This is my big come back, ladies and gentleman. I haven't done any of these in like a year now. Mostly because I was moved to the kitchen to use this computer. But before we begin, there's been a lot of stuff happening lately. Like my mom just had back surgery, and the deaths of some famous people. I would like to list some.
Stan Lee (1922-2018) He was 95. He was the man responsible for all the Marvel Comics, creating great heroes like Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor. His career was probably best known for all those cameos he had in the Marvel films over the years. I'm not really a Marvel fan, but I think Stan Lee is a person worth mentioning, because he is a legend, a comic book legend anyway.
Charlotte Rae (1926-2018) She was 92. She was a talent actress known far and wide in both TV and movies. Rae was known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and its spin-off, The Facts of Life (in which she had the starring role from 1979–1986). She was also Molly the Mail Woman during the third season of Sesame Street, as well as the voice of Aunt Pristine Figg in Tom and Jerry: The Movie. One of her recent projects before her death was Ricki and the Flash, with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Rick Springfield.
Penny Marshall (1943-2018) was only 75. She started her career as Laverne DeFazio on Laverne and Shirley. And she later went on to direct a few popular film from the late 80's to the early 90's. Including "Big" starring Tom Hanks, "Awakenings" starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro, and "A League of Their Own" also starring Tom Hanks, which also featured Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, and Geena Davis. She was the sister of the late Garry K. Marshall, who created Happy Days and directed Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author, who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. He has never spoken because he had ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Hawking lost his voice and only can talk through a speech-generating device. Hawking may be gone. But his speech-generating device is not gone. He was never able to recover from ALS for the next decades, let me tell you.
Harry Anderson (1952-2018) He was only 65 when he passed. I don't know much about him, but I looked up his article, he was the star of Night Court and Dave's World. As well as one of the stars of the 1990 Stephen King miniseries, "IT" which also starred John Ritter, Annette O'Toole, Seth Green, Tim Curry as Pennywise, Dennis Christopher, Richard Thomas, Richard Masur, Michael Cole, and Tim Reid, who also played Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati. And speaking of....
Hugh Wilson (1943-2018) was a writer, director, and producer, best known for created the popular classic sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati. He also created by Frank's Place. He also directed the film comedies Police Academy and The First Wives Club. It's amazing, first we've lost Mary Tyler Moore last year, and now we've lost another MTM Enterprises television legend. Life is so unfair! NEXT!
David Ogden Stiers (1942-2018) was best known for performing many Disney characters over the years, most notably Cogsworth on Beauty and the Beast, as well as a few hours in Pocahontas, Lilo & Stitch, Spirited Away, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He was probably more famous for playing Charles Emerson Winchester on M*A*S*H. I have another legend who worked on M*A*S*H, but I'll save him for last.
Steven Bocho was best known for creating all sorts of cop shows, most notably NYPD Blue, Doogie Howser, M.D., Cop Rock, and Hill Street Blues. He also wrote a few episodes of other shows like The White Shadow. Did he write for COPS, Law and Order, or anything else? I'm not sure. One thing I know for sure was that he was the man commonly responsible for all those police dramas.
R. Lee Ermey (1944-2018) R. Lee was a former drill instructor who later went on to become an actor with his strict drill sergeant antics. Most notably in Stanley Kubrick's 80's classic, Full Metal Jacket. He later went on to voice the green sergeant in the Toy Story franchise. Ermey was often typecast in authority figure roles, such as Mayor Tilman in the film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in Prefontaine, Sheriff Hoyt in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, Jimmy Lee Farnsworth in Fletch Lives, a police captain in Se7en, Lt. "Tice" Ryan in Rocket Power, and a prison warden in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Stephen Hillenburg (1961-2018) was an animator, director, writer, producer, and storyboard artist, Most notably known for creating the long-running Nickelodeon program, SpongeBob SquarePants. The only other show he did work on before SpongeBob, was Rocko's Modern Life where he also served as a writer, director, and storyboard artist, as well as becoming a producer by the fourth season with creator Joe Murray. Hillenburg may have been gone too soon from returning to his post after ten years of chaos in SpongeBob's production, but the legacy will forever live on, at least until people get tired of SpongeBob. He was only 57.
And last but not least,
Thad Mumford (1951-2018) He was a television writer and producer for several TV shows, beginning with The Electric Company beginning in 1971. At the same time, while still in his 20's he was also a writer for another show called "Good Times." DYNOMITE! When The Electric Company went off the air in 1977, he left to Hollywood to seek his fortune and future, while at that, he met Christopher Cerf, the songwriter for Sesame Street, and he and Cerf wrote a few songs during the late 70's and early 80's, most notably "The Ten Commandments of Health," in which Thad himself sang lead for. After that, he went on to write for M*A*S*H with other former Sesame Street writer, Dan Wilcox. They worked very closely on the show, writing 17 episodes, including my favorite "As Time Goes By," which was actually the last episode they filmed. They also helped write the final episode that aired, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen." He later went on to write for other shows over the years, including The Duck Factory (with Dan Wilcox), Maude, What's Happening?, The Cosby Show, A Different World, Home Improvement, ALF, NYPD Blue, and most notably, "Blue's Clues," where he also served as a producer. He was truly a pioneering African-American writer
For more of Thad Mumford's stuff, I'll link some of that below right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUhJLBk-Q9k (The Ten Commandments of Health)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpQjlNbXkFw (MASH Matters Podcast)
And finally, some of the stuff Thad talked about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEIXHSoPsjM (It's about how he got into The Electric Company)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvqOvB_7s-8 (He talks about how he worked on Good Times and a few other African-American sitcoms)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx37uuTjI5A (He explains about writing songs for Sesame Street with Christopher Cerf.
