| The Classic Hollywood Squares Site News From the Grid The Latest as of June 24, 2008 I'm having issues logging into Geocities with my new computer and Windows Vista, so if I'm slow to update this page, that's why. --Dixon George Carlin 1937-2008 A man who made us laugh and challenged us, made himself a household name yet never lost his edge, has died. George Carlin died of a heart attack June 24, in the early morning hours. He was 71 and had a history of heart problems (not to mention drug use). Born in New York in 1937, Carlin was raised by a single mother and dropped out of school in 9th grade. He claims to have been court martialed repeatedly during his time in the Air Force, but that's also when he waded into show business, as a radio DJ. (Legend has it he got fired from one job for taking the station moble news unit to buy pot.) Carlin struck out to California with radio buddy Jack Burns, and they started playing nightclubs as Burns and Carlin. Their big break came when they appeared together on The Tonight Show With Jack Parr. At first he did clean, wholesome humor like his idol, Danny Kaye, but ultimately decided that didn't work for him. So the team went their seperate ways: Burns joined up with Avery Schreiber to form another team, and Carlin simply revoluntionized comedy. Beginning with Al Sleet, his "Hippy Dippy Weatherman" character (one who was apparently stoned on pot all the time but he says most of his audience didn't seem to get that at the time), Carlin began to evolve into the counterculture institution he is now. His humor ranged from observational ("Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?") to challenges against the government and organized religion. And of course, lots of dirty words. Eventually Carlin would win two Grammys for his comedy albums and receive five Emmy nominations, largely for his many HBO specials over thirty years. But that's nothing compared to what happened with his most famous routine: the "seven dirty words you can't say on television," which he did, in fact, say on TV in his first HBO special in 1977. (That's where your webmaster heard it; of course he wouild never deliver it uncut on commercial TV.) Carlin was arrested for performing it once, only to be exonerated by a judge on First Amendment grounds. When a radio station ran it, it led to a fine and a major Supreme Court precedent that stands to this day. Even now, five of the seven words are still taboo from commercial TV. Carlin hosted the first Saturday Night Live on NBC in 1975 (he later said he was on coke all week and almost didn't make the show), and five years later hosted the first Fridays (an SNL knockoff on ABC). He appeared on The Tonight Show more than 130 times, and appeared on The Hollywood Palace, The Flip Wilson Show, That Girl and The Ed Sullivan Show during his tamer years, and everything from Late Show With David Letterman to even The View during his later years. He even briefly had his own sitcom on Fox, The George Carlin Show. His movies included "With Six You Get Eggroll," "Car Wash," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Cars." Ironically, email forwards credited to Carlin like "I'm a Bad American," were not of his doing and in fact embarrassed him. This was very ironic as many of them reflected the opposite of his worldview, showing that perhaps society had changed so much, the once-rebellious comedian was now considered mainstream and mistaken for many of the people he so openly disdained. At the time of his death, Carlin had just been named this year's recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for Comedy at the Kennedy Center. He will now be the first person to receive the award posthumously. Carlin was still in his milder, "Hippy Dippy Weatherman" days when he appeared for a week on the NBC Hollywood Squares in 1967. At least once source indicates he even sat in the center square that week. Cyd Charisse 1921-2008 One of the most strikingly and hauntingly beautiful women, and most talented, to ever dance across a movie screen, has died. Cyd Charisse died June 17 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, of an apparent heart attack. She was 86. Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo Texas in 1921, she was already dancing in the Ballet Russe by the time she was 13. She married her ballet teacher, Nico Charise, when she was barely 18 and in 1943 appeared in her first two films: "Something to Shout About" and "Mission to Moscow." She made an uncredited appearance with Fred Astaire in the film "Ziegfield Follies," and that landed her a seven year contract with MGM. Divorced in 1947, she married her second and final husband, singer Tony Martin, a year later. She went on to appear in a number of musicals and finally became a star with her turn in the all time classic "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) with Gene Kelly. The next year she appeared in "The Band Wagon." As musicals faded in popularity in the movies, Charisse appeared in a nightclub revue with her husband. She also guest starred on shows like The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Murder She Wrote and even had a voice-only appearance as a caller on Frasier. Your webmaster specifically remembers being mesmerized by the beauty and talent of Cyd Charisse when I saw her in "That's Entertainment," a 1970s theatrical compilation of famous MGM musical and comedy moments hosted by her two favorite dance partners, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. I was even more surprised to see her dance on the Oscars later, by then in her late 50s but still very beautiful with a pair of legs that just wouldn't stop. Perhaps no one should be surprised at her youth and stamina: she popped up in a Janet Jackson video, "Alright" in 1990 and made her Broadway debut two years later, in a revival of "Grand Hotel." Cyd Charisse appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares, actually sharing a square with her husband Tony Martin in 1977. Harvey