| The Classic Hollywood Squares Site News From the Grid The Latest as of June 14, 2010 Jimmy Dean 1928-2010 Jimmy Dean, singer, TV entertainer and sausage king. has died at age 81. Dean was found dead by his wife, as he sat in front of his television set June 13th in Virginia. Dean was born (in 1928) and raised in Plainview, Texas, in poverty. Dean served in the Air Force in the 1940s before breaking into music with his band, the Texas Wildcats. Future star Roy Clark was its lead guitarist. Dean saw his music and television career take off at the same time: on Washington, D.C. area local TV he hosted Town and Country Time, which led to the daytime Jimmy Dean Show on CBS in 1957. Dean was informed before one broadcast that the network was cancelling the show, resulting in Dean giving an on-air rant and demanding his viewers send in soap wrappers to the network in protest. (Shokus Video actually offers that broadcast on DVD from its archives.) That didn't stop the show from going off the air two months later, but it didn't end Dean's television career, either. In 1961 Dean hit the bigtime musically with "Big Bad John," a classic that top Billboard's country and Top 40 charts. Other hits included "P.T. 109," "The First Thing Ev'ry Morning and the Last Thing Ev'ry Night" (another #1), and "I.O.U." He also guested on a number of variety shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (in fact he was Johnny's first-ever guest host). He also got his own prime time show on ABC, The Jimmy Dean Show, whose regulars included pioneering Muppet Rowlf the Dog. Movie roles included a supporting role as a Howard Hughes type millionaire in the 1971 James Bond film "Diamonds are Forever." Dean appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares for a week in August 1971. Other game show appearances include I've Got a Secret, Missing Links and Letters to Laugh-In. Rue McClanahan 1934-2010 Years ago, I was watching a Blue's Clues video with my children ("Blue's Big Treasure Hunt," according to the IMDB) when the host, Steve Burns, made a big deal out of the fact his Grandma was coming to visit. When she finally appeared, I smiled, recognizing the woman my children would know as Steve's Grandma as Blanche/Vivian herself, Rue McClanahan. The actress known and loved as one of The Golden Girls has died at age 76. She died of a stroke in New York City June 3, while she was trying to recover from bypass surgery. Born in Oklahoma in 1934, McClanahan went to the University of Oklahoma, where she graduated with honors with a drama degree. She took a four week scholarship at a playhouse in Pasedena, California, where she played Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire." (Years later, Blanche DuBois and Scarlett O'Hara would be the inspirations for her Golden Girls character.) McClanahan appeared on and off Broadway in plays like "MacBird!","Jimmy Shine" and "Who's Happy Now?", the latter winning her an Obie. Along the way she guest starred on TV's Burke's Law and appeared in the daytime soaps Another World and Love of Life. She also appeared in B-movies like her favorite, "They Might Be Giants." It was groundbreaking television producer Norman Lear who provided her big break, offering her a guest shot in a now-classic 1972 episode of All in the Family. McClanahan played one half of a swinging couple who show up at the Bunkers expecting to swap partners with Archie and Edith (a plot device that had never, ever been remotely considered for a U.S. sitcom up to that time). Her performance in that episode led to an appearance on another Lear sitcom on CBS, Maude, where what was intended as another guest appearance turned into a regular role as Maude's best friend, the naive, old-fashioned Vivian Blaine. In one episode she goes on a date with her future husband, only to flee to Maude's house when he aggressively tore her clothing. After Maude, McClanahan made guest appearances on shows like The Love Boat, Here's Boomer, Lou Grant and (as George the Handyman's romantic interest) Newhart, and appeared as a regular in the short-lived series Apple Pie and played Aunt Fran on Mama's Family before it left NBC to go into first run syndication. From there she went to what would be her role of a lifetime: Blanche Devereaux, the fading, promiscuous Southern belle on the classic NBC series The Golden Girls. In one episode she made a date at her husband's funeral. She once joked that there was a "big difference" between herself and her character: “Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern belle from Atlanta — and I’m not from Atlanta.” The Golden Girls drew heavy critical acclaim and was a runaway hit for NBC, standing out amid a lineup full of critically acclaimed runaway hits like The Cosby Show and Hill Street Blues. One of the reasons the show is still heavily loved even now in reruns is the chemistry of its stellar cast and Rue McClanahan could very well have been the key to it: she had previously worked alongside Bea Arthur in Maude and Betty White in Mama's Family, so the chemistry was there from day one. All three actresses plus Estelle Getty each won Emmys for the show, giving it a rare distinction of having the entire cast each win an Emmy. After The Golden Girls ended its seven year run in 1992, McClanahan didthe one year spinoff, The Golden Palace (minus Arthur), appeared in movies like "Out to Sea" and Broadway productions like "Wicked." Off camera she campaigned for animal rights and breast cancer awareness, having survived that disease herself. As recently as 2009 she guest starred on Law & Order and Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns. While she was still playing Vivian on Maude, Rue McClanahan appeared a couple of times on the Marshall Hollywood Squares, both daytime and nighttime versions, in the 