo call. Pic by Eugene Golorgursky)

Variety looked in on "Farnsworth" when it was workshopped at the La Jolla Playhouse in February and March (click here for the story). And if you're interested in diving deep into TV geek-dom, there's all kinds of websites out there stocked with info about Farnsworth, Zworykin, John Logie Baird (a nutty British guy who also has TV pioneer cred), and their ilk. (Click here for a good one about Farnsworth.)

The enduring image I have of rail-thin Philo T. is from an appearance he did on "I've Got a Secret" in 1957. (He got a couple hundred bucks cash and a carton of Winstons for stumping the panel.) I caught a rerun on Game Show Network some years back, and lo and behold I found the clip on YouTube.

Multicasting becoming a reality for local TV

After years of yakking about it, digital multi-casting on local TV stations is really starting to blossom.

There have been a number of pioneering efforts going on for the past few years at enterprising local outlets around the country. North Carolina-based Capitol Broadcasting has been in the vanguard of putting its extra digital bandwidth to good use with dedicated sports channels. NBC affils banded together in the WeatherPlus venture. And NBC's Los Angeles O&O KNBC-TV has for more than a year been going without a net with its wonderfully uninhibited News Raw service, which offers C-SPAN-esque live feeds of news conferences and events a la the Phil Spector trial, as well as an insightful look at the newsroom's daily planning meeting. (Click here for a broadband peek).

But what caught my eye today were two separate news releases that hit the wire today about private companies partnering with major broadcast TV players to bring fresh programming services to the small but growing number of people who have digital TVs at home (whether they can pull in these burgeoning digital offshoot channels via their cable and satellite providers is a whole 'nother distribution conundrum, unfortunately.) It's always seemed to me that the surest sign of a gen-u-ine market forming is transactions between unrelated entities, and if it involves "Hawaii Five-O" reruns, well, so much the better.

"America's communal campfire" -- PBS greenlights TV history series

This sounds like a worthy undertaking. PBS and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation have teamed to produce what is described as a mammoth "History of Television" project targeted to bow on the pubcaster in spring 2009.

Plan, as unveiled by Acad Foundation prexy Steve Mosko (aka prexy of Sony Pictures TV) and PBS' Washington, D.C. outlet WETA-TV, is to kick off the series with a four-hour chronicle of the history of scripted TV and the characters we've come to know and love in our living rooms -- and between our toes, as Jack Paar used to describe people watching TV while lying in bed. (Pictured at left, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in the production offices at Desilu, romping through an "I Love Lucy" rehearsal. Below, Art Carney and Jackie Gleason at work on "The Honeymooners.")

Acad Foundation's formidable Archive of American Television oral history project, which has been doing the good work of collecting video interviews with TV pioneers and legends for more than a decade, will contribute plenty of interview footage. PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have kicked in a $2 million "challenge" grant, but for sure Acad Foundation will be knocking on the doors of every network, studio and well-heeled producer in town during the next few years in their bid to raise the rest of the coin to fund the production.

TCA: "Big Bang Theory" not that '70s show

POSTED BY JON WEISMAN

Chuck Lorre didn't even own a TV in the 1970s, so any similarities between his new CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" and the swinging late '70s icon "Three's Company" are completely coincidental. Really, Lorre insists.

Lorre, co-executive producer Bill Prady and the cast of "Big Bang" seemed a little taken aback to find themselves in the unexpected position of being asked to compare and contrast their program to that of Jack, Janet and Chrissy during the "Big Bang" TCA sesh on Wednesday.

Tops on the list: Three decades after Suzanne Somers redefined the role of the dumb blonde on "Three's," is it possible that Kaley Cuoco's Penny (pretty small-town gal befriended by two neighbors who are Caltech physicists) is ... dumberer? (Pictured from left, "Big Bang" stars Jim Parsons, Cuoco, Johnny Galecki)

No way, said Lorre.

