Don Knotts, Comic Genius

Don Knotts has passed away at 81.

Back in the '70s, Knotts appeared occasionally as a panelist on Hollywood Squares, but I wish he and Paul Lynde had worked together elsewhere, specifically The Andy Griffith Show. That sitcom was one of the first pop culture obsessions I had for something that pre-dated my birth. Instead of devoting years to researching Lynde's life and career, I could have just as easily spent that time learning all there is to know about Knotts. He will always be one of my favorites.

John Kenley

It seems I should have posted the item about the Kenley Players a couple of days sooner. Monday was John Kenley's 100th birthday!

Kenley Players

I've been toying with the idea of doing a Kenley Players book. If you had the great fortune of seeing one Kenley's legendary summer stock productions -- even one not starring the late, great Paul Lynde -- feel free to post a few details. Hopefully, Vicki Lawrence will wander by & add to what she already discussed in her 1995 autobiography. (Wow! Has it been out that long?)

Grandpa Munster

Al Lewis, the actor who played Grandpa Munster on The Munsters, has passed away. He was 95.

As Dr. Dudley, the monster family's near-sighted doctor, Paul Lynde appeared three times on the show. Lewis spoke fondly of Paul in my friend Steve Cox's book about the show:

The best Dr. Dudley we had was definitely Paul Lynde. He was a perfect comedian. Fabulous. I don’t care how famous others who played Dudley went on to be.

Maybe TVLand will include one of those episodes if they decide to honor Lewis with some block programming. (It's probably too much to expect that they might dust off Lewis' other classic sitcom, Car 54, Where Are You?)

eBay Mystery

An eBay mystery...Here's a great picture of an angry-looking Paul Lynde with Ed Asner & Larry Gatlin. The country singer's name does not appear anywhere in the timeline I created while doing research for the book, although, admittedly, I'm a year or two short of a complete listing of Hollywood Squares credits. I assume that's where this picture was taken because it looks like Paul's wearing his famous X's & O's shirt. Hopefully, Paul was nicer to Gatlin than he was when Tanya Tucker played the game!