1976-77 time frame. The Game Shows of Rue McClanahan All-Star Secrets Break the Bank (ABC daytime) Cross-Wits ('70s) The Hollywood Squares (Marshall) Liars Club Password All-Stars The $20/25,000 Pyramid Rhyme & Reason Tattletales 3rd Degree Win, Lose or Draw Art Linkletter 1912-2010 One of the busiest men in radio and television history, Art Linkletter, died May 26th at his home in Bel-Air, California. He was 97. Family members chalked his death up to old age, noting he'd been ill for a few weeks and hadn't been eating much. Born Arthur Gordon in Saskatchewan, Canada in 1912, Linkletter was given up for adoption when he was seven. His new family settled in San Diego, California. Linkletter took odd jobs to help the family and even led the life of a hobo at one point, but attended college in San Diego and graduated in 1934. However, he had worked part time in radio during his college years, beginning one of the longest broadcast careers in history. Linkletter married his wife Lois in 1935, and they stayed married until his death. It's said to be the longest marriage in the history of Hollywood. Linkletter held various radio jobs. A historical marker at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, suggests Linkletter did "man on the street" interviews on that site and made the street corner popular, but old time radio enthusiasts can't independently confirm that. Linkletter did, however, star in the radio series People are Funny and House Party. Both later switched to television: House Party coming to CBS-TV in 1952, the stunt-oriented People arriving at NBC-TV in 1954. At various times he also hosted talk shows and Hollywood Talent Scouts, and at one point starred in five TV series at once, a record still standing to this day. Linkletter even acted, in movies like 1950's "Champagne for Caesar" and on TV series including General Electric Theater, Zane Grey Theater and Wagon Train. He appeared as himself in The Bob Cummings Show, The Red Skelton Show, Batman, Here's Lucy and The Dean Martin Show. He hosted numerous other specials as well, largely for CBS, including the inaugural ceremonies opening CBS Television City in 1952. Fifty years later he introduced a clip of himself from that special when Television City celebrated its golden anniversary in yet another special. Children were Linkletter's best remembered claim to fame. A segment on House Party called "Kids Say the Darndest Things," was a smash hit, with children candidly discussing their home lives in often hilarious detail. Clips of the funny children became a successful comedy album, and their quotes became one of the best selling non-fiction books in history, both bearing the name "Kids Say the Darndest Things." Bill Cosby turned the idea into a free standing series in the 1990s with moderate success; Linkletter actually had a regular spot on the Cosby version, introducing House Party clips of the original baby boomer era children. How sad and ironic the man who brought so much laughter to us through children, lived to bury three of his own. His daughter, Diane, lept to her death out of an apartment window in 1969, the time Linkletter left his House Party series for good. Linkletter blamed drugs for his daughter's death, specifically LSD, and became a fierce anti-drug advocate, even being appointed by President Nixon to a special committee. (This is despite the fact her death was not believed to be drug-related by investigators.) Linkletter lost two other children, including Robert to a 1981 car accident, and Jack, himself a TV personality, in 2007 to cancer, age 70. Still, Linkletter continued doing charity work, writing numerous books and making personal appearances, even being interviewed on Larry King Live as recently as 2005. Linkletter, who appeared on numerous game shows (no stranger to them, obviously), appeared multiple times on The Hollywood Squares between 1967 and 1974. The Game Shows of Art Linkletter Host: People are Funny Guest/Panelist: About Faces The Celebrity Game The Hollywood Squares It Takes Two I've Got a Secret Stump the Stars What's My Line? You Bet Your Life Lynn Redgrave 1943-2010 Actress Lynn Redgrave, a distinguished member of an acting family who was nominated for two Oscars and won two Golden Globes, died Sunday, May 2 at age 67. She died with her family at her side, following a seven year battle with breast cancer. Her death followed that of her brother Corin a month earlier and of her niece, actress Natasha Richardson. Born in London in 1943, she would later describe a difficult relationship with her father, actor Michael Redgrave, years later in a one woman show entitled "Shakespeare for My Father." She recalled her older siblings were already immersed in acting, courtesy her father. She made her theatrical debut in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1962, and was invited by Sir Lawrence Olivier to join Britain's National Theatre. Her film debut came in 1963's Best Picture winner, "Tom Jones," then went on to get her own Oscar nomination as the title character in the 1966 film "Georgy Girl." She went on to appear in films like "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)" and "The Happy Hooker," and received a Tony nomination for the play "Mrs. Warren's Profession." Redgrave landed a CBS sitcom, House Calls, in 1979, a medical show opposite Wayne Rogers. (It was adapted from a movie in which Glenda Jackson played her original role.) She left the show in 1981 amid a lot of acrimony that led to a lawsuit. She alleged she had been fired for wanting to breast feed her baby on the set. The suit was settled in 1987. Redgrave said the fallout from leaving House Calls hurt her efforts to get work so she found herself guest starring on shows like The Love Boat and Hotel and was the spokesperson for Weight Watchers