Betty White, the first lady of television

Can't pass up an opportunity to post a great pic of Betty White. She's the subject of one of PBS' "Pioneers of Television" docus set to air in the winter and spring '08 on the pubcaster. I did a lengthy sit-down with Betty in 2000 when she was marking her 50th year in television, and I can confirm that she is as lovely, gracious, funny and sharp as you'd hope Betty White would be. She's only piled up about 25 credits since then, from voice-over work on "King of the Hill" to semi-regular stints on "That '70s Show" and "Boston Legal" and now the CBS soap "The Bold and the Beautiful." Once her career got going in the early-early 1950s, when she was on the air live for five hours on weekday mornings, spinning records, riffing on the day's news and generally shooting the breeze on KLAC-TV (better known today as KCOP-TV Los Angeles), Betty has never stopped. She's an inspiration; we should all be in such good shape if we're fortunate enough to see our 85th birthdays (as Betty did on Jan. 22). To me she's not just a pioneer of television, she's the reigning first lady of television.

Calling all Bill Bixby fans

A kind-hearted, TV-loving woman in Watertown, N.Y., is orchestrating an elaborate campaign to get some overdue recognition for one of television's most active players in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

Bill Bixby (pictured far left) was one of those actors who seemed to be everywhere on TV when I was a kid: "Courtship of Eddie's Father" reruns, "Love, American Style" reruns, "My Favorite Martian" reruns, countless TV movies and series guest shots, and, of course, "The Incredible Hulk," a show that was well-placed on CBS' Friday night sked so that pre-teens could stay up for it. (I'm not too proud to admit that it scared me when I was about 8.)

Bixby died young, at age 59 in November 1993, the victim of a late diagnosis of prostate cancer. He was nominated three times for Emmy glory during his 30 years in television -- once for "Courtship" and twice in 1976, for a guest shot on "The Streets of San Francisco," and for his role in the mammoth hit mini "Rich Man, Poor Man." But for all of his work as an actor and director (his interest in helming began during his "Martian" chronicles), Bixby never took home the gold. Renee Tufo thinks this is just plain wrong.

"Live Earth": population 30 million or so....

For all the advance hot air, it seemed like "Live Earth" drew modest crowds, linear or online. NBC Universal says that 19 million viewers tuned in to at least some part of its "Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis" coverage across eight outlets: NBC, Telemundo, Mun2, Bravo, Sundance Channel, Universal HD, CNBC and MSNBC.

Per NBC U, that figure includes viewers who watched at least six minutes or more of the Saturday-Sunday telecasts that served up a cavalcade of contempo music makers, including Madonna, the Police, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Roger Waters, Kanye West, Kelly Clarkson and John Mayer (pictured left).

Despite the star power, the Peacock's primetime coverage on its mothership broadcast network drew a 2.8 million viewers with three hours of taped highlights. It's a woeful sign of the times for the state of live (or live on tape) music on the smallscreen; the Live Earth concert block came in dead last on the weakest night of the week (Saturday). It was beaten by repeats of "Cold Case" and "America's Funniest Home Videos." So to get to 19 million, a whole lotta people must've checked out at least six minutes on Bravo's 18-hour telecast that began 8 a.m. ET on Saturday and Sundance's 22-hour Earth-cast that kicked off before the sun rose at 4 a.m. ET Saturday.

Meanwhile, MSN is claiming  10 million video streams (and counting) for its coverage. MSN declared it a record for an online concert; execs there were breathless about "history" being made, etc. etc. But somehow, it just felt a little tepid after all the pre-show hype about 24 hours and seven continents and on and on. Then again, I've been a little more conscientious about what goes into the trash can versus the recycling bin during the past few  weeks so maybe the multi-media-marketing-stunt-is-the-message after all...

Interpreting the ticky-tacky of the "Weeds" theme

It was those first strains of "Little Boxes" that made me sit up and take notice the first time I popped in the screener disc for "Weeds" a few years back. On that first viewing, however, I would've gone down for the count on final "Jeopardy" betting that it was a recording by Odetta sted Malvina Reynolds.
"Weeds" had fun with its distinctive theme last season by lining up a roster of intriguing artists to put their spin on it, and in the upcoming third season they're doing the same, cuing a different artist for each of the 15 segs that unspool as of Aug. 13. The roster includes Joan Baez, Donovan, the Individuals, Angelique Kidjo, Latin rockers Kinky, Man Man, Billy Bob Thornton, the Shins and Persephone’s Bees. Randy Newman (pictured above), an artist seasoned enough to remember the folk scene that produced Reynold's original 1962 recording, kicks it off with the Aug. 13 premiere. It'll be fun to catch up with Nancy and the Agrestic gang next month.

