dead

Frank Stanton was one of those behind-the-scenes guys whose name TV fans probably don't know. But he's also one of the men who shaped broadcast television into how we see it today. He was president of CBS from 1946 to 1973, and along with network chairman William S. Paley, helped bring the network from the radio era to the TV era. He passed away on Sunday night at the age of 98.

The New York Times has a pretty extensive obituary for Stanton, including information on his complementary but strained relationship with Paley, his role within CBS, and his problems with Edward R. Murrow. He also helped oversee the design of the network's famous Eye logo, spearheaded the network's move into its Black Rock headquarters in New York, and how he helped steer the news division with innovations such as a 30-minute evening newscast. The Times obit talks about all of Stanton's impressive accomplishments, so if you want a condensed history of CBS, give it a read.

Sad news in the world of animation tonight: Joseph Barbera, half of the mega-successful animation team of Hanna-Barbera, died today of natural causes. He was 95.

As most people know, Barbera and his partner William Hanna were responsible for creating the most endearing cartoon characters of all time. From their first major creation, Tom and Jerry, they went on to create memorable characters like Yogi Bear, The Flinstones, The Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby-Doo, and Jabberjaw (well, the last one was only memorable to me, I think). Hanna died in 2001, so this is the end of an era.

The AP obituary for Barbera mentioned that his strengths, according to Leonard Maltin, were comic gags and the ability to capture emotion with subtle drawing techniques (never thought HB cartoons were subtle, huh?), while Hanna was good at timing and conveying warmth. Say what you will about how they cheapened animation with their TV cartoons, especially the ones from the seventies; they've inspired many an animator in the last fifty-plus years.

Apologies for being late with this news, but Chris Hayward, known to cartoon fans as the creator of Dudley Do-right and to others as the co-creator of The Munsters passed away on November 20 at the age of 81. Hayward wrote for Jay Ward Productions, starting with Crusader Rabbit and later writing for Rocky and Bullwinkle, the show where Dudley Do-Right, a moral Canadian Mountie whose love interest was more interested in his horse than him, first appeared.

His live-action credits include creating The Munsters with Allan Burns, and winning Emmys for writing on both Barney Miller and The Hero. He also wrote for Alice, My Mother the Car, 77 Sunset Strip and Get Smart.

I'm a big Jay Ward fan, but had you mentioned the name "Chris Hayward" to me before today I wouldn't know who you were talking about. Still, I think his career is worth remembering, as it reflects a time even before The Simpsons when cartoons could be just as smart and funny as any live-action sitcom.

Man, no sooner do I finish typing up a post about the passing of animation composer Shirley Walker when I find out via Cartoon Brew that another person from the world of animated entertainment has passed away. This time it's Sid Raymond, an actor who appeared in both television and radio and was the voice of both Baby Huey and Katnip for Famous Studios. Raymond also appeared in a series of commercials for Schlitz Beer in the 1960s as a goofy bartender. Over his career, Raymond appeared in over 400 TV shows, though he never gained the popularity held by those he acted alongside, such as Paul Newman and Ernie Kovacs.

Mark Evanier writes about the actor, and includes a video of an old Baby Huey cartoon. I've also placed the video after the jump, for those of you who remember baby Huey and those of you who want to know who the heck that is.

The picture on the left shows Sid Raymond (in headphones) and cartoon historian Jerry Beck.

Typically when someone in the field of animation passes away myself and many of the cartoon/animation site pick up on it long before the mainstream media does, if the mainstream media cares at all, so I feel kinda bad for not reporting this sooner. Anyway, composer Shirley Walker, who wrote music for cartoon series including Batman: the Animated Series, The Zeta Project and Spawn, as well as the Final Destination film franchise, died of a brain aneurysm on November 29 at the unfortunately early age of 61. Walker wrote scores for both television and film since the late 1970s, including popular primetime soap Falcon Crest and the goofy 1980s Gremlins rip-off, Ghoulies. She was working on the direct-to-video DC: The New Frontier when she passed away.

[via Toon Zone]

Looks like the days of VHS are officially over.

Today, Variety reported the death of the once-dominant videotape format by way of a funny obituary. According to the article, downloads, high-def availability, TiVo and DVDs finally killed off the format. Very few stores will have pre-recorded VHS tapes on their shelves this holiday season, save for a few Barney tapes at Toys 'R' Us.

You could probably still find bricks of blanks over at your local Wal-Mart, but I'm sure even those are going to be harder to find after a while. It's never been the best format for recording TV; Beta had better quality back in the day, and the tapes themselves never really stood up well to repeated re-recordings. But, like Windows, the superior product doesn't always win the hearts and minds of the public. If you don't already have a DVR or aren't using BitTorrent or iTunes to get your video, now might be a good time to enter the 21st century (I'm reminding myself more than anything here...).

[via Pop Candy]

If you've missed the video for the late Johnny Cash's song "God's Gonna Cut You Down," you can watch it in all it's sucktackular glory here. No offense to Johnny Cash, who deserves every modicum of respect he receives plus a million, but this video is exactly what I thought it would be: a bunch of mediocre musicians and Hollywood stars emoting for the camera. Granted, we do have a couple appearances by venerable musicians like Keith Richards and Brian Wilson, but the whole "tribute video" concept just feels forced and ingenuous to me. And really, why does there need to be a music video for a Johnny Cash song, anyway? Cash's music is meant to be played on an old record player while you smoke cigarettes and drink whiskey until the woman who done left you disappears into that fog bank called memory. Everyone knows that, it's the first thing you're taught in elementary school.