for several years. Her big comeback began in 1996 when she played opposite Geoffrey Rush in the Oscar nominated "Shine," and she eventually earned a great deal of acclaim for other movies like "Gods and Monsters." She kept active in the stage until the very end and co-authored a book about her struggle with breast cancer, with her daughter. Lynn Redgrave appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares several times between 1974 and '76, then one more time in 1979 when she landed the role on House Calls. The Game Shows of Lynn Redgrave: All-Star Secrets Battlestars Celebrity Sweepstakes Family Feud Go! The Hollywood Squares (Marshall & Davidson) I've Got a Secret Match Game '7x/PM Password Password Plus Personality Pyramid ($10K, $20K, $25K, $50K, Davidson $100K) Shoot for the Stars Showoffs Tattletales ('70s and '80s) Triple Threat 3rd Degree To Tell the Truth (Moore and Ward) What's My Line? Win, Lose or Draw Peter & Laurie Marshall...Newlyweds Even though they've been married for 20 years, Peter Marshall and his wife Laurie will soon be contestants on The Newlywed Game. Bob Eubanks will return for a one shot appearance on the current day GSN version of the show (usually hosted by Carnie Wilson), this time featuring three former game show hosts. Joining the Marshalls will be Wink and Sandy Martindale (married 34 years), and Monty and Marilyn Hall (married 63 years). The show will air May 18th at 6 p.m. EST/PST with encore showing at 9 p.m. EST/PST. Peter Haskell 1934-2010 Journeyman actor Peter Haskell, best remembered for numerous guest appearances on TV shows and two daytime dramas, died April 12 at age 75. His daughter made the death public but a cause of death was not given. The son of scientist Normal Haskell, Peter Haskell was born in Boston in 1934. He served for two years in the Army in the mid 1950s, then got a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard. His appearance in a short-lived play, "The Love Nest," led to his first TV appearance, a guest shot on Death Valley Days. That started a long career of TV guest shots from the original 1960s version of The Outer Limits to the final episode of ER in 2009. Other guest shots included The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mannix, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, Hunter, Jake and the Fatman, JAG, Cold Case and Frasier. He had recurring roles on shows like The Big Valley, Barnaby Jones and Vega$. He had a few regular roles: the prime time drama Bracken's World in 1969-70 and the daytime dramas Ryan's Hope and Search for Tomorrow. He also appeared in several TV movies. He even hosted a game show at one point, 50 Grand Slam in 1975. Peter Haskell occupied a square on The Hollywood Squares in 1970, while he was appearing in Bracken's World. Other game show appearances included Stump the Stars, It's Your Bet and the 1970s remake of You Don't Say. John Forsythe 1918-2010 John Forsythe, an actor with a very long career and a most distinctive voice, died Thursday, April 1, after a lengthy bout with cancer. He was 92. Born in New Jersey, his father, a Wall Street businessman, didn't want Forsythe to go into acting, but he did anyway. After graduating from Abrahama Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, Forsythe worked in radio, especially soap operas. He appeared on Broadway in plays like "Yankee Point" "Winged Victory" and "Yellow Jack," and in movies going back to 1943's "Destination Tokyo" and including the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock dark comedy, "The Trouble With Harry." He guest starred on shows like Playhouse 90, Studio One, and Zane Grey Theatre before he landed his first major TV role: Dr. Bentley Gregg on the classic sitcom Bachelor Father. In one episode a young Linda Evans plays a teen with a crush on the doctor. Forsythe continued to appear on TV shows and movies, including such classics as "In Cold Blood" and "...And Justice For All." He lent only his voice--but by now a very distinctive one--in a title role of the 1976-81 ABC series Charlie's Angels, as the detective agency owner giving the "Angels" their assignments each week. He did this for five years then landed the role of his lifetime: Blake Carrington on Dynasty. His TV wife: Krystal, played by the former teen who once had a black and white crush on him, Linda Evans. His distinctive voice also narrated the Michelob radio and TV commercials. All along he even kept up his old radio career, appearing on "The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre." Later roles included the TV series The Powers That Be and reprising his Charlie Townsend role in the two full screen movie versions of "Charlie's Angels." John Forsythe appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares several times between 1968 and 1974. Robert Culp 1930-2010 Robert Culp, a prolific actor whose hundreds of roles included a spy, the president, a wife-swapper and an in-law to a dysfunctional family, has died at age 79. Culp's publicist says the actor collapsed while out on a walk outside his Hollywood home, and struck his head. He was later pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center. He's survived by four children and by his fifth wife. Born in Oakland, California in 1930, Culp attended college several times before landing in the drama department at the University of Washington. He dropped out just one semester shy of his degree, at age 21, and struck out for New York. He landed a coveted part in the play "He Who Gets Slapped," earning rave reviews, an Obie award and plenty more offers. Culp appeared in live TV roles on shows like Kraft Television Theatre and The U.S. Steel Hour, before landing his first regular TV role in the series Trackdown, from 1957 to 1959. More (in fact, numerous) guest roles followed on shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, The Outer Limits and a prophetic role on the spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and in movies like "PT 109," in which he played a member of John F. Kennedy's wartime Navy crew. In 1965 he landed his signature role, that of Kelly Robinson in the classic, landmark series I Spy. It was remembered partly for its humor, as Culp traded wisecracks with his co-star, and for its groundbreaking co-star. Bill Cosby broke ground for African-Americans as the star of a major dramatic series, and he and Culp had a lot of chemistry during the three years the show appeared on NBC. Culp and Cosby would later work together again in the unsuccessful movie "Hickey and Boggs," on episodes of The Cosby Show and Cosby, and in the 1994 reunion TV movie, "I Spy Returns." Culp continued to find plenty of work in movies and TV, most notably as part of a wife swapping couple in the 1969 film "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." He and wife Natalie Wood were introduced to wife swapping by a swinging couple played by Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon. Culp went on to appear in movies like "Turk 182!", "The Castaway Cowboy" and as the President of the United States in the Julia Roberts film "The Pelican Brief." On television, amid numerous guest appearances, he was also remembered for a regular role in The Greatest American Hero, and a recurring role as Debra's father on Everybody Loves Raymond, appearing opposite Katherine Helmond in a number of hilarious holiday-inspired episodes of that series. In one memorable episode they agree to stay with the Barones even though they're separated, but then Raymond finds them making love. Culp, who had written several episodes of I Spy including the pilot, was said to be working on movie screenplays at the time of his death. Culp appeared at least five times on the Marshall Hollywood Squares during the 1960s. He also appeared on the Bergeron version in 2004, and on other game shows like Pantomine Quiz, I'll Bet, Personality, Match Game '73 and Celebrity Bowling. Peter Graves 1926-2010 Peter Graves--commander of the Impossible Missions Force, captain of an ill-fated airplane and host of Biography, died March 14 at his home in Pacific Palisades, California. He was just four days shy of his 84th birthday. It is with great irony and sadness that I'm now writing, however small, a biography of the man who narrated so many others. The Minnesota-born younger brother of TV legend James Arness (Gunsmoke) was born to the same family name--Aurness, in fact--and played the saxophone. By 16 he was already getting paid as a radio announcer. After two years in the Air Force Arness studied drama and headed to Hollywood. He made his film debut in 1951's "Rogue River" but it was the classic film "Stalag 17" that put him on the map two years later. Later films included some forgettable ("Killers from Space") and such classics as "Fort Yuma," "The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell" and "The Night of the Hunter." Graves also carved a name for himself in television, appearing in series like Fury (where he played a horse rancher who takes in a troubled young person) and the shortlived Whiplash. He also made guest appearances on anthology shows like Studio One and Dupont Show of the Week, and on such series as The Millionaire. Ironically, your webmaster happened to catch him in a 1962 Route 66 episode the very weekend of Graves' death. Graves achieved his best remembered television acting work when he took over the starring role in Mission: Impossible, during the CBS series' sophomore season in 1967. Your webmaster will always remember him as Jim Phelps, the man who got his dossier via a folder and a tape recording, just before the now-famous warning that "this tape will self destruct in five seconds"...which it then did, smoke and all. (I was even known to repeat that line myself at age four.) After the last Mission in 1974 (he would also appear in a 1988-90 revival), Graves appeared in a number of TV movies including "SST: Death Flight," a 1977 disaster movie. That prepared him for the unlikely movie role of his lifetime: Captain Oveur, the pilot of the ill-fated Trans America Airlines flight in the 1980 theatrical spoof "Airplane!" Graves initially got offended and rejected the script but friends talked him taking this first ever slapstick comic role. Sure enough, the film was a hit (and later a classic) with the serious sounding Graves, the man who played a father figure in Fury, now uttering such lines as "Tell me Tommy, have you ever seen a grown man naked?" Graves repeated his role for the 1982 sequel "Airplane II: the Sequel." Graves kept working up to the very end. For years and years he hosted A & E's Biography series, a documentary that profiled everyone from kings and presidents to Don Knotts, Tim Conway...and Paul Lynde. It was so popular it inspired its own cable channel, the Biography Channel. Graves appeared in commercials during the 2000's, for products like Geico Insurance (still honing the comic skills he picked up in "Airplane!"), and even has a 2010 credit with his familiar voice narrating a video game. Guest appearances included 7th Heaven, House, and American Dad. Although the voice on the Mission: Impossible tape recorder warned him that a failed mission would mean the agency would disavow all knowledge of his existence, those of us who saw his work won't soon forget Peter Graves. Peter Graves appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares, as one of the rotating stars during the hour long week of November 1975. Merlin Olsen 1940-2010 Merlin Olsen, a seemingly fearsome defensive tackle in the NFL who also held a master's degree, did sports commentary and played in several