GEORGE PUTNAM (all caps, because that's the way he said everything), Los Angeles Television/Radio Legend, has died at the age of 94. A protege of Walter Winchell who came to L.A. in 1951 to restart a stalled career as a news anchor, he was famous for his dramatic style and extremely UNobjective reporting. Retrospective of his colorful career: Part One, Part Two. Best known on the Web as the "outstanding news reporter" who narrated the '50s alarmist documentary "Perversion for Profit", he was also acknowledged as the model for the Mary Tyler Moore show's bombastic newsman character Ted Baxter (seen here sitting in on a real newscast). Not restricting his editorializing to his daily "One Reporter's Opinion" segment, he is credited/blamed for the election of Sam Yorty as mayor of Los Angeles. And when TV News outgrew him, he found a home for the next 30 years doing Talk Radio (where some of us believe Rush Limbaugh also modeled his style after him). And that’s the up-to-the-minute obitfilter; up to the minute, that’s all the obitfilter.
posted on Sep 13, 2008 - View this thread

ObitFilter: Bobby "Boris" Pickett, 69 To remember him by: "Monster Mash" video mashup, his official site (with spooky 1998 sound), "The Climate Mash" (2005 eco-political rewrite with Pickett's vocal), and his lesser-known co-creation (with Peter Ferarra): "Star Drek"
posted on Apr 26, 2007 - View this thread

What's down, Doc?
Animation genius Chuck Jones has died of conjestive heart failure.
Has any other creative-type-person brought more joy and laughter to the last three-or-four generations?
At least his website had already started paying tribute to him while he could still see it (click on "Letters from the Heart", optional Flash).
posted on Feb 22, 2002 - View this thread

R.I.P.: Comic Book Pioneer Carl Barks
Anybody can do superheroes... Carl made Disney cartoon characters into action comc stars.
I devoured these as a kid; bought foreign-language versions from the Disneyland Main Street bookstore; to this day, the only "jillionaire" I can trust is Scrooge McDuck.
Now, if only HE had done the "Backstreet Boys" comic instead of Stan Lee...
posted on Aug 26, 2000 - View this thread