As the world churns -- Reilly in talks with Fox

The rumors about Kevin Reilly (pictured left) heading to Fox started before he'd cleaned out his office at NBC, and apparently the talks have picked up steam in the past few days, as Variety reports. We could be in for a reunion of the team that made FX cool in the early part of this decade. Peter Liguori (pictured right) and Reilly always did seem like a good team, with complementary skills and simpatico personalities. Here's hoping there's a win-win scenario in this for two classy execs...

Time to check out the new and improved Ovation TV

Good piece today by the Associated Press' Lynn Elber on this week's relaunch of Ovation TV. It bodes well for the channel that former Bravo and Trio exec Kris Slava is running the ship. He was intimately involved in Trio's "Brilliant but Canceled" series and thus knows and thing or two about too-cool TV. Ovation is sticking with its arts and culture milieu, but instead of a string of short clips of opera and classical music performances, there'll be much more of a cohesive programming flow to the primetime sked. Weeknights will be skedded according to broad themes, with Mondays devoted to performance, particularly dance and theater; Tuesdays is all about artistes, with profiles, docs and features about painters, sculptors and the like; etc. etc., as laid out in Elber's story. This week's relaunch is anchored by a series dubbed "American Revolutionaries," a look at mavericks and trailblazers ranging from Frank Lloyd Wright to Kurt Cobain.

Book Hell

Book Hell is more than just a state of mind. It's an actual place, I'm thinking it's somewhere south of Downey, Calif. (home of the Blasters and the Carpenters), where decent hard-working writers/wives/mothers go to get singed by the flames of burning manuscript pages that demand to proofed/revised/de-hyped/rewritten for the $%^&*^-th time. You don't actually drive to Book Hell, you descend there, sometime between the time you finish the line edit and the copy edited manuscript arrives. You show up with a blindfold on thinking, "C'mon, how long can this pass through the manuscript take?" and "What was the show that replaced 'Savannah' on Sunday when the WB launched its Monday night slate in 1996?" So that's where I spent my weekend, and probably most of next weekend too. I'm lucky my husband and daughter haven't thrown me out for good.

Good-bye Mr. Wizard

Can't say I have first-hand memories of watching "Watch Mr. Wizard," but I do appreciate the role Don Herbert played as a TV pioneer and in introducing explosive baking-soda-and-vinegar science experiments to the youth of America. By all accounts, Herbert, who died Tuesday at the age of 89, was as nice a guy as he seemed on the air. He was famously one of the first guests on David Letterman's "Late Night" show in the early 1980s, and he was one of those guests who Dave seemed genuinely excited to meet. The vintage TV wonderland that is www.tvacres.com has a fantastic "Watch Mr. Wizard" page, including a full-page ad in Variety touting the NBC show airing on "118 stations of the NBC-TV Network" when it was still airing from Chicago prior to Herbert's move to New York.
You know that somewhere up in the Seattle area, Herbert's kindred spirit Bill Nye (the Science Guy) is feeling a little sad today...

Museum moves to the Center

Good-bye Museum of Television and Radio, hello Paley Center for Media. It's no secret the NY- and LA-based institution has faced some hard times of late, like many a non-profit these days. (Full disclosure: I have a soft spot for the erstwhile MT&R, an org that has always been gracious to me in terms of offering me classy panel-moderating gigs, my pick of Paley Festival sessions, etc.) The MT&R has always had support from the industry's top movers and shakers -- just take a look at its board of directors -- but nonetheless the handful of major media giants that rule the biz can only write so many checks a year. So I suppose the donor base will be greatly enlarged under the larger Center for Media umbrella. MT&R founder William Paley, who was a businessman through and through (he formed the institution in 1975 as the Museum of Broadcasting), no doubt would have approved. Besides, his name's on the door now.