family oriented TV series, died March 11 about suffering from mesothelioma for a year. He was 69, and until his hospitalization in California, had lived in his home state of Utah. The 6'5" 270 pound lineman played college football for Utah State, where he won the Outland Trophy before graduating in 1962. (He earned a masters in business.) That year (when he also married his wife Susan) he got drafted in the first round by the Los Angeles Rams, and played all of his professional football for that team during his 15 year gridiron career. During that time he, Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy and Deacon Jones made up the "Fearsome Foursome" defense. This was despite the fact, however, that the Rams only had one winning season between 1963 and '66. In fact, the Rams only won one game during his rookie year, but he still took rookie of the year. Olsen began his show business career when the "Fearless Foursome" appeared on ABC's Hollywood Palace and even sang. He then appeared in movies like "The Undefeated" and "Something Big," and guest starred on TV shows like Petticoat Junction and Kung Fu. When he retired, NBC Sports hired him as a color commentator, while the entertainment division snagged him as a regular on Little House on the Prairie beginning in 1977. He left for his own series, Father Murphy, in 1981. For two seasons he played a western frontiersman who pretended to be a priest so he could raise a group of orphans. Olsen later appeared in two other family series, Fathers and Sons (1986) and Aaron's Way (1988). He was eventually inducted into the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and even did commercials for FTD Florists on radio and TV. Merlin Olsen appeared on the syndicated version of the Marshall Hollywood Squares. Jean Simmons 1929-2010 Legendary Oscar-nominated screen beauty Jean Simmons died January 22 of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California. She was just nine days short of her 81st birthday. The British beauty was born in Crouch End, London, and at age 14, picked out of a dance line to co-star in the British film "Give Us the Moon" in 1944. That put her in a film career that included "Caesar and Cleopatra," "Great Expectations," "The Blue Lagoon" and her Oscar nominated role of Ophelia opposite Lawrence Olivier in "Hamlet." She was one of Great Britain's top box office draws when she came to America in 1950. She appeared opposite Marlon Brando in the musical "Guys and Dolls," with both doing their own singing. In 1960 she divorced actor Stewart Granger and married director Richard Brooks, who directed her to an Oscar nomination in "Elmer Gantry." She also appeared in the classic "Spartacus," with Kirk Douglas. Simmons appeared in such 1960s movies as "All the Way Home" (1963) and "The Happy Ending" (1969). She continued making movies, and in the 1980s appeared in the TV miniseries The Thorn Birds and North and South, and made a movie comeback in 1995 in "How to Make an American Quilt." Her credits continued right up to 2009. Jean Simmons appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares in August 1977. Connie Hines 1930-2009 Connie Hines, best known for her role as the lady of the house on Mr. Ed, died Friday, December 18th in Beverly Hills. She was 79, and had been suffering from unspecified health problems. Hines was born in 1930 and had hoped to land a major movie career in Hollywood in the mid 1950s. Her only major movie role was in a B-movie, 1960's "Thunder in Carolina" with Rory Calhoun, about stock car racing. Her big break, however was on a rigged game show, NBC's Dotto, where she appeared for two weeks in 1958. She later told investigators into the game show scandals everything she knew about being coached before air time and other similar matters. Guest appearances on shows like The Millionaire, The Untouchables and Sea Hunt led her to the role she always considered "just a steady paycheck"--Carol Post, Wilbur's husband on Mr. Ed. She only had a relatively minor role on the CBS sitcom, but stayed on for its entire six season run. After more guest appearances on shows like Bonanza and Love, American Style, Hines retired from acting. However, when Mr. Ed appeared in reruns on Nick at Nite in the 1980s, a whole new generation discovered the show and she graciously made numerous personal appearances alongside the show's human star, Alan Young. Hines appeared on The Hollywood Squares four times from 1967 to 1970. Other game shows included Stump the Stars and Celebrity Sweepstakes. Gene Barry 1919-2009 Gene Barry, the man who brought TV icons Bat Masterson and Amos Burke to life, has died. He lived to be 91, before his death December 9 in a Woodland Hills, California assisted living facility. Born and raised in New York, Barry won a scholarship to a music school and began his career singing over radio station WHN. He acted in several Broadway shows, one of which ("Catherine Was Great") gave him the chance to meed his future wife Betty. In 1951 Barry signed a Hollywood Contract that led to roles in such classic films as "Thunder Road," "Soldier of Fortune" and 1953's "War of the Worlds." (He had a walk-on appearance in the later Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise remake.) It led to his first classic TV role, the title role of Bat Masterson. At first Barry admitted being "repulsed" by the idea of acting in a TV western. That changed when he found out his character was a gentleman lawman whose wardrobe included the "cane and derby hat" mentioned in the series' unforgettable theme song. After that ABC series ended, he played a similar character on the CBS series Burke's Law, in which he was an independently wealthy crime fighter arriving at crime scenes in a Rolls Royce. A Perry Mason-type series with loads of current guest