Saying Goodbye: TV’s 2010 Honor Roll

Frances Buss Buch, 92, television’s first female director, who directed the first television talk show and the first color program, died Jan. 19. Buch joined CBS Television — the fledgling video arm of the Columbia Broadcasting System — just two weeks after the FCC allowed commercial TV broadcasts. Her credits include TV news coverage of the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor as well as the first color TV program, Premiere, in 1951 after CBS won government approval for its color system.

Pernell Roberts, 81, the ruggedly handsome actor who shocked Hollywood by leaving TV’s Bonanza at the height of its popularity, then found fame again years later on Trapper John, M.D., died Jan. 24. Roberts was the last surviving member of the classic Western’s cast.

Tom Brookshier, 78, an all-pro football player who went on to become part of CBS’s top NFL broadcast team during the 1970s, died Jan. 29 of cancer.

Aaron Ruben, 95, a comedy writer, producer and director whose five-decade career included producing The Andy Griffith Show for the first five seasons and creating the spinoff series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., died Jan. 30.

Cecil Heftel, 85, a former owner of radio and TV stations and a Hawaii Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1986, died Feb. 4.

Frank N. Magid, 78, the founder of the consulting and research firm that still carries his name, whose work shaped national and local news, died Feb. 5.

Fess Parker, 85, a baby-boomer idol in the 1950s who launched a craze for coonskin caps as television’s Davy Crockett, died March 18 of natural causes.

Robert Culp, 79, the actor probably was best known for playing agent Kelly Robinson to Bill Cosby’s Alexander Scott on NBC’s I Spy (1965-68), died March 24.

Chester R. Simmons, 81, a pioneer of sports broadcasting who helped create the ESPN network died March 25.

David Mills, 48, a veteran television writer who worked on the award-winning series ER and The Wire and Treme, died March 30.

John Forsythe, 92, who starred in films and TV shows ranging from Bachelor Father to Dynasty and lent his voice to Charlie’s Angels, died April 1.

Dixie Carter, 70, the star of Designing Women, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, died April 10.

Benjamin L. Hooks, 85, the FCC’s first black commissioner and a champion of minorities and the poor who increased the NAACP’s stature as its executive director, died April 15.

Ron Scalera, 49, the EVP and creative director of the CBS Marketing Group, died April 21.

Helen Wagner, 91, the actress who played mild-mannered Nancy Hughes on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns for more than a half-century and spoke its first words, died May 1.

Michael H. Jordan, 73, a former CBS and Westinghouse chairman and CEO, died May 25.

Art Linkletter, 97, whose People Are Funny and House Party shows entertained millions of TV viewers in the 1950s and ’60s with the funny side of ordinary folks and who remained active as a writer and speaker through his ninth decade, died May 26.

Rue McClanahan, 76, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series The Golden Girls, died June 3.

Himan Brown, 99, a producer of popular radio dramas in the 1930s and 1940s including Dick Tracy and The Adventures of the Thin Man, and who continued to tell stories in sound long after the rise of television, died June 4.

Horace W. Gross, 93, the retired president of Frazier, Gross & Kadlec, a Washington area radio and television station management consulting company, died of heart disease June 4.

Robert Wussler, 73, the former head of CBS Sports, CBS Television Network and a major figure in the rise to prominence of Turner Broadcasting as well as CEO of Comsat Video Enterprises, died June 5.

Daniel Schorr, 93, whose hard-hitting reporting for CBS got him on President Richard Nixon’s notorious “enemies list” in the 1970s, died July 23. He spent 23 at CBS, and then moved to CNN before joining NPR where he was still a commentator at the time of his death.

John Aylesworth, 81, a television writer and producer who was co-creator of the long-running country variety show Hee Haw, died July 28.

Ted Stevens, 86, who served in the Senate from Alaska from 1968 to 2009 and was the former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committe that oversees broadcasting and communications legislation, died in a plane crash Aug. 9.

David L. Wolper, 82, whose 1977 ABC miniseries Roots — a generational saga of an American family — became a landmark in television history, died Aug. 10.

Edwin Newman, 91, who brought literacy, wit and energy to NBC newscasts for more than three decades, and battled linguistic pretense and clutter in his best sellers Strictly Speaking and A Civil Tongue, died Aug. 13.

Harold Dow, 62, CBS newsman and five-time Emmy winner who helped shape the documentary program 48 Hours and covered the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and the 9/11 attacks, died Aug. 21.

John Kluge, 95, once listed as the wealthiest man in America, who built an investment in a radio station into the Metromedia broadcasting empire that was the forerunner to Fox Television, died Sept. 7.

Jerome “Jerry” Feniger, 83, founder of Horizon Communications and member of the founding group of the Museum of Television and Radio, died Sept. 21.

Paul Brissette, 79, whose career in broadcasting began in 1950s and who went on to found Brissette Broadcasting Co., which owned eight TV stations, died Sept. 23.

Ward Quaal, 91, legendary broadcast pioneer and former WGN Chicago president, died Sept. 24

Stephen J. Cannell, 69, the prolific writer-producer of dozens of TV series that included The Rockford Files and The A-Team, died Sept. 30.

Frank J. Jordan, 83, who as an NBC News executive, helped shape coverage of national events — including President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation — died Sept. 20.

Barbara Billingsley, 94, who gained supermom status for her gentle portrayal of June Cleaver in the classic 1950s sitcom Leave it to Beaver, died Oct. 16.

Joseph A. Marino, 75, an FCC lawyer who successfully argued before the Supreme Court the George Carlin “Filthy Words” case that upheld the agency’s authority to ban indecent language when children could be listening, died Oct. 7.

Tom Bosley, 83, whose long acting career was highlighted by his hugely popular role as the understanding father on ABC’s nostalgic, top-rated 1970s comedy Happy Days, died Oct. 19.

Alfred “Al” Masini, 80, the producer who created a number of hit shows including Entertainment Tonight, Star Search, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Solid Gold, died Nov. 29.

Don Meredith, 72, NFL star and an original member of ABC’s Monday Night Football broadcast team died Dec. 5.

Click here to read Part I of our Year in Review, which covers the happenings in business, retrans, management, multicasting as well as regulatory and legal developments in Washington and elsewhere.

Click here to read Part II of our Year in Review, which covers programming, journalism, sales/advertising and new media.

Click here to read Part III of our Year in Review, which covers 2010’s top trends in technology.