My Tribute:The Classic TV Stars we lost in 2016

 

I’m not the first to put this out there but for whatever reason we lost a lot of good people this year. This may have been one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Go through a full list you wont believe it, especially in the world of music. But since my foray is classic TV I wanted to focus o that area. Because we lost a lot of great  talent who kind of got forgotten by the larger names out there.

So I mean no disrespect to the legends like David Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali, Anton Yelchin, Natalie Cole, Arnold Palmer, Gene Wilder, Nancy Reagan, Alan Rickman, John Glenn, George Michael, or any of the talented people who passed away this year. But I wanted to focus on this specific genre, and yes many of the names I list also have decent movie careers but I am fousing on their TV work.


So here are twenty names from classic sitcoms, drama’s and news that we lost this year.


Pat Harrington

There are some characters out there that become so popular that even if you’ve never seen the show, you probably know who they are. I never watched One Day at a Time but I can still tell you who Schneider was. Harrington also did a lot of voice over work.







Abe Vigoda
Some may call this a cheat since Vigoda did plenty of movies. But to me he will always be associated with Barney Miller and the god awful, boring as hell spin-off simply called Fish.





George Gaynes

This seemed to be the year for people you thought might live forever to sadly pass away. First Vigoda, and then Gaynes. And yes a lot of people know him from those Police Academy movies. But for me, and many people who grew up in the 80’s, he will always be Punky’s foster father Henry.





Garry Shandling

This was a shocker. I never made it a secret that I was not a fan of Shandling. His comedy was a little to blue and the TV show which made him famous, The Larry Sanders Show, just a little to off color for my taste. But I respect his talent and his reputation.






James Noble

This one may be more unknown but if you ever watched Benson you know who he is. It was one of the first sitcoms I truly loved and one of the reasons why was Noble’s portrayal of the dim witted but good hearted Governor Gatling. He appeared in other things too including a couple episodes of Perfect Strangers as Larry’s father.






Patty Duke

Again, a lot of people may know Patty Duke from other things including The Miracle Worker (which is a great movie by the way!). But The Patty Duke show was a big hit in its day and while I never watched, I respect it. And go ahead, get that theme song out of your head!






William Schallet

Speaking of Patty Duke Schallet played the dad on the show. He also appeared on about a million other things over the years (seriously, IMDB it!). For me he will always be the obnoxious Mr.Baris in the classic Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”







Doris Roberts

This one just plain sucks. I’ve talked a lot about Everybody Loves Raymond, and will do so more next year, and one of the things things that made the show work was Doris Roberts as Marie. But she had a long career beyond that show, and was a well loved actress before ELR ever came along.






Morley Safer

Morley Safer was one of those newsman who you just knew. I never watched 60 Minutes, but I knew who this guy was.






Alan Young

Of course a lot of people hear this name and the first thing they think of is Scrooge McDuck. That’s fair he did voice that character in Ducktales, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and elsewhere. But long before that he was Wilbur on Mr.Ed.






Beth Howland

It’s funny, I talked a lot about Alice earlier this year but most of my attention was on the sassy Flo. The other waitress named Vera was funny too.






Joe Garagiolla

I had never heard of this guy until he saved the Today Show. How did he do that? Kind of a long story but when the show was suffering thanks to the Deborah Norville debacle, he came in and gave the show a shot in the arm. He was a lovable guy and a lot of fun to watch.







Ann Morgan Guilbert

Here’s another one that many may have missed. More well known for her role as Yetta on The Nanny, for year’s she was also Millie the neighbor and friend of Laura on The Dick Van Dyke Show.







Noel Neill

The first woman to play Lois Lane on the old Adventures of Superman, and did a damn good job too. And before someone corrects me, yes Phyllis Coates was the first one to play Lois on the series, but Neill preceded her in the serials and was on the show most of the run making the character what it became. In fact she would embrace it her whole life. She spoke at events, conventions, and appeared as Lois’s mother in the Superman movie and Lex’s dying wife in Superman Returns.







Jack Riley
I love this guy, I almost a did a while tribute on him. Some may be wondering who he is. He is most popular for his role on The Bob Newhart Show as one of Bob’s many patients. I know him best for his appearances on Night Court. He had a deadpan delivery which I would love to be able to duplicate.







Robert Vaughn

Best known for Man From U.N.C.LE. but for me he was one of those actors I loved even though know I have no idea what I saw him in. He was just so cool. He was in the A-Team for awhile. And I did see him in Superman IV, sorry to say. Sadly the thing he may be best familiar for are those stupid lawyer ads he used to do all the time. Seriously, wtf?






 Florence Henderson

Uggghh, the pain! I don’t think I have to go over again how much I adored The Brady Bunch. I watched religiously growing up. Of course Florence Henderson was Carol Brady but she was also more than that, she was one of those celebrities where I would watch the show just because she was on it. She started out on the Today Show, and was so awesome even when she became synonymous with Wesson Cooking Oil she laughed it off.







Ron Glass

I was not a fan of Barney Miller but I did like Ron Glass who played Detective Harris. He had a real classy act about him and I was always happy to see him pop in other things. Like the episode of Friends he is in.






Alan Thicke

This is about where I just gave up on this year. I mean, really??? Is it me or has every decade of TV been affected this year? Anyway since I never knew Thicke of the Night I didn’t get what a joke this guy was. Thank goodness for Growing Pains who finally gave him some respect. He did other things after but he will always Dr.Jason Seaver. And I thought he was fantastic on that show. Thicke is the kind of actor that knew he was lucky to be famous, and enjoyed every second of it. He hosted game shows, the Disney Christmas parade, and did many guest appearances.







Bernard Fox

Seriously, was there any classic TV show not touched this year? Bernard Fox was a character actor best known as Dr.Bombay on Bewitched. He would pop in (ten points if you remember the catchy way he was summoned) and steal the scene every single time. This character was so popular it was brought back years later on the soap opera “Passions”. He was also known for a role on Hogans Heroes.







I already did a whole tribute to Garry Marshall but I wanted to throw his name out here.  The creator of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy I think his legacy is safe.




And finally, there’s no way I could end this article without bringing this recent tragedy up:



the sad news that Debbie Reynolds died one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher. Carrie Fisher was just baddass, and not just as Princess Leia in Star Wars. She even took a small role in the movie Soapdish and made it memorable! Her mother Debbie Reynolds was the kind of celebrity you loved, even if you’ve never seen her in anything, always so bright and full of energy. I saw her movie “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” but I will always remember her for roles in a few episodes of The Golden Girls and of course Will & Grace. She played Grace’s mother, where she was awesome every second she was on screen.





It’s been a sad year. I left off plenty of names, the list is kind of depressing. So here’s hoping that 2017 is a better one!




And before I end I wanted to thank everyone for reading these silly blogs and giving me the incentive to keep writing them. Hopefully there will be plenty more to come in 2017. Until then I want to wish everyone here a Happy and Healthy New Year. And 2016 can officially suck it.