TV Shows Where The Main Character (in real life) Died

[cd637299]

@azumanga:

Actually Bea Benaderet was replaced on "The Flintstones" in 1964, her 2nd year of "Petticoat." It had nothing to do with her health.

I had read that it was not a pretty separation.

http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/search/label/Bea Benaderet

cd

 

[anotherguyTN]

As long as we are expanding the topic to included regulars or featured players, let's also include people who left a show because they were dying (and knew it): ...

Gary Moore - To Tell the Truth

I had to look it up, but according to Wikipedia's article on Garry Moore at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Moore, he left To Tell the Truth in 1978 and retired from TV because of finding out he had throat cancer, but he survived until 1993. So he retired possibly thinking the cancer was life threatening, but was able to survive for 15 more years, and the cause of death was actually listed as emphysema rather than cancer.

 

[mleach]

Larry Blyden-the Whats My Line host I believe waas doing dramas for PBS at the time of his 1975 death, such as the one he had done with Carol Burnett on alcoholics.

...Blyden had also emceed the successful pilot for the ABC game show Showoffs the week before he took a trip to Morocco, where he was killed in an auto mishap. Goodson-Todman, the producers of Showoffs, hurriedly replaced Blyden with Bobby Van less than a month before the series was to replace Password on the ABC schedule...

..and speaking of Bobby Van, I believe he had died of a brain tumor during the time he was the host of "Make Me Laugh". Now I am not sure if the show was still in production at the time of Van's July 1980 death but I do know that the show was still being seen in many markets such as Baltimore during the latter part of the summer of 1980, even after Bobby's death.

 

[Ultimajock]

...and, with all this talk about What's My Line?, I can't believe I missed these three until now:

What's My Line? (Fred Allen, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf)

 

[bpatrick]

Did anyone mention Frank McGee, when he was host of
the "Today" show? He died of cancer in 1974. Also,
Tim Russert, host of "Meet The Press," died of a heart
attack a couple of years ago.

 

[Ultimajock]

ABC World News Tonight (Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings)

 

[BobbyNBC10]

Barton MacLane, who played General Martin Peterson on I Dream of Jeannie died on New Year's Day 1969 from pneumonia, and was replaced by Vinton Hayworth as General Winfield Schaefer for the res tof the shows' run. Hayworth died just after NBC canelled Jeannie.

 

[jwk1979]

As for other deaths, I wanted to include Victor French from NBC's Highway To Heaven. He passed away in 1989, but I'm not sure if the show was already done with or not. Of course, Michael Landon would die from pancreatic cancer in (I think) 1991.

According to Wikipedia, "Highway to Heaven" had already ceased production prior to Victor French's death. NBC had decided that the fifth season would be it's last season during the Summer of 1988. "Highway To Heaven" didn't appear on the 1988 NBC Fall schedule but was scheduled to be Mid Year replacement series and didn't return to NBC until the Spring 1989 and aired until August 1989. Even though Victor French died in June 1989, production had already wrapped up on "Highway To Heaven" several months prior to his death.

 

[travisl5678]

Phil Hartman-Newsradio

 

[Robnoxious]

Robert "Budd" Dwyer - Action News (WPVI-Philly)

 

[blackgold]

What about that actor on Suddenly Susan who passed on? I know that there was an episode dedicated to him called "A Day In The Life." I never like special episodes when they deal with death.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Robert "Budd" Dwyer - Action News (WPVI-Philly)

That's just wrong...

Someone mentioned Bennett Cerf; He passed away in 1971, 4 years after "Line" ended on CBS; He did make a few guest appearances on the syndicated version, though.

The guy on "Suddenly Susan" was David Strickland.

 

[Ultimajock]

Robert "Budd" Dwyer - Action News (WPVI-Philly)

That's just wrong...

Someone mentioned Bennett Cerf; He passed away in 1971, 4 years after "Line" ended on CBS; He did make a few guest appearances on the syndicated version, though.

...in fact, several of Cerf's final appearances on the syndicated What's My Line? had yet to run in many markets at the time of his death...

