Old television shows
Chatting up a friend at the after-churchlunch place, he said he was going home to watch the last segment of the television series “Lost,” which ran from 2004-10.
He said he’d watched it before and still didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand it either but didn’t think a replay would help.
Some of the featured actors still pop up except for the two principal ones.
We’ve had a number of television shows go dark over the years.
People were mopey when “Bonanza” left the air in 1973. The all-male cast of the Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) family lived on the Ponderosa ranch.
Considerable audience was lost when actor Dan “Hoss” Blocker unexpectedly died.
By the end of the series all three of the sons had been written out. Pernell Roberts quit and “Little Joe” Michael Landon moved on.
While I’m at it, Michael Landon was the only actor who didn’t wear a hairpiece, but he did wear four inch lifts in his boots.
If the word “Bonanza” makes you hungry it might be because Dan Blocker launched a chain of steakhouses of that name.
“Gunsmoke” ran on radio from 1951-61 with radio veteran William Conrad as Matt Dillon. Conrad, made the transition to television in the 1970s show “Cannon” and the heavy one in “Jake and the Fat Man.”
Doc Adams on radio was voiced by Howard Mcnear, whom you recall as “Floyd the barber” on “Andy Griffith.” Georgia Ellis was radio’s Miss Kitty and Pearly Baer read the character Chester Proudfoot. After 20 years the dust settled on radio’s “Gunsmoke.”
All of the television “Gunsmoke” cast is gone.
The deep voice of William Conrad could later be heard under the credit roll of “The Fugitive,” running from 1963-67.
British actor Barry Morse could mimic any accent and was called “the most hated man in America” for his character (Lt. Philip Gerard) in the TV series.
“The Fugitive” was David Jansen as Dr. Richard Kimble, a doctor wrongly convicted for his wife’s murder. After escaping Kimble devoted his life to finding the killer, an illusive one-armed man, and staying one step ahead of Lt. Gerard.
Each week Kimble risked capture by being distracted by and helping folks who crossed his path.
The final episode drew the largest television audience until the “Who Shot J.R.” episode of “Dallas” in 1978.
The last “M.A.S.H.” episode holds the record of the most-watched finale’ of any television series.
There is much to cover but I’m out of space. And we didn’t even get to “General Hospital.”