Let's just make sure they keep up the MT&R's one-of-a-kind program archives. I mean, it's always comforting to know that somewhere in the world, someone has a climate-controlled vault preserving rarities like "You're In the Picture," the Jackie Gleason hosted game show from 1961 that was so bad that the Great One apologized to viewers in its second airing for "that bomb," bagged the game show format and turned it into a talk show that ran a few more weeks on CBS under the "Jackie Gleason Show" moniker.

(pictured above, L-R: Queen Noor of Jordan, CBS Corp. CEO and Paley Center board member Leslie Moonves and Paley Center prexy Pat Mitchell were on hand to toast the name-change Tuesday evening at a reception at the Paley Center's Gotham HQ.)

A Rich-ly deserved memoir

Now this is beach reading.

TV and film director John Rich tells tales of his adventures behind the camera in his recently published memoir "Warm Up the Snake: A Hollywood Memoir" (University of Michigan Press). With a career that stretches from "Our Miss Brooks" (Rich is flanked above by "Brooks" stars Eve Arden and Gale Gordon) to "The Dick Van Dyke Show" to "The Brady Bunch" to "All in the Family" to "MacGyver," he's got the stranger-than-fiction stories to make this a delightful and easy read for anyone with an interest in the biz. There are stories of bad (really bad) or curious behavior by actors, producers, executives, writers and the like that fall into the category of the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same-in-this-town. And there are plenty of once-in-a-lifetime anecdotes like the time Rich had the high-class problem of having to choose between directing the pilot for "All in the Family" and the pilot for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." (The calls from Norman Lear and Moore came on the same day.) "Snake" also offers Rich's personal perspective on how TV directors came into their own at once was once known as the Screen Directors Guild, in no small way thanks to Rich's rabble rousing, and other milestones in DGA history during the past half-century.

Farewell to a TV friend, Charles Nelson Reilly

It's hard to imagine what daytime TV would have been like in the 1970s without Charles Nelson Reilly and his distinctive laugh-snort sound and "huh, huh, huh." Reilly, who died Friday in Los Angeles at 76, per the AP, was everywhere in bits and pieces on TV when I was a kid -- livening up the discourse on "Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares," in repeats of syndication chestnuts like "Ghost & Mrs. Muir" and "Love, American Style," a pitch man in TV commercials for Bic pens, etc. Reilly was also a mainstay in this era on Carson's "Tonight Show," where the later hour allowed him to indulge in even more of his famous double-entendre and no-entendre sex jokes.

Having won a Tony early on in his career for his role in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," Reilly would later admit to being frustrated at being consigned by all of those game show and chat show appearances to being "TV's Charles Nelson Reilly." But for those of us at home, Reilly was one of those wonderfully familiar faces and voices that makes TV such an intimate medium, or comfort food, if you will. Once you saw Reilly's horn rims on the screen or his name in the credits, you knew what you were getting, and he never disappointed. He honed a flamboyant but friendly goof ball character that he could take anywhere -- game shows, talk-variety shows, sitcoms, lighter dramas, commercials, cartoon voice work, celebrity roasts, and on and on. (Here's a clip of Charles at work on a seg of Match Game where he and host Gene Rayburn switch places. "I want to be Bob Barker - tall, hard and gorgeous," Reilly admits after taking possession of the long, skinny mike.)

"The X-Files" played off of that familiarity in casting Reilly as a sleazy sci-fi novel writer looking for alien abduction tales in the memorable 1996 seg "'Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'." The Chung character reappeared the following year in an unusually light episode of Chris Carter's "Files" follow-up, "Millennium." (The latter guest shot earned Reilly an Emmy nom.)

So thanks for all the comfort and cheap jokes over the years, Charles, and let's pretend that it's Gene Rayburn's voice asking you to fill in the obvious closer to this appreciation: "We'll miss...blank."

(Pictured above: Reilly strutting his stuff at the April 2002 wrap party for "The X-Files.")