stars and future celebrities on their way up, it lived beyond its 1963-66 run as another incarnation in 1994-95. Later series included NBC's The Name of the Game. His rugged TV persona made him the unlikely choice to play one half of a gay couple in Broadway's 1984 version of "La Cage Aux Folles," a role that earned him a Tony nomination. In fact, he probably devoted more time and passion to his singing than he did to his straight acting. Barry's game show appearances date all the way back to Hollywood Screen Test in 1949, and include About Faces, People Will Talk, Stump the Stars, The Celebrity Game, The Movie Game and Tattletales. Barry appeared on The Hollywood Squares several times between 1968 and 1974. As Much Squares Music as You Could Ever Want The very well done website, the Television Production Music Museum, now has an entire page devoted to music cues from all version of The Hollywood Squares. It includes a full version of the "Merrill and Bob's Theme" from the 1970s, complete with the piccolo and keyboard solo. Check it out. It also includes cues from all the other versions, including the very-Eighties saxophone heavy version from the Davidson years. Dennis Cole 1940-2009 Dennis Cole, a prime time actor who may be best remembered for his marriage to Charlie's Angel Jaclyn Smith, has died at age 69. Cole died November 15 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Born and raised in Detroit, Cole first worked as a male model in muscle-building magazine ads, then as a stuntman. Eventually he began acting, first coming to prominence in the short-lived 1960s soap Paradise Bay, then for three seasons as one of the co-stars of the prime time series Felony Squad. He went on to co-star in two other shortlived series, Bracken's World and Bearcats!, and made guest appearances on shows like Love American Style, Barnaby Jones, The Love Boat and Charlie's Angels. It was that last appearance where he met his second of three wives, series co-star Jaclyn Smith, and they were married from 1978 until their 1981 divorce. Cole later appeared on The Young and the Restless and a number of b-movies. He toured in a production of "Victor/Victoria," playing the role originated in the 1982 movie by James Garner, but injuries from that tour sidelined him for three years and put his life in a different direction. He spent his last few years working as a real estate agent. Cole appeared three times on the Marshall Squares, including twice (1967 and '68) during his run on Felony Squad. Al Martino 1927-2009 Al Martino, a singer who played the Sinatra-esque singer in "The Godfather," has died at age 82. He died October 13 in Springfield, Pennsylvania, the same state as his birthplace of Philadelphia. In his own right, Martino was best remember for songs "Spanish Eyes" and "Here in My Heart." As a crooner he made numerous talk and variety show appearances over the years, including the shows of Mike Douglas, the Lennon Sisters, Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His dabbling in acting is best remembered by his role as Johnny Fontane, the singer in the first "Godfather" movie in 1972. He reprised the role in 1990's "Godfather Part III." Other acting appearances on TV included Adam-12 and The City. Martino appeared on The Hollywood Squares in 1972. Soupy Sales 1926-2009 Soupy Sales, comedian, pie-thrower, pie-recipient and game show panelist, died October 22 at age 83. Sales died in a Bronx hospice one week after checking in, having suffered a variety of health problems. Born Milton Supman in South Carolina, Sales returned from a World War II stint in the Navy to work as a radio reporter. In 1951, he took his first pie as host of a children's TV show in Cleveland. In 1964, The Soupy Sales Show premiered on New York local TV; its bad puns and self aware gags made the show a hit with all ages. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Shirley Maclaine were among those who gave Soupy a pie in the face, and received one back. His pranks both given and received became the stuff of legend. Once his crew played a joke on him by having a naked lady show up at the door to his set during a live broadcast (she wasn't seen on TV but was caught on tape by an off-air camera). On another occasion, he asked children to look in their fathers' wallets and mothers' purses and send him "green pictures of old men." That one got him suspended for a week but actually made his popularity skyrocket. Over the years Sales also presided over a 1970s syndicated comeback and was a regular panelist on What's My Line? during its five day a week syndicated run in 1968-75. In fact, his WML? tenure is how your webmaster first knew him. He also guested on shows like Route 66, The Love Boat, Boy Meets World and Black Scorpion, not to mention numerous--numerous--other game shows. Sales appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares a number of times from 1967 to 1978 and also appeared on the Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour and The Storybook Squares. The game shows of Soupy Sales 3rd Degree All-Star Secrets Amateur's Guide To Love Baffle Blackout Blankety Blanks Body Language Break The Bank ('70s daytime) Can You Top This Chain Reaction Cross-Wits ('70s) Everybody's Talking The Face Is Familiar Funny You Should Ask Hollywood Squares (Marshall daytime) Liars Club ('70s) Love Experts Match Game ('60s, '76, PM, '90) Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour Name Droppers Password ('60s daytime, '70s daytime) Personality Pictionary Pyramid (all Bob Stewart incarnations) Shoot For The Stars Snap Judgment Storybook Squares To Say The Least To Tell The Truth ('60s syndie, '80s syndie, '90s daytime) What's My Line? (prime time and syndie) Win, Lose Or Draw (daytime) Win With The Stars Wordplay Yahtzee You're Putting Me On Henry Gibson 1935-2009 Henry Gibson, the Laugh-In poet also known for rather memorable roles in everything from The Beverly Hillbillies to "The Blues Brothers," died September 14 in Malibu, California. He was 73. Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1935, Gibson was actually a child actor on stage before working briefly in Air Force intelligence in the late 1950s. He and another unlikely struggling actor--future Oscar winner Jon Voight--at one point worked together as a comedy team playing Southern hillbillies. Sales began appearing in movies, including 1963's Jerry Lewis classic "The Nutty Professor" and the Three Stooges film "The Outlaws is Coming." He guested on shows like Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, F Troop and as western actor Quirt Manly in The Beverly Hillbillies. Then he got his break on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, playing a Southern poet similar to the character he developed in nightclubs. He left the show in 1971 to continue career as a character actor; he's especially well remembered as a neo-Nazi in 1980's "The Blues Brothers." In later years he did cartoon voices on shows like The Smurfs and The Wild Thornberrys, and memorably played a judge in several episodes of The Practice. Gibson appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares several times between 1968 and 1970. Army Archerd 1919-2009 Army Archerd, the man who was a big part of Hollywood, the city he covered so closely, died September 8 at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 90. Archerd's death was described as rare form of mesothelioma, possibly from World War II asbestos exposure. Archerd began writing his "Just for Variety" column in Variety magazine in 1953, often reporting from film sets and breaking major news stories. Perhaps his biggest was that Rock Hudson was dying from AIDS in 1985. Although he retired from his column in 2005. he began blogging online for the magazine later that year. He covered numerous premieres over the years, often from Grauman's Chinese Theater, and his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located right in front of that theater. He was a fixture at the People's Choice Awards for years, and often guest starred on TV shows like 77 Sunset Strip, Here's Lucy and Mannix--all as himself--and on other shows like Batman and That Girl, as characters. Archerd was a Hollywood Squares panelist a few times between 1972 and 1974.mm Square Shows Downloadable Now When GSN dropped its reruns of the Marshall Hollywood Squares in 2003, and made it emphatically clear it was through with it forever, my next hope was to see a "Best of" DVD release. While there has been one supposedly in the works, the market for game show DVDS apparently has taken a hit: the company that produced DVDS of such Goodson Todman shows as What's My Line? and Password abruptly yanked them from the market when the economy went south. My next great hope after that, has now happened. MGM, which owns the rights to the Marshall years, has released several of those shows online now at Sling.com. They include NBC prime time shows from 1968 and syndicated shows that appear to date from 1971-76. They have 15 shows and 17 clips listed, but someone who navigated the site reports some may be duplicates. They also appear to be among the package that ran on GSN. Show MGM and Sling.com your support by watching these and getting some "thank you" messages to them. Maybe they'll post more. This, of course, is in addition to the unauthorized clips that pop up on Youtube, including such rarities as the syndicated show in which hard rocker Alice Cooper appeared. Fred Travalena 1942-2009 Fred Travalena, the standup comedian and impressionist once called "Mr. Everybody," died June 28th in Los Angeles. He was 66. Travalena had been suffering from an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, having first been diagnosed in 2002. Born in the Bronx and raised on Long Island, Travalena first came to prominence on late night shows like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The ABC Comedy Hour and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. He lent his many impressions to cartoons (like the 1980s version of The Jetsons) and commercials and guest starred on The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Murphy Brown, Beverly Hills 90210 and (as Ross Perot) on Walker, Texas Ranger. More standup appearances followed on Late Show With David Letterman. It wasn't unusual to find Travalena on a game show, either, as he hosted Anything for Money in the 1980s. He did a week of the NBC daytime Hollywood Squares in 1977. The Game Shows of Fred Travalena All-Star Secrets Anything For Money (hosted) Blackout Body Language Celebrity Sweepstakes (syndicated) Cross-Wits ('70s and '80s) Hollywood Squares (Marshall, Davidson) Just Men Match Game (all '70s versions) Match Game '90 Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour Mindreaders Scattergories Password Plus/Super Password Rhyme and Reason Tattletales ('80s) Triple Threat Win, Lose or Draw (daytime and nighttime) Wordplay Ed McMahon 1923-2009 His 30 years alongside the king of late night, when he coined what TV Land calls the greatest TV catch phrase of all time, was only part of his story. Tonight Show icon and veteran broadcaster Ed McMahon died June 23 at age 86. McMahon had been suffering from ill health, including pneumonia and a broken neck two years earlier, and died at Ronald Reagan Medical Center surrounded by family. Born in Detroit, McMahon travelled the carnival circuit in between wars (he was a Marine fighter pilot in World War II and Korea) and college. He first went on radio to host a late night interview program before appearing as the clown on the early TV children's show, Big