Jack Palance is one of those actors who has been around for so long and has been seen in so many varied projects, that when he dies, every type of entertainment publication feels compelled to run his obituary.

Palance died today of natural causes in his California home. He was 87. Palance is probably best known for his long career playing tough-guy roles in movies like Shane and City Slickers (for which he won an Oscar and did those one-handed pushups at the ceremony). On TV, played the lead role on Playhouse 90's landmark 1957 production of Requiem for a Heavyweight, which won a Peabody award. But younger TV fans will likely remember him as the host of the show Ripley's Believe It or Not, which ran from 1982-1986 on ABC.

God, was it creepy when he ended one of those segments about someone with two noses or some other equally freaky subject by slowly saying in his calm, low tone, "Believe it... (inhale) or not." Gave the teenaged me the willies. But I tuned in each and every week. Gonna miss the guy.

It's always odd when you hear about a person passing away soon after they retire from a job they've held and loved for decades. It makes you think that without the job, they wasted away to nothing or lost the will to live. But then again, it could have just been a sad coincidence. Either way, it's never fun to hear it

All that ran through my head when I heard about the death of CBS News veteran Christopher Glenn, who passed away suddenly in a Norwalk, CT hospital, apparently of liver cancer. Glenn narrated In The News, a series of news and information shorts geared towards kids,that ran from 1971-1986 between shows in CBS's Saturday morning lineup. Anyone over the age of 35 will forever recognize his gravelly baritone on the spot because of it. Glenn had just retired in February after working for CBS News on TV and radio for 35 years. I hope he was able to enjoy his brief retirement; he deserved that much for all the good work he put in over the years.

Jerry Belson, who has written for classic shows like The Odd Couple and The Dick Van Dyke Show, died of cancer on Tuesday. He was 68.

His death was announced by his friend and writing partner, Garry Marshall; they worked together on the two shows mentioned above and on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. As you can see by his IMDb profile, he's worked as a writer, producer, or director on many classic shows, as well as many cult classics like The Tracey Ullman Show. His last TV credits were on The Drew Carey Show, Tracey Takes On..., and The Norm Show.

I think it's a sign that the franchise is dead. Dead bodies keep turning up around CSI sets. Last week it was in the building where CSI:NY was filming in Los Angeles. A near-mummified body was discovered by the landlord as crews were filming on a different floor. This time, it's CSI: Miami. A dead body washed up on a beach in Biscayne Bay in Miami that crews were using as a staging area for helicopter shots of an investigation scene. Miami police pretty much shrugged it off, saying that homeless people or boaters tend to fall into the bay this time of year. Neither death is considered suspicious, proving that actual crime scene investigation isn't nearly as cool as Jerry Bruckheimer makes it out to be.

The crew and supporting cast members of CSI:NY were filming in a building where a mummified corpse was discovered on Tuesday. The actual filming was happening in a Los Angeles apartment building, where the landlord found one of his tenants had been dead for quite a while. Apparently the guy was behind on rent and, on the day of filming, the landlord decided to make a house call. The body was found two floors below where filming was happening so real police presence apparently didn't disrupt fake police on camera.

Jan Svocheck, an animator who worked for several studios and whose most recognizable work was undoubtedly as the head animator for the Hawaiian Punch commercials featuring Punchy, the squat Hawaiian who enjoyed decking people in the kisser, passed away Wednesday at the age of 80. Svocheck was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the United States in the 1930s, later returning to Europe to fight in World War II. Upon returning to the states he worked at Famous Studios on such shows as Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip and Little Audrey. Among many other jobs in the industry, he also worked at J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, the studio best known for its work with Robert Smigel on Saturday Night Live's "TV Funhouse" segment. He worked on the Hawaiian Punch commercials from the 1960s up through the 1990s, and was also an animator for the "Mr. Hipp" segment on NBC's Weekend, an occasionally tongue-in-cheek news program that aired in the late 1970s.

(S06E22) This episode kicks off, as so many do, with an episode of the Krusty the Clown Show. It seems Krusty got into some hot water with a sexual harassment lawsuit, so his special guest that day is a woman named Officer No Means No. Meanwhile, Bart enjoys his breakfast of Krusty-Os, which contain a special prize inside: one jagged metal Krusty-O.

Bart swallows the jagged O unknowingly, and begins to feel the effects while in class. He begs Ms. Krabappel to let him see the nurse, but she thinks he's faking. Bart tries to persuade her by insisting that if he dies, she'll get in trouble, but according to the school charter, "No teacher shall be held accountable if Bart Simpson dies." Bart is forced to finish his test, and finally Ms. Krabappel let's him see the nurse, who also happens to be Lunch Lady Doris due to budget cuts.

Steve Irwin, also known as The Crocodile Hunter, has been killed. Aussie media and CNN are reporting that he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest. He was snorkeling at north Queensland's Batt Reef at the time, where he was filming an underwater documentary. A friend of his told CNN that Irwin accidentally swam up on top of a stingray in the sand and it attacked, out of self defense.

Steve Irwin became a reptile enthusiast at a young age. He was only eight years old when his father moved the family to Queensland and opened up a small reptile park. Irwin took over the family business in 1991 and turned it into the Australia Zoo. According to Wikipedia, The Crocodile Hunter television show was created in 1992 from footage of crocodile trapping/antics on his honeymoon with his American wife, Terri. His outrageous personality made him an instant hit in the United States.

Irwin was 44 years old. He leaves behind a wife, Terri, and two young children, Bob and Bindi.