He founded the American Family Association, which became a juggernaut in the Christian right’s campaign against sex and gay themes in television, art and pop culture. (Thomas Wells/AP)
This year, TVNewsCheck reported on the deaths of outstanding people who shaped television as actors, lawmakers, producers, business people, journalists, on-air personalities and more. Here’s a look back at some of those influencers, each linked to their obituary.
Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, died Tuesday at 86.
The Christmas holiday period began in a not-so-festive mood at Fox News with reports of the deaths of Adam Petlin, the director of Chicago bureau operations, and Matt Napolitano from Fox News Audio. Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott shared the news with staffers via two company-wide memos over the holiday weekend.
Kamar de los Reyes, a television, movie and voice actor best known for playing a gang member-turned-cop in the soap “One Life to Live” and a villain in the video […]
Rush, a producer of several TV shows, was also the former president of Columbia Pictures Television, where he helped reestablish it as one of the major producers and distributors of TV programs.
The two-time Emmy-winning star of series including Homicide: Life on the Street, Men of a Certain Age and Brooklyn Nine-Nine was 61. Braugher, whose first film role came alongside Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington in the Ed Zwick-directed Glory, died on Monday after a brief illness.
A liberal activist, Lear fashioned bold and controversial comedies that were embraced by viewers who had to watch the evening news to find out what was going on in the world. His CBS shows helped define primetime comedy in the 1970s, launched the careers of Rob Reiner and Valerie Bertinelli and made middle-age superstars of Carroll O’Connor, Bea Arthur and Redd Foxx. He was 101. (Chris Pizzello/AP)
As the producer of All in the Family and many other shows, Lear showed that it was possible to be topical, funny and immensely popular.
Among the highlights of his long tenure were supervising the Beatles’ appearances and telling the comedian Jackie Mason he was fired. He was 93.
Marty Krofft, the savvy businessman who partnered with his older brother Sid to amass an entertainment empire fueled by such mind-blowing kids TV shows as The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost, died Nov. 25. He was 86. Eight years younger than Sid, Marty Krofft died in Los Angeles of kidney failure, his family announced. (Courtesy of Sid & Marty Krofft Picture Archive)