Top. He also announced the game show Two For the Money (appearing on camera in that role, in at least one kinescope even rerun on GSN) and the original Philadelphia version of American Bandstand, starting a long personal and business relationship with another television legend, Dick Clark. But that's not his most famous pairing, not even his second most famous: he's best remembered for being "second banana" to television titan Johnny Carson. That started when McMahon went to work as announcer on Who Do You Trust, when Carson took over hosting that ABC game show from Edgar Bergen. They worked on that show for five years until 1962, when Carson was tapped to replace Jack Paar as host of NBC's Tonight Show and chose to take McMahon with him as his announcer. For 30 years, McMahon introduced Carson with the iconic "And now ladies and gentlemen....heeeeeerrreeeeeee's Johnny!" then chuckled through Johnny's jokes, and played straight man when Johnny played such characters as Carnac the Magnificent and Aunt Blabby. McMahon also did many of the commercials, most famously for Alpo dog food. In one classic moment, a spot when awry when a dog refused to eat the food and ran out of the studio...then Johnny showed up pretending to be a dog. Along the way, McMahon even hosted other game shows, including the original game show classic Concentration; hosted events like the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and the Orange Bowl Parade; famously, helped Jerry Lewis host his annual Labor Day telethon; and made numerous appearances on TV shows like Here's Lucy, The Flip Wilson Show, The Dean Martin Show, CHiPs, Hee Haw and The Cosby Show. In the 1980s he and longtime friend Dick Clark began co-hosting specials about bloopers and classic commercials, one clip being the aforementioned Alpo spot from The Tonight Show. McMahon also hosted Star Search, the syndicated talent show that discovered, among others, Britney Spears, the country group Sawyer Brown, and even the man who later hosted the same show when it was revived, Arsenio Hall. McMahon also did lost of non-Tonight commercials, most notably for Budweiser Beer and handing out giant checks for the American Family Sweepstakes. Even as Johnny retired in 1992 and went into self-imposed exposure exile, McMahon kept working, guesting on shows like Scrubs and Full House and even contributing vocal contributions to The Simpsons, Family Guy and Pinky & the Brain. McMahon fell on hard times during his later years, fighting bone cancer and--like so many Americans--home foreclosure. His last TV appearance was during the 2009 Super Bowl, this time not handing out giant checks but telling people where to sell their unwanted gold jewelry. But even without his time with Johnny, Ed McMahon had a rewarding career in his own right that even far outlasted Carson's. Still, when TV Land chose its 100 Greatest TV Catchphrases of All Time, its choice for #1 was McMahon's "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" McMahon appeared on both the NBC daytime and syndicated versions of the Marshall Squares, and at least one of those shows even turned up on GSN. The Game/Competition Shows of Ed McMahon Announcer: Two For the Money Who Do You Trust? Host: Missing Links Snap Judgment Concentration Whodunnit? Star Search Panelist or Guest: What's My Line? Match Game (1960s) Hollywood Squares (Marshall, Davidson, Bergeron) The Future of This Site I am certainly hoping to keep this site going as long as possible and if I ever decide I can't or don't want to do it anymore, I'll hand it over to someone else. I won't just arbitrarily shut it down and be done with it if I can help it. Having said that, there are some things going on you may or may not know about that will affect the future of this website. When I started it nine years ago next month (July 2000), I chose Geocities, a highly recommended name that was especially popular as a source of fansites in those days. Yahoo! eventually took over Geocities, and now, later this year, plans to shut it down. I am presently looking for a new host and a way to update and change my pages using something similar to Geocities Pagebuilder, an easy but now probably obsolete way of building web pages and websites. But obviously I have a lot of pages in this site and scores of files that need to be transferred, and may even have to devote vacation time in July for that. So if this site suddenly disappears one day, that's why, though I am hoping to keep the domain name, classicsquares.com, which I chose at the time to distinguish this site from the one operated by the then-still-in-production Tom Bergeron Hollywood Squares. Kenny Rankin 1940-2009 Kenny Rankin, singer, songwriter and one time backup musician for Bob Dylan, died June 7th of lung cancer, three weeks after being diagnosed. He was 69. He died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and is survived by three children. Raised in New York, Rankin's 1967 debut album had liner notes written by one of his biggest fans, Johnny Carson, who had him on The Tonight Show multiple times. Rankin's days as a singer-songwriter yielded three top 100 albums in the 1970s. He successfully remade Beatles' hits like "Penny Lane" and "Blackbird" in the 1970s, and wrote successful tunes for Mel Torme and Carmen McRae. Perhaps the best known song he ever wrote to be recorded by someone else was "On and On," which Stephen Bishop took to #11 on the Billboard Charts. In later years, Rankin backed away from the pop influence he once felt was necessary for success and made albums closer to his interests in jazz and Brazilian music. He was reportedly still making new music shortly before his death. Rankin appeared on two rock and roll-themed shows on the nighttime version of The Hollywood Squares in 1979. Classic Squares Home |