Korman 1927-2008 Peter Marshall: According to experts, can you have a one-second dream? A dream lasting one second? Can you? Harvey Korman: Well sure, but I always ask for some of my money back. I mean one second! Quite possibly one of the funniest men who ever lived, Harvey Korman, has died. He was 81. Korman died May 29th at UCLA Medical Center, following complications from a ruptured anueryism. Born in Chicago in 1927, Korman interrupted college to join the Navy briefly and studied drama in his hometown. Show business wasn't easy; he and a friend got fired after night one as a comedy team in a club. He worked as a restaurant cashier, sold cars and worked as a theatre doorman. Eventually guest starring roles began to trickle in, for shows like Perry Mason, The Untouchables, The Red Skelton Show, Route 66 and The Munsters. Then he landed a job as a regular on Danny Kaye's variety show in 1964, holding it down for three years until its cancellation. During this time he also played the voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. The same year the Kaye show went off, 1967, he landed the job of a lifetime: a regular on The Carol Burnett Show and a ticket to television legend status. During his years on the Burnett Show, Korman played characters like Ed, Eunice's husband always feuding with his wife (Burnett) and mother in law (Vicki Lawrence). He would eventually grit his teeth and tell Mother Harper, "Now you look here old woman..." Korman played the Rhett Butler character in a now classic "Gone With the Wind" parody, and played a veteran plumber looking for a sewage shark in a "Jaws" parody. Even his outtakes were the stuff of legend. His fellow regular, Tim Conway, had a knack for cracking Korman up; the flub from the dentist office sketch is, even now, a popular attraction on Youtube and Myspace. All of that work and talent brought Korman four Emmys. He left The Carol Burnett Show in 1977 for his own show, The Harvey Korman Show, which didn't last long. (Burnett's own show didn't last much longer without him, either.) Korman was also a regular on the short lived but well received Tim Conway Show. Korman also appeared in a number of films, including two of the "Pink Panther" movies. He appeared in three Mel Brooks films, most notably the unforgettable role of the villainous Hedley Lamarr in 1974's "Blazing Saddles." In later years he made guest appearances on shows like Roseanne, Ellen and ER. Korman appeared on game shows like Password, Super Password and Celebrity Sweepstakes. He appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares numerous times between March 1969 and September 1978, enough to be considered a semi-regular and even more than he appeared on The Carol Burnett Show. He signed your webmaster's copy of Peter Marshall's book, Backstage With the Original Hollywood Square. Korman also appeared on the Bergeron version. Beverlee McKinsey 1940-2008 Only once in television history has an actor or actress received top billing in a daytime soap. It wasn't Eileen Fulton of As the World Turns, Genie Francis or Tony Geary of General Hospital, or even Susan Lucci of All My Children. The honor belongs to Beverlee McKinsey, a woman called no less than the greatest soap actress of all time. The 72 year old McKinsey died May 2 in Los Angeles from complications following a kidney transplant. Born in Oklahoma in August 1940, McKinsey got her start off Broadway working with the likes of James Earl Jones. She began appearing in television in guest roles on shows like The Defenders, Mannix, The Virginian and Hawaii Five-0. In 1970 she joined the cast of her first daytime drama, Love is a Many Splendored Thing on CBS, in which she appeared with her husband, Berkeley Harris. (They remained married until his death in 1984.) In 1972 she joined the cast of NBC's Another World, eventually playing her signature role, Iris Carrington. She left the show in 1980 when she was given her own spinoff soap, Texas, in which she received star billing. That's the only time that ever happened in television history. Her role ended in 1981; three years later she joined The Guiding Light on CBS, playing Alexandra Spaulding until 1992. Her prime time excursions were limited to guest shots on shows like The Mod Squad, Cannon and Remington Steele. She's been called the greatest daytime actress of all time repeatedly and even receive an award to that effect from Soap Opera Magazine in 1998. Her signature had been, according to the Internet Movie Database, "her honeydripping voice and blond hair." Beverlee McKinsey appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares in November 1978, during one of the show's periodic soap weeks. David Groh 1939-2008 The man who won, then lost, Rhoda's heart, has died. David Groh was 66, and died of kidney cancer at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles February 12. Born in Brooklyn, Groh graduated high school in 1957, after serving as student body president. He later graduated from Brown University. After a brief appearance on Dark Shadows and a regular role on the CBS soap Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Groh landed the role that made him an overnight star: Rhoda's boyfriend, then finance, then husband on Rhoda. Valerie Harper's perennially single, serial-dating character had been Mary's best friend on The Mary Tyler Moore Show before landing her own spinoff on CBS. As single parent Joe, Groh won over the audience as he courted Rhoda, and in a one hour Septemeber 1975 episode, married her. The episode was a major ratings event; it competed with ABC's Monday Night Football and legend has it the show was even being watched on monitors in ABC's announcing booth that night. Before Rhoda was cancelled in 1978, Rhoda and Joe got a divorce, and Groh left the show. (It marked the first time we ever saw a sitcom character get married, then divorced, in the course of a series.) Groh went on to play D.L. Brock for two years on General Hospital in the mid 1980s. He also guested