Goodbye to Roger Kahn at the age of 92.
Kahn wrote many books but will be most remembered for the "Boys of Summer" that was released in 1972 about the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers.
Kahn covered the Dodgers for the New York Herald-Tribune in 1952 and 1953 and returned to catch up with the players twenty years after those days.
Boys of Summer is a classic that I carried with me for my school years and more as part of my "travel book" team.
It was such a classic because Kahn wrote about his life growing up, the importance of his father in his life and the passing of his father in the first half of the book before moving to the former Dodgers in the concluding half.
Kahn wrote other books as well, including "The Era" which discussed the period between 1947-57 where New York City was baseball's capital (a New York team won the World Series in all of those seasons except 1948 Cleveland and 1957 Milwaukee) and his 2006 memoir "Into My Own" where Kahn writes about the people that he has known and the suicide of his son.
Goodbye to Fred Silverman at the age of 82.
At one time or another, Silverman was the head of programming at each of the three major broadcast networks in the 70s and 80s with huge successes and massive failures on his resume'.
Silverman was the head at CBS when Silverman ordered the famous "Rural Purge" that took several highly rated programs off the air because they weren't delivering the urban and younger demographic.
Shows such as Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, Mayberry RFD, Beverly Hillbillies, and others were given the ax and the decision is still disputed to this day, but due to that decision, Silverman brought in classic programs over the next two seasons to replace them in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, All in the Family, and M*A*S*H, among others.
Silverman's next move was to ABC, which had been the last place network dating back to its start as "NBC Blue" in the embryonic times of television.
Silverman signed shows such as Charlie's Angels, Love Boat, Three's Company, Fantasy Island, shored up struggling series with promise such as Happy Days and specials such as Battle of the Network Stars to move ABC to the top spot for the first time ever.
Silverman parlayed his successes into a higher position as President and CEO at the-then last-place network in NBC and his three-year run is generally remembered as a flop with shows such as Hello Larry and Supertrain as huge and expensive failures.
Silverman's run did have two notable successes that occurred after he left NBC.
Silverman made the agreement to bring Cheers to the network and it was Silverman, who paid David Letterman one million dollars to keep his rights for a year after his morning show failure until the original Late Night with David Letterman would begin.
Goodbye to Marj Dusay at the age of 83.
Dusay spent the majority of her career with roles on soap operas that included Santa Barbara and her twenty-two year run with the Guiding Light that lasted from 1987 through the 2009 end of the long-running soap.
Before the soap opera roles that Dusay is most remembered for, she spent the 60s and 70s with many guest roles including her first role ever as a waitress in the Elvis Presley vehicle "Clambake", a Wild Wild West guest as Robert Conrad's paramour of the week, an recurring role on the Facts of Life as the snotty Blair Warner's mother, and on what might be the worst episode of Star Trek ever as "Kara" who stole Spock's brain in the episode that was named such.
Goodbye to Johnny "Bump City" Bumphus at the age of 59.
Bumphus was one of NBC's "Tomorrow Champions" crop in 1980 that was promoted by the Duva family's Main Event promotions with prospects making their way up the ladder of contention.
The group would provide four world champions with Bumphus (WBA junior welter), Davey Moore (WBA junior middle), Tony Tucker (IBF heavy) and Bobby Czyz (IBF light heavy and WBA cruiser) winning titles and arguably the best of the bunch in Tony Ayala Jr, who would have likely won a championship before going to jail on a rape conviction with Ayala as the mandatory challenger and betting favorite for Moore's WBA title in what was planned to be a prime-time event on NBC.
Bumphus was part of the 1980 Olympic boxing team that missed the games due to a boycott and lost momentum as a pro.
Bumphus still won the WBA junior welterweight title in a fifteen round decision over Lorenzo Garcia to win the title vacated by Aaron Pryor, although Bumphus was knocked down in the fourth round.
Bumphus would lose the title in his first defense to Gene Hatcher via an eleventh round knockout in Buffalo on the same night that Ray Mancini would be upset by Livingstone Bramble.
Bumphus would move to welterweight after the defeat, winning six in a row against poor opponents before a six-round technical decision victory over Marlon Starling when a headbutt caused the fight to be stopped.
The Starling win earned Bumphus a title shot against WBA and IBF champion Lloyd Honeyghan, but Bumphus was knocked out in two rounds in what proved to be his final fight.
Goodbye to Orson Bean at the age of 91.
The long-time actor was hit by two cars in Venice, California and passed away from his injuries.
Bean made appearances in many TRS favorites such as The Twilight Zone, Cold Case, and in 2018 The Equalizer 2 in a career that dated back to 1952 in the early days of television.
Bean was most remembered by me from childhood for two different roles, the first of which was as himself in various game shows.
I remember Bean as almost strictly a game show panelist usually on Match Game, but occasionally on other shows, but his biggest role to me was his voiceover role as Bilbo Baggins in the animated film based on The Hobbit.
I saw Bean's Twilight Zone episode during the SciFi network annual marathon and looked him up on Google and discovered for the first time that Bean was married to Alley Mills, the mom on The Wonder News for over 26 years and 23 years the junior to Bean.
Goodbye to Swagger at the age of 6.
The Bull Mastiff was the first on-field mascot for the Cleveland Browns in 2014 and would run onto the field with the team as the Browns were introduced as well as representing the team at various events in the area.
Swagger was replaced in mid-season by his son CJ, who will perform the tasks next season.
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