Oh it's going to be a long "Lost" eight months

It was good enough to make your skin crawl, as fine a finale as TV has seen since No. 6 returned to his London apartment only to have the whole mess start anew as the midget and tall, top-hatted guy drove slowly past his flat. (If you're confused, go rent the DVD set of Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner.")

Of the many questions raised by "Lost's" powerful two-hour finale, the biggest one that came to my mind is: How long are we going to have to wait for the show to come back! As "Lost" segues to its 16-episode season next year, we could be on the hook for eight months or more! Say it ain't so Steve! C'mon Jeff Bader, ABC scheduling dude extraordinaire, have mercy! If ABC opened the the year with a clip-show recap, like the very entertaining spesh with showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that led into Wednesday's finale, the season could start on Jan. 9 (assuming show stays on Wednesday, which I vote for) and run through April 23. Or take a week off for another creative clip or even bloopers special halfway through and that'd take us through April 30. Let's not wait, guys. May sweeps are outmoded!

Of all the super-fine moments in the third-season closer, perhaps the most satisfying for fans was watching Hurley ram that VW bus through the encampment to take out that mean, burly Other. It was pure vindication for the good-hearted soul who'd spent the previous 65 minutes being told he was too rotund to be of help in the castaways grand rescue and resistance efforts. (Hurley's feat will also fuel conspiracy theories in the L.A.'s South Bay area that Jorge Garcia's character was named for one of the great drummers of our time, George Hurley, of Minutemen fIREHOSE and Vida fame, who's known for driving his V-Dub buses and minivans as if he's possessed by the spirit of Jacob.) The finale was also a tour de force in varying degrees of facial hair for Matthew Fox.

Like all good segs of "Lost," the finale raised far more questions than it provided answers. Some of the questions we get to ponder during the next 200-plus days before we get our next fix:

1) So Jack's dad is not dead?

2) Who's the third maybe-pregnant woman? We knew Sun was expecting, we knew Kate was going to be in the family way after seeing her unprotected relationship with Sawyer blossom, but who's the inhabitant of the third tent that the Others wanted to abduct?

3) Who was in that casket in the funeral home in the really bad part of L.A. that Jack visited but didn't look at?

  4) Is Charlie really a goner?

5) Is Mikhail, aka Cyclops, really gone, this time?

6) What's the deal with Penelope? How is it that she just happens to have a direct channel into the Looking Glass station?

7) Why did Walt appear to spur Locke out of his bony resting place?

8) Is there a shred of truth to Ben's contention that the people behind Naomi's arrival want to "kill every living thing on the island?

9) How is creepy Richard going to handle things now that he's got to do

double-duty on the island and on CBS' midseason drama "Cane"?

10) What's the big mistake the future-Jack refers to in his tearful reunion with future-Kate, which brings us back to...

11) When oh when is "Lost" coming back?!?

Farewell to the 2006-07 campaign

Let the "American Idol" post-mortems ensue, now that the 2006-07 season is finito. Whoo-hoo!

First off, let's be honest. There's no way to say that "American Idol" isn't anything but the most lethal weapon to come along since the four-network era began 20 years ago. Anything that draws 25 million-30 million viewers routinely and doesn't involved a live execution can't be wrong. But...last night's numbers also indicate a bit of vulnerability in the "Idol" armada.

According to prelim Nielsen's, "Idol" finished out its 8 p.m.-10:09 p.m. run with 29.4 million viewers and 11.0 rating/30 share in adults 18-49. Last night's closer peaked in the final half-hour, natch, with 34.9 million viewers and 13.3/rating/32 share in adults 18-49.

The comparisons to the '06 "Idol" wrap are telling. The Taylor Hicks coronation drew an average of 36.3 million viewers and 14.2 rating in adults 18-49. That one ran to 10:03 p.m., peaking at an astounding 42 million viewers and 17.3 rating/38 share in adults 18-49.

What does it all mean? "Idol," like the everyday folks who make or break the show for the millions who love watching it, is mortal. Although there's plenty of post-finale carping about how unnecessarily draaaaaaawn out last night's finale was, Fox still deserves props for keeping its addiction in check and only offering one edition of "Idol" per season, so as not to wear the show out too fast. So congrats to Jordin, and all of those on the Pico Boulevard lot for another year of scheduling restraint.

