RICHARD DAWSON, 79

The once-ubiquitous television personality died in Los Angeles on Saturday night. He was 79.

From The Associated Press:

Dawson won a daytime Emmy Award in 1978 as best TV game show host. Tom Shales of The Washington Post called him "the fastest, brightest and most beguilingly caustic interlocutor since the late great Groucho bantered and parried on 'You Bet Your Life.'" The show was so popular it was released as both daytime and syndicated evening versions.

He was known for kissing each woman contestant, and at the time the show bowed out in 1985, executive producer Howard Felsher estimated that Dawson had kissed "somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000."

"I kissed them for luck and love, that's all," Dawson said at the time.

He reprised his game show character in a much darker mood in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film "The Running Man," playing the host of a deadly TV show set in a totalitarian future, where convicts try to escape as their executioners stalk them. "Saturday Night Live" mocked him in the 1970s, with Bill Murray portraying him as leering and nasty, even slapping one contestant (John Belushi) for getting too fresh.

Plus Dawson was part of the whole "Hogan's Heroes" bunch in the 1960s, making it OK to laugh at Nazis.

EUGENE POLLEY, 96

The man who made us lazy is dead.

Eugene Polley invented a little thing called the remote control back in 1955 for Zenith. Before his gadget became the norm, people actually had to get their asses out of the chair or off the couch to change the channel (back in L.A. in the pre-cable days, we had five, count 'em, five channels to enjoy).

As a result, asses weren't so gargantuan, and channel-flipping wasn't so fun.

HOLA, DORITO

The TV news producer known as Dori is in Springfield this day, and having been lucky enough to work with her once, we welcome her too-seldom visit with open arms. Plus, it's a chance to eat tacos and pimp the KSPR St. Jude Dream Home. How lucky can a girl get?

RETURN OF PEE-WEE

The mid- to late-80s: We remember it well, especially Saturday mornings, when we'd stumble downstairs, plop onto the purple leather couch and fire up the tube to watch the best kids show to ever hit TV.

The creator of that show now plots a comeback. One question: Will Cowboy Curtis return with that magnificent hair?

FRANCISCO FRANCO'S TESTICLE IS STILL DEAD, TOO

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco had one testicle.

Australia's News.com reports:

It is believed his loss stemmed from a war injury in 1916 when Franco was wounded during battle at El Biutz, near Ceuta, which today is a Spanish enclave on the Moroccan Mediterranean coast.

On June 28-29, 1916, Franco, then a captain, led an attack in the region which was then a Spanish protectorate and was hit in his lower abdomen and seriously wounded.

The paper, citing several authors of Franco biographies, added that such an injury would have affected Franco's reproductive organs and made him sterile.

Some of us are not too young to get the joke.

DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER

Time to dance.

WHEN HAMSTERS GO BAD

Bravo to the anchor for keeping it together.

PETA PORN

PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- says it wanted to run this ad during the Super Bowl. NBC censors apparently said no way.

Who's right? Watch the ad and decide for yourself.


'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

NEAL HEFTI, 85

Composed the theme from the TV series "Batman." Also came up with themes for "The Odd Couple," "Barefoot in the Park."

He used to be a Big Band trumpeter. And he won a Grammy for the Batman theme. Truly, a blessed life.

WWET?

What Would Eisenhower Think? By 11:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, Hurricane Ike was acting more like this Ike, beating the daylights out of the best-laid plans.

And still the reporters journeyed into the wind and rain and lights, Murrowesque only in that this is real-life See It Now, a gathering of moths to the news flame.

We don't blame them; it's their kick-ass job. Wish we were there right now.

In lieu of that pleasure, it's Geraldo on the seawall, battling the surge for Fox. MSNBC has a crew at the wall, too, shooting a sat signal from a dish no bigger than a laptop. Photog was steady and dry inside the SUV. Reporter was the Brave Soul against The Elements. And the MSNBC signal didn't cut out like Geraldo's. Money, man. Bet Geraldo was pissed.

Anderson Cooper is waiting in Houston, sounding a little too eager when talking about flying shards of glass from high-rise buildings. Such is the price of fame.

CHRISTINE DAUES EXPECTING

The weekday anchor of KSPR is expecting her second child with co-anchor and husband Joe Daues.