...the Dwyer reference above is obviously simply a sick joke; WPVI did not have Dwyer on its payroll to regularly appear on any of its newscasts as a contributor. However, one instance of a similar nature does qualify here:

Suncoast Digest, WXLT Sarasota (Christine Chubbuck)

...as well, of the more traditional nature:

Family Classics and the WGN-TV Chicago version of The Bozo Show (Frazier Thomas)

 

[bpatrick]

And as I think has been mentioned before, when those "What's My
Line?" episodes which Cerf taped before his death did air, Goodson-Todman
and many of the stations that carried "Line" were inundated with complaints
about showing someone who was no longer alive. The stations, even though
they had paid for the show, were under no obligation to run those episodes,
but do you think they were going to take the financial loss? Gil Fates, in his
book about the show, points out that the decision to air them was a business
decision Cerf himself would be the first to understand. But perhaps realizing that
most viewers would not understand the decision from a business standpoint, Fates
composed a form letter saying that the G-T folks felt that many of Cerf's fans would
like to see him for perhaps the last few times, and that the decision to air them was
not made in haste.

The odd thing is that, every day on cable, there are movies and series starring people
who have been dead for decades in some cases (watch Turner Classic Movies to see
what I mean) and no one complains. I guess because Bennett Cerf was not an actor
playing a character but a real person being himself, some people couldn't handle it.

 

[MattParker]

Game Show Network continues to run What's My Line (off and on - currently off). And just about everybody on the show, including all the regulars are dead:

Fred Allen d 1956
Dorothy Kilgalen d 1965
Bennett Cerf d 1971
Louis Untermeyer d 1977
Hal Block d 1981
Martin Gabel d 1986
John Daly d 1991
Steve Allen d 2000
Arelene Francis d 2001

I suspect the problem with showing Cerf's episodes in the syndicated version immediately after he died was this destroyed the illusion for many in the audience that the show was still live (or at least current). Even though game shows stopped being aired live some 10 years before this, the shows still tried to create the illusion that the show was live and everybody went home after the show and came back the next day (instead of taping a week's worth in a single day). Even in 1971, shows (and old movies) routinely aired with dead people.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Even in 1971, shows (and old movies) routinely aired with dead people.

George Carlin had a line once where he asked, "Do you ever watch a crowd scene in an old movie and wonder who's dead?"

 

[therealjm12]

George Carlin had a line once where he asked, "Do you ever watch a crowd scene in an old movie and wonder who's dead?"

Whenever I watch the Lawrence Welk Show (which isn't very often) and they show the audience I wonder the same thing.

 

[Ultimajock]

The West Wing (John Spencer)

 

[bpatrick]

While not the main characters, they were pretty important:

Nick Colasanto ("Cheers")
Michael Conrad ("Hill Street Blues")

Also, Jim Davis, who played Jock Ewing, died before "Dallas"
ended, IIRC.

And in daytime we had one this year: Helen Wagner (Nancy
Hughes on "As The World Turns") died in May; unfortunately
she didn't live to see the end of the show on which she'd played
the same role since its debut in 1956.

Along those lines, Charita Bauer (Bert Bauer on "Guiding Light")
died in 1985; she'd been on that show since 1950, when it was
still a radio show.

 

[firepoint525]

Lime Street (Samantha Smith)

Samantha Smith, wasn't she the little girl who wrote the letter to the Soviet leader (I think it was Andropov) during the Cold War, requesting world peace, or something like that? Somehow, she parlayed the notoriety from that into an acting career. Imagine what she might have been doing now, had she lived? Wasn't she killed in a plane crash?

Also, a few more:

Johnny Olson, longtime announcer on The Price is Right. Episodes that were taped shortly before his death, but aired after he died, were accompanied by a disclaimer from Bob Barker.

Donna Reed had been fired from Dallas, but died less than a year later. Must have been confusing for the Ewing clan for both of their parental figures to be portrayed by new actors, although Howard Keel was cast as Clayton Farlow, not a recasting of Jock. Donna Reed sued over her firing from the show, and won, but probably didn't live long enough to cash in on it.

And I wasn't aware that 8 Simple Rules managed to continue for another two years after Ritter's death. I believe I had quit watching after Ritter died. I know that his TV daughter (Kaley Cuoco) has been on Big Bang Theory for a couple of years now.