As for the other big finale last night, it boggles this mind why ABC's "Lost" is losing some of its steam. The stats for last night's finale: 13.7 million viewers, 5.8/15 share in adults 18-49, compared to '06's 17.8 million faithful and 7.6 rating/18 share in the 18-49 demo.

No network, not even "Idol"-enhanced Fox, would sniff at those numbers. Still, why the fall off? The show's better than ever, more mysterious than ever, more beautifully shot than ever. "Lost's" DP's deserve combat pay. You think those run-through-the-jungle scenes shoot themselves? Those guys must be on their bellies half the time, getting as muddy as the castaways. And the ensemble has never been as strong thanks to the additions of Michael Emerson (mean ol' Ben), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) and the increased presence of Nestor Carbonell (creepy Richard). Josh Holloway (Sawyer) and Evangeline Lilly (Kate) have also had great seasons that ought to make them Emmy bait when the noms are out in July.

But there's real truth to the growing sentiment that shows like "Lost" are facing an unfair discount of their  audience base if viewership stats are based on the Nielsen overnights. Thanks to the brave souls at Disney, "Lost" has from the start been on the leading edge of the new world in which viewers are digitally empowered to watch shows whenever they want, on a variety of platforms. As anyone who's been reading this blog the past few weeks knows, I couldn't be a bigger fan of "Lost," but real life and a punishing deadline prevented me from tuning in to the two-hour finale last night. I've got an unbreakable date with ABC.com tonight, and plans for a leisurely stroll through the Season Three DVD set as soon as it's available.

If that isn't incontrovertible evidence (from this viewer's perspective) that the whole notion of TV ratings needs a big, massive re-write, then I don't know what is -- maybe the solution is in a hatch somewhere near the Others' old compound, or maybe it's in the mysterious Nielsen compound in Florida, where much of the company's round-the-clock number-crunching is done.

But for all the frustration re the numbers, there's no shot whatsoever that this show won't get anything but the royal treatment from ABC during the next three seasons, as was thoughtfully laid out a few weeks ago by ABC, ABC Studios and exec producer/good shepherds Damon Lindelof and Cartlon Cuse. So I'm not going to lose sleep over the weaker finale numbers. Based on the closing moments of last week's penultimate "Lost" adventure, I'm focused on rooting for Charlie to get back to his No. 1, Claire. (They don't mention it much on the show but, in fact, Claire's last name is...Littleton.)

Good-bye to our Mr. Brooks

This morning brings the bittersweet news that Tim Brooks, research maven extraordinaire and TV historian without peer, is prepping his retirement from Lifetime Television at the end of this year. If Tim had a nickel for every time someone in the biz consults his indispensable, brick-sized lifesaver, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present," he'd be richer than Murdoch, Redstone and Diller combined. He's a lovely man who always makes time for desperate journalists in need of insight or a quote from a respected, objective source of knowledge about all things television. Tim earned his research stripes at NBC, where he befriended fellow number-cruncher and "Complete Directory" co-author Earle Marsh, and then worked for ad firm NW Ayer, and then caught the cable wave at USA Network in the 1990s before segueing to Lifetime in 2000, where he'll retire as executive veepee, research.

That'll be the day, indeed

Westerns don't get much better than "The Searchers" (pictured), John Ford's breathtakingly photographed 1956 film that gifted John Wayne one of the best roles of his long career. Starz's Encore Westerns channel is doing right by the Duke with a 100-hour marathon of his films starting on what would have been the actor's 100th birthday, Saturday, May 26. The list of flicks is a little slim on classics, save for "The Searchers" and 1947's "Angel and the Badman," but Wayne's charisma makes even the quickie 1930s and '40s oaters fun to watch. His was a face born to be on the big screen.

TV etiquette -- a tutorial, with pictures

With upfront madness upon us, it’s a good time to review our television etiquette, courtesy of the January 1952 issue of Coronet magazine. The medium was so young back then that the mag had to use the cast of a radio show, NBC’s “Kings Row,” to pose for the pics in this news-you-can-use feature. (Click to enlarge.)