Local news from the local newspeople. We're trying to convince Christine to name the new baby "Ronald." Alas, resistance to the idea. Probably for the best. Selah.

BILL DIAL, 66

Smitty passes along an e-mail from Engineer Doug about the June 2 death of actor-turned-producer Bill Dial. Radioheads might remember him for his role as engineer Bucky Dornster in "WKRP in Cincinnati"

Dial appeared in two episodes, including "Turkeys Away," with its famous Les Nessman live report:

"Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement!

As God is our witness.

TONY SCHWARTZ, 84

Media consultant. "Highly reclusive," according to The New York Times. Helped create the seminal moment in modern American politics.

From the Times obit:

“Media consultant” is barely adequate to describe Mr. Schwartz’s portfolio. In a career of more than half a century, he was variously an art director; advertising executive; urban folklorist who captured the cacophony of New York streets on phonograph records; radio host; Broadway sound designer; college professor, media theorist and author who wrote books about the persuasive power of sound and image; and maker of commercials for products, candidates and causes. What was more, Mr. Schwartz, who had suffered from agoraphobia since the age of 13, accomplished most of these things entirely within his Manhattan home.

Of the thousands of television and radio advertisements on which Mr. Schwartz worked, none is as well known, or as controversial, as one that was broadcast exactly once: the so-called “daisy ad,” made for Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential campaign in 1964.

Produced by the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach in collaboration with Mr. Schwartz, the minute-long spot was broadcast on Sept. 7, 1964, during NBC’s “Monday Night at the Movies.” It showed a little girl in a meadow (in reality a Manhattan park), counting aloud as she plucks the petals from a daisy. Her voice dissolves into a man’s voice counting downward, followed by the image of an atomic blast. President Johnson’s voice is heard on the soundtrack:

“These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.”

His mentor and friend was Marshall McLuhan. Figures.

FEAR AND CLOTHING

Michelle Malkin, the blogger, has gotten her way. Dunkin' Donuts is now safe from terrorism, Rachael Ray is a left-wing apologist, and anyone wearing a black-and-white silk scarf is Against Us.

Dunkin' Donuts ran an ad featuring Ray wearing a scarf with a paisley design, "selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot," according to DD (mmm, double-Ds).

Malkin started ranting and said the scarf looked like a keffiyeh: "The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad ... the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons."

According to the Boston Globe:

[Dunkin' Donuts] at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.

Said the suits in a statement: "In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. ... Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial."

Dunkin' Donuts caves, Malkin crows, idiocy reigns. Soon the clock will strike 13.

DICK MARTIN, 86

Co-host, with Dan Rowan, of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," a groundbreaking television show of the 1960s. The Associated Press reports:

Martin, who went on to become one of television's busiest directors after splitting with Dan Rowan in the late 1970s, died Saturday night of respiratory complications at a hospital in Santa Monica, family spokesman Barry Greenberg said. ...

"Laugh-in," which debuted in January 1968, was unlike any comedy-variety show before it. Rather than relying on a series of tightly scripted song-and-dance segments, it offered up a steady, almost stream-of-consciousness run of non-sequitur jokes, political satire and madhouse antics from a cast of talented young actors and comedians that also included Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley and announcer Gary Owens.

Presiding over it all were Rowan and Martin, the veteran nightclub comics whose standup banter put their own distinct spin on the show.

Like all straight men, Rowan provided the voice of reason, striving to correct his partner's absurdities. Martin, meanwhile, was full of bogus, often risque theories about life, which he appeared to hold with unwavering certainty.

Sock it to me. Bet your sweet bippy. Say goodnight, Dick.

SULU PULLS AN ELLEN

George Takei, the actor who played Mr. Sulu on the original Star Trek series, is getting hitched to his longtime partner.

The BBC reports:

Takei, 71, said he and Brad Altman were going through the "delicious dilemma" of where to marry.

The actor and 54-year-old Mr Altman have been together for 21 years.

"We can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage. We embrace it all heartily," Takei wrote on his website. ...

On Thursday, California's Supreme Court said the "right to form a family relationship" applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality.

