|
|
|
Thursday, June 1
LEGENDARY GAME SHOW DIRECTOR
JEROME SHAW DIES AT 76
Legendary game show director Jerome Shaw, who directed most of the Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley productions for network television, dating back to the early 1960s, died this week. Details and cause were not immediately available.
Shaw directed Heatter-Quigley's first game show creation as a partnership, CBS's Video Village, in 1960. He called the shots for all 501 episodes hosted by Jack Narz and Monty Hall.
A multiple Emmy-winner, Shaw's longest stint at the switcher was for The Hollywood Squares from 1966-81. Host Peter Marshall, who will receive the Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award from Game Show Congress 5 next month, was not available Wednesday night.
Heatter told TVgameshows.net Wednesday evening: "I no longer remember how Jerry Shaw and I first met, but far more important to me is remembering how fortunate I am that we did."
Heatter said Shaw's credits list "twenty-two game shows from one director." The veteran producer said, "He will laugh from on high when he hears how deeply I resent the fact that only seventeen of them were mine. There were years when we had three series on at the same time. This meant both of us being in the same studio together for endless hours."
Describing their relationship further, Heather added: "At day's end we might not have exchanged a single word. The reason was simply this. He was so skillful, and so accomplished up there
in the booth that I was totally free to sound like a producer with everyone else. I take a lot of pride in our long, successful association."
Shaw directed Wink Martindale's Gambit for CBS from 1972-77. Martindale, whose star was just installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, said Wednesday night: "I am so saddened to learn of the passing of Jerry Shaw. Without question - of all my years hosting game shows, Jerry was the best, most
thorough and professional director I ever had the pleasure of working with. He was a true friend and I shall miss him greatly."
Tom Kennedy worked briefly with Shaw on the short-lived To Say the Least in 1977-78. "Jerry's passing is a great loss," said Kennedy Thursday. "Jerry was a proficient, helpful friend
and director....while 'breaking in' the show in the offices of Heatter-Quigley, he was always there giving me his support and advice even though he was busy at the studio prepping. Few directors would do that."
Next week in a special Classic Moment, producer-director Mark Corwin, who apprenticed under Shaw, offers a first-person remembrance of the master director's life and career.
 ROBERT STERLING:
1917-2006
Robert Sterling, whose film career dated to 1939 and who was one of television's pioneer sitcom stars, died Tuesday at his Brentwood, Cal., home after a decade-long battle with shingles. He was 88.
Sterling was best known for his co-starring role with wife Anne Jeffreys in the 1953-56 series Topper for CBS and ABC. Jeffreys and the couple's son, Jeffrey were at his side when he died.
Interspersed in a film and television career which waned by Sterling's personal choice in the late 1960s were appearances on at least four game shows.
Born William Sterling Hart in 1917, Sterling was the son of Chicago Cubs catcher William S. Hart. His film career was on the fast track when he appeared in five movies in 1941, including features with Greta Garbo and Lionel Barrymore.
Formerly married to actress Ann Sothern, Sterling and Sothern had one daughter, actress Tisha Sterling. They divorced in 1949 and he married Jeffreys two years later.
Assuming the roles of ghosts George and Marion Kerby, a couple killed in an avalanche but returning to lovingly haunt banker Cosmo Topper (who bought their previous home), Sterling and Jeffreys were a delight on CBS's Friday night lineup.
"Topper is one of those shows which is always lost in the shuffle on those CBS retrospective specials or on TV Land documentaries," said TVgameshows.net webmaster Steve Beverly. "But the show must have run in virtually every television market into the mid-sixties."
 Beverly said Sterling and Jeffreys were likely ahead of their time in their portrayal of the Kerbys. "You can see a lot of Rob and Laura Petrie in their interactions, a couple genuinely in love," said Beverly. "The fact that their characters were dead and playing ghosts probably hurt their believability. They were never nominated for an Emmy and the show has a grainy, almost 1940s B-movie look to it but Sterling and Jeffreys were terrific actors."
In fact, King World gained the rights to Topper in the early 1990s and as late as 1996, the comedy was repeated on WABC in New York during late-night weekend hours.
Sterling and Jeffreys starred in a short-lived ABC sitcom, Love That Jill, in the late 1950s. They made sporadic appearances together afterward, including a week of You Don't Say! in 1965 and in 1972 during the final month of The Merv Griffin Show on CBS.
You Don't Say! host Tom Kennedy remembered the couple fondly Thursday. "As
one might expect, they were beautiful people inside and out," said Kennedy. "Robert was, I recall, as interested in general business as much as show business. Bright, personable and the two of them looked like they just fell off a wedding cake."
Sterling made one more stab at series television, in the lighthearted 1961-62 CBS sitcom Ichabod and Me. He portrayed a small-town newspaper editor interacting in the lives of the people depicted in the paper's stories. Playing his son: six-year-old Jimmy Mathers, younger brother of Leave It to Beaver's Jerry Mathers.
In the mid-1960s, Sterling retired from acting----though he made occasional appearances as late as 1986 on Murder, She Wrote with Jeffreys. He started a successful California computer business which made him independently wealthy.
During his career, Sterling was a mystery guest on What's My Line? July 29, 1957, and also appeared as a panelist on To Tell the Truth (1958) and Who Said That? (1952), while also making an appearance on Celebrity Golf.
In addition to Jeffreys and daughter Tisha, Sterling is survived by three sons, Jeffrey, Dana and Tyler.
Idol Ratings Set Record....or Do They?
Race Goes to Sunday, Deal Gets Two Nights
Rich Hatch Sentenced to 51 Months in Jail
Michael Davies Seeks Contestants for Chain Reaction
Lingo Salutes Armed Forces During Memorial Day Week
ABC, Fox Buy Game Shows from Endemol
Alex Trebek Wins Fourth Daytime Emmy
NBC Picks Up Endemol's 1 vs. 100
Schoenle Becomes NBC's 4th-Biggest Winner Ever
Jeopardy! Wins 2006 Daytime Emmy Award
Mark Itkin to Receive GSC Ralph Edwards Award
Vanna Receives Star on Walk of Fame
Deal to Receive Summer Rest from NBC
Friedman to Develop New Hour-Long Game Show Block
Peter Marshall to Receive GSC Bill Cullen Award
Meredith Vieira to Stay with Millionaire
Lingo Begins Nationwide Contestant Search
John O'Hurley to Replace Richard Karn on Family Feud
Peter Tomarken, Wife Killed in Plane Crash
Philippines Hit with
Biggest Game Show Tragedy in History
Michael Davies Signs with Sony
Welcome Cover Story All in the Game Players of the Week Classic Moment Bonus Round
The Winners
FAQ
Part 2 Transition Games Across the Ocean
Ralph Edwards Tribute
E-mail |
|
|
|