on dozens of other TV shows, including Trapper John M.D., Fantasy Island, LA Law, The X Files, Melrose Place, Walker Texas Ranger, Law & Order and Girlfriends. He also appeared in the movies "Two Minute Warning" (1976) and "A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich" (1978). On Broadway he appeared in Neil Simon's "Chapter Two." David Groh appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares several times in 1975, including the show's week of hour long shows in November. Margaret Truman 1924-2008 Margaret Truman Daniel, First Daughter and all around rennaissance woman, died January 29 at an assisted living center in Chicago, after a brief illness. She was 83, just a month shy of her 84th birthday. Truman was born in 1924 in Independence, Missouri, to then-county judge Harry Truman and his wife Bess. In 1945, the death of President Franklin Roosevelt thrust her father into the oval office, at a time Margaret was a college sophomore. The world got to know her quickly when she debuted on stage as a concert singer in 1946. Reviewers were not kind and her father, President Truman, even famously threatened to rearrange the face of one critic. Margaret Truman married journalist and future New York Times publisher Clifton Daniel in 1956, three years after her father left office. Truman Daniel led what she called "several lives" including that as a mystery writer, coming up with the novel "Murder in the White House" in 1980 and following with several more after that. She also appeared on radio and television, in such shows as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show and several appearances on What's My Line? between 1954-56. Truman appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares several times on both the syndicated and NBC versions, from 1973 until 1979. For the record, the other three presidential Squares were Jimmy Carter's brother Billy, Gerald Ford's daughter Susan, and JFK's brother-in-law, Peter Lawford. Suzanne Pleshette 1937-2008 She was everything from a young starlet to the Miracle Worker, but she'll always be remembered as Dr. Hartley's wife Emily. Suzanne Pleshette died January 19th of lung cancer at her Los Angeles home. She would've been 71 less than two weeks later. Born in New York, Pleshette already had her famous husky voice down pat as far back as age four. She studied at New York's High School for the Performing Arts and worked its Neighborhood Playhouse. She began appearing on Broadway and played Anne Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker," replacing Anne Bancroft and touring on the road. She also appeared in "The Golden Fleecing" with Tom Poston, who would later appear with her on The Bob NewHart Show and would marry her during the last few years of their lives. Pleshette made her screen debut in the Jerry Lewis film "The Geisha Boy" and appeared in such other films as "Rome Adventure" and "Fate is the Hunter" before going on to appear in Disney films. She appeared on such TV shows as Naked City, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Marcus Welby M.D. and Bonanza. In 1972 she scored the role that would immortalize her in pop culture: that of Bob Hartley's wife, Emily, on The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78). She was the calm voice of reason in Bob's otherwise nutty world of patients and friends, on a series that many consider part of the comedy heyday of CBS. In one classic episode she tries to talk through his newly-found phobia of elevators. Newhart would later star in another series, Newhart, and in the 1990 finale Pleshette pops up in character as Bob reveals that entire 1982-90 series was a dream by his earlier character, in one of the funniest finales in television history. Pleshette's later appearances would include guest spots on Will & Grace and 8 Simple Rules...For Dating My Teenage Daughter. She was married to Troy Donahue briefly in 1964, then married oilman Tom Gallagher for 12 years until his death. Her final marriage was to Tom Poston, until his death last year. Pleshette appeared some 30 times on the Marshall Hollywood Squares, enough to qualify her as a "frequent guest." Those appearances dated from May 1970 to December 1972. Laraine Day 1920?-2007 Actress Laraine Day, a movie character actress remembered for her marriage to baseball legend Leo Durocher, died November 10 at her daughter's home in Ivins, Utah. She was 87. Born Laraine Johnson (to a Mormon family of eight children) in Utah, Day came to Hollywood in the 1930s, her first appearance being a bit part in the classic melodrama "Stella Dallas" in 1937. She signed a contract with MGM in 1939, and after bit parts in movies like "Tarzan Finds a Son," started getting supporting roles with regularity. During her MGM period, she was best known as nurse Mary Lamont in the "Dr. Kildare" movies, co-starring Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. Her character appeared in seven of those movies before being killed off (run over by a truck) while rushing to buy furniture in "Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day" (1941). Her bigger roles came when MGM loaned her out to other studios, and she appeared in films like "Mr. Lucky" and the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Foreign Correspondent." In 1946 she married the legendard Leo Durocher, manager for the New York Giants and later the Brooklyn Dodgers. She was known at that point as "the first lady of baseball" and even hosted a Giants pre-game TV show on New York local TV. It was the second of her three marriages. When she divorced Durocher in 1960 she famously stated she ended her relationship with baseball at the same time, admitting she was never a big fan. Day's TV appearances included Playhouse 90, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Airwolf and Murder She Wrote. She also appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares for a week on the NBC daytime version in 1971. 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