But opponents of the decision said they would seek an amendment to the state constitution, which would override the ruling.

Following the Supreme Court's decision to legalise same-sex marriage, comedian Ellen DeGeneres announced plans to marry her girlfriend, actress Portia de Rossi.

Does this mean the Sulu in "Mirror, Mirror" was straight?

BEST. TV. SHOWS. EVER.

The New York Post has the list. Here you go:

1 THE SOPRANOS (1999-2007, HBO)

2 ALL IN THE FAMILY (1971-79, CBS)

3 THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW (1986-present, syndication)

4 AMERICAN IDOL (2002- present, FOX)

5 THE WEST WING (1999-2006, NBC)

6 MARY TYLER MOORE (1970-77, CBS)

7 DALLAS (1978-91, CBS)

8 24 (2001- present, FOX)

9 TWIN PEAKS (1990-91, ABC)

10 SESAME STREET (1969-present, PBS)

11 THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON (1962-92, NBC)

12 60 MINUTES (1968-present, CBS)

13 THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW (1948-71, CBS)

14 I LOVE LUCY (1951-57, CBS)

15 LAW & ORDER (1990-present, NBC)

16 MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS (1969-1974, PBS)

17 THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW (1967-79, CBS)

18 THE SIMPSONS (1989-present, FOX)

19 SEX AND THE CITY (1998-2004, HBO)

20 ER (1994-present, NBC)

21 THE HONEYMOONERS (1955-56, CBS)

22 MIAMI VICE (1984-89, NBC)

23 SEINFELD (1990-98, NBC)

24 GUNSMOKE (1955-75, CBS)

25 ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN (1968-73, NBC)

26 HILL STREET BLUES (1981-87, NBC)

27 STAR TREK (1966-1969, NBC)

28 THE X-FILES (1993-2002, Fox)

29 THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW (1961-66, CBS)

30 SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1975-present, NBC)

31 JEOPARDY! (1964-75; 1978-79; 1984-present, NBC and syndication)

32 MOONLIGHTING (1985-89, ABC)

33 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1966-73, CBS)

34 THE COSBY SHOW (1984-92, NBC)

35 GENERAL HOSPITAL (1963-present, ABC)

Obvious MIA shows: South Park, The Price is Right, WKRP, Twilight Zone, M*A*S*H. And what's with Idol in the Top 5? And Seinfeld below Miami Vice? Yikes.

WILLIAMS OVER GIBSON OVER COURIC

November sweeps are over. The national numbers for network news are out. Broadcasting & Cable has the new stats:

•NBC Nightly News: 9.21 million total viewers, 2.3 rating/9 share, 2.79 million viewers in the key demo.

•ABC World News: 9.11 million total viewers, 2.2 rating/9 share, 2.77 million viewers in the key demo.

•CBS Evening News with Katie Couric: 6.74 million total viewers, 1.7 rating/6 share, 2.08 million viewers in the key demo.

The "key demo" being 25-54, of course. For all the talk of the rise of cable talkers, consider this: Couric's last-place showing means she still has triple the number of viewers that Bill O'Reilly boasts on a good night.

REMEMBER MCLEAN STEVENSON?

Jorja Fox must not, or she wouldn't be emulating his famous career flameout. You know the routine. Actor becomes TV Star, believes the hype, goes for the big screen, fails miserably, is forever diminished. See also: David Caruso.

But the actress who plays Sara Sidle on CSI seems to have a lifeline. TV Guide reports that the show's boss is certainly Fox will return to CSI, at least as an annoyingly recurring character.

CSI bigwig Carol Mendelsohn does the it's-all-good nattering:

I respect Jorja. This is something that she wanted to do, and I would never stand in her way. She's coming back at some point anyway ... the fans will not have seen the last of Sara Sidle. Nor will Grissom.

And we liked the show (though it ain't no Dexter). Thanks for the letdown.

LOVING, TOUCHING, SQUEEZING

Nine months after the ice storm, a not-unexpected side effect begins to emerge.

Babies. Lots of babies.

The story on KSPR features Cheri Meyer, a woman so brave, she allowed her huge-with-twins belly to be videotaped for television.

We don't intend to use this space to promote the workside of life, but this one's worth sharing.