Hollywood How To: February 2015

Leonard Nimoy, Spock of ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 83

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

Photo Credit Jerry Mosey

Associated Press

Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Nimoy announced that he had the disease last year, attributing it to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week.

His artistic pursuits — poetry, photography and music in addition to acting — ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper” (from the Vulcan “Dif-tor heh smusma”).

Mr. Nimoy, who was teaching Method acting at his own studio when he was cast in the original “Star Trek” television series in the mid-1960s, relished playing outsiders, and he developed what he later admitted was a mystical identification with Spock, the lone alien on the starship’s bridge.

Yet he also acknowledged ambivalence about being tethered to the character, expressing it most plainly in the titles of two autobiographies: “I Am Not Spock,” published in 1977, and “I Am Spock,” published in 1995.

In the first, he wrote, “In Spock, I finally found the best of both worlds: to be widely accepted in public approval and yet be able to continue to play the insulated alien through the Vulcan character.”

“Star Trek,” which had its premiere on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, made Mr. Nimoy a star. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise, called him “the conscience of ‘Star Trek’ ” — an often earnest, sometimes campy show that employed the distant future (as well as some primitive special effects by today’s standards) to take on social issues of the 1960s.

His stardom would endure. Though the series was canceled after three seasons because of low ratings, a cultlike following — the conference-holding, costume-wearing Trekkies, or Trekkers (the designation Mr. Nimoy preferred) — coalesced soon after “Star Trek” went into syndication.

The fans’ devotion only deepened when “Star Trek” was spun off into an animated show, various new series and an uneven parade of movies starring much of the original television cast, including — besides Mr. Nimoy — William Shatner (as Capt. James T. Kirk), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (the helmsman, Sulu), James Doohan (the chief engineer, Scott), Nichelle Nichols (the chief communications officer, Uhura) and Walter Koenig (the navigator, Chekov).

When the director J. J. Abrams revived the “Star Trek” film franchise in 2009, with an all-new cast — including Zachary Quinto as Spock — he included a cameo part for Mr. Nimoy, as an older version of the same character. Mr. Nimoy also appeared in the 2013 follow-up, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

His zeal to entertain and enlighten reached beyond “Star Trek” and crossed genres. He had a starring role in the dramatic television series “Mission: Impossible” and frequently performed onstage, notably as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” His poetry was voluminous, and he published books of his photography.

He also directed movies, including two from the “Star Trek” franchise, and television shows. And he made records, singing pop songs as well as original songs about “Star Trek,” and gave spoken-word performances — to the delight of his fans and the bewilderment of critics.

But all that was subsidiary to Mr. Spock, the most complex member of the Enterprise crew, who was both one of the gang and a creature apart engaged at times in a lonely struggle with his warring racial halves.

In one of his most memorable “Star Trek” performances, Mr. Nimoy tried to follow in the tradition of two actors he admired, Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff, who each played a monstrous character — Quasimodo and the Frankenstein monster — who is transformed by love.

In Episode 24, which was first shown on March 2, 1967, Mr. Spock is indeed transformed. Under the influence of aphrodisiacal spores he discovers on the planet Omicron Ceti III, he lets free his human side and announces his love for Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland), a woman he had once known on Earth. In this episode, Mr. Nimoy brought to Spock’s metamorphosis not only warmth, compassion and playfulness, but also a rarefied concept of alienation.

“I am what I am, Leila,” Mr. Spock declares after the spores’ effect has worn off and his emotions are again in check. “And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else’s.”

Born in Boston on March 26, 1931, Leonard Simon Nimoy was the second son of Max and Dora Nimoy, Ukrainian immigrants and Orthodox Jews. His father worked as a barber.

From the age of 8, Leonard acted in local productions, winning parts at a community college, where he performed through his high school years. In 1949, after taking a summer course at Boston College, he traveled to Hollywood, though it wasn’t until 1951 that he landed small parts in two movies, “Queen for a Day” and “Rhubarb.”

He continued to be cast in little-known movies, although he did presciently play an alien invader in a cult serial called “Zombies of the Stratosphere,” and in 1961 he had a minor role on an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” His first starring movie role came in 1952 with “Kid Monk Baroni,” in which he played a disfigured Italian street-gang leader who becomes a boxer.

Mr. Nimoy served in the Army for two years, rising to sergeant and spending 18 months at Fort McPherson in Georgia, where he presided over shows for the Army’s Special Services branch. He also directed and starred as Stanley in the Atlanta Theater Guild’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” before receiving his final discharge in November 1955.

He then returned to California, where he worked as a soda jerk, movie usher and cabdriver while studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He achieved wide visibility in the late 1950s and early 1960s on television shows like “Wagon Train,” “Rawhide” and “Perry Mason.” Then came “Star Trek.”

Mr. Nimoy returned to college in his 40s and earned a master’s degree in Spanish from Antioch University Austin, an affiliate of Antioch College in Ohio, in 1978. Antioch College later awarded

Mr. Nimoy an honorary doctorate.

Mr. Nimoy directed two of the Star Trek movies, “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984) and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), which he helped write. In 1991, the same year that he resurrected Mr. Spock on two episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Mr. Nimoy was also the executive producer and a writer of the movie “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”

He then directed the hugely successful comedy “Three Men and a Baby” (1987), a far cry from his science-fiction work, and appeared in made-for-television movies. He received an Emmy nomination for the 1982 movie “A Woman Called Golda,” in which he portrayed the husband of Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel, who was played by Ingrid Bergman. It was the fourth Emmy nomination of his career — the other three were for his “Star Trek” work — although he never won.

