R.I.P. Reuben Kincaid and Prof Roy Hinkley (a couple of the good guys).

Dave Madden as Reuben Kincaid on the Partridge Family

Both Dave Madden (Reuben Kincaid on The Partridge Family) and Russell Johnson (Professor Roy Hinkley on Gilligan's Island) died today, January 16th, 2014.

Dave Madden was a Christian and did some Christian radio shows, including the character of Bernard Walton on Adventures in Odyssey. You can see the show’s tribute to him here, “Dave Madden: Actor & Friend (December 17, 1931 - January 16, 2014” >

Good for him.

Russell Johnson as The Professor (Prof Roy Hinkley) on Gilligan's Island

Something you may not know about The Professor: Russell Johnson had a gay son at a time when it was difficult to come out out of the closet, even in Hollywood (especially in Hollywood - remember Rock Hudson?), and he publicly supported his son.

Good for him.

[2014-01-16]

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Zenith ad for Chromacolor TV; this is how TVs were advertised when I was a boy

I was fond of both of these characters and actors. They were regular guests in my living room for years.

If you’re under a certain age, you don’t remember what it was like to see a show only once a week during first run and then once again in reruns through the summer. There were no DVRs, HULU or Youtube, no day-long marathons, not even two shows back to back, though sometimes they would turn an hour drama into a 2-hour movie, or a 30-minute sitcom into a 1-hour special, which were rare and welcome.

Actors and actresses were guests in our homes, people we cared about and made time for. They weren’t quirks of humanity who happened to have a camera following them around. They were like us, only better, had more of our good qualities, fewer of the bad, and they had consciences, and changed people around them.

There used to be more good guys. More living room heroes.

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