I didn't know Tim Russert on a personal level. I rarely even saw him in his own element as host of NBC's Meet the Press. However, when he suddenly died last Friday, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the fact that he was a huge presence on television, particularly during this year's Presidential election. It made Russert feel like he was a part of the family.

So it has been with many television personalities that have left this earth before their time. It's the intimacy of the industry and the fact that this person has come into our homes night after night, week after week, that the unexpected death of these personalities hits us much harder than, say, movie stars. Unfortunately, there have been a number of these surprising deaths over the last few decades. Here are 12 such deaths that affected millions of television viewers.

• Peter Jennings helped a lot of people to quit smoking.
• Aaron over at TV Barn calls John From Cincinnati "truly baffling."
• There's something truly wrong with Ann Coulter.
• Kevin Eubanks is one sexy vegetarian.
• Katee Sackhoff hates the original Battlestar Galactica.
• Watching Wimbledon this week? Check out ESPN.com's blog.
• TV Guide.com lists the Top 30 Cult Shows of All-Time. Can Star Trek and Lost be considered "cult" shows?

Well, that was quick.

Anchor Bay Entertainment has announced that they will release six documentaries hosted by Peter Jennings in a two DVD set available on October 18. The six docs are from the past two years (topics include September 11 security, tobacco, Guantanamo Bay, obesity, the LAPD, and Ecstasy). Hopefully they will release specials that Jennings did in the 80s and 90s at some point.

We told you earlier today about Keith Olbermann's essay at the end of Countdown about his cancer scare. Now here's the video of the segment that has (for some reason) caused so much controversy. (Click on the link, go down to the "Lung Cancer & You" sidebar and hit "launch").

[via Mark Evanier]