Mr. Nimoy’s marriage to the actress Sandi Zober ended in divorce. Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, Adam and Julie Nimoy; a stepson, Aaron Bay Schuck; and six grandchildren; one great-grandchild, and an older brother, Melvin.

Though his speaking voice was among his chief assets as an actor, the critical consensus was that his music was mortifying. Mr. Nimoy, however, was undaunted, and his fans seemed to enjoy the camp of his covers of songs like “If I Had a Hammer.” (His first album was called “Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space.”)

From 1995 to 2003, Mr. Nimoy narrated the “Ancient Mysteries” series on the History Channel. He also appeared in commercials, including two with Mr. Shatner for Priceline.com. He provided the voice for animated characters in “Transformers: The Movie,” in 1986, and “The Pagemaster,” in 1994.

In 2001 he voiced the king of Atlantis in the Disney animated movie “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” and in 2005 he furnished voice-overs for the computer game Civilization IV. More recently, he had a recurring role on the science-fiction series “Fringe” and was heard, as the voice of Spock, in an episode of the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.”

Mr. Nimoy was an active supporter of the arts as well. The Thalia, a venerable movie theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, now a multi-use hall that is part of Symphony Space, was renamed the Leonard Nimoy Thalia in 2002.

He also found his voice as a writer. Besides his autobiographies, he published “A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life” in 2002. Typical of Mr. Nimoy’s simple free verse are these lines: “In my heart/Is the seed of the tree/Which will be me.”

In later years, he rediscovered his Jewish heritage, and in 1991 he produced and starred in “Never Forget,” a television movie based on the story of a Holocaust survivor who sued a neo-Nazi organization of Holocaust deniers.

In 2002, having illustrated his books of poetry with his photographs, Mr. Nimoy published “Shekhina,” a book devoted to photography with a Jewish theme, that of the feminine aspect of God.

His black-and-white photographs of nude and seminude women struck some Orthodox Jewish leaders as heretical, but Mr. Nimoy asserted that his work was consistent with the teaching of the kabbalah.

His religious upbringing also influenced the characterization of Spock. The character’s split-fingered salute, he often explained, had been his idea: He based it on the kohanic blessing, a manual approximation of the Hebrew letter shin, which is the first letter in Shaddai, one of the Hebrew names for God.

“To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior,” Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original series ended.

But that wasn’t such a bad thing, he discovered. “Given the choice,” he wrote, “if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock.”

Daniel E. Slotnik and Peter Keepnews contributed reporting.

TV Ratings: 'Empire' Grows Yet Again as Season Finale Approaches

Why Empire Music Not Topping Chart - H 2015

by Michael O'Connel

The Fox drama hits another season high in its eighth episode, marking its seventh week of consecutive growth.

With only three more weeks left in its freshman season, Empire is still growing.

For the seventh week in a row, the Fox drama clocked another series high — rising to a 5.3 rating among adults 18-49. That's technically even with last week's final score, but two-tenths of an improvement over last Wednesday's fast nationals. And with a minute of lower-rated American Idol bleeding into Fox's 9 p.m. hour, last night's Empire is all but sure to be adjusted upward.

As for total viewership, Empire rose to 13.75 million viewers — making it the most watched telecast of the night.

Empire's growth continues to leave many scratching their heads. Seven consecutive weeks of improvement for a freshman series in unheard of these days. Up 39 percent from its premiere, it has now grown more than any other broadcast drama since House M.D. in 2004. For Fox, it will only be able to get three more Wednesdays out of the show. Four hours of the freshman order remain, with a two-hour finale slated for March 18.

As for American Idol, the show was steady with a 2.6 rating among adults 18-49 — now less than half of its lead-out's haul.

Elsewhere on the broadcast dial, CBS went back-to-back with reality competitions. The returns of Survivor (2.3 adults) and The Amazing Race (1.5 adults) both were steady with their last spring season premieres.

On ABC, The Middle (2.0 adults) shed two-tenths of a point from last week's score. The Goldbergs (2.5 adults) and Modern Family (3.4 adults) each jumped three-tenths of a point from their recent episodes, while Black-ish (2.3 adults) and Nashville (1.4 adults) held steady.

The Mysteries of Laura (1.4 adults) also clocked some odd growth, rising three-tenths of a point from last week to its highest score since October. Law & Order: SVU (1.6 adults) was steady and Chicago P.D. (1.5 adults) rose two-tenths of a point.

Arrow (1.0 adults) shed two-tenths of a point on the CW ahead of a steady episode of The 100 (0.6 adults).

ABC’s ‘This Week’ Beats NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’ In February Sweep For First Time In 22 Years

by Lisa de Moraes

ABC’s This Week beat NBC’s Meet the Press in the news demo for the February sweep – the first time that’s happened in 22 years. The ABC Sunday Beltway show turned in its strongest sweep performance in the news demo in six years, and its smallest news demo gap against frontrunner, CBS’s Face the Nation, during a February ratings derby in four years.

For the February sweep, This Week with George Stephanopoulos drew 3.017 million total viewers — 954,000 of them in the news demo. Building on its previous, November sweep results (2.792 million and 825,000 for November 2014) This Week turned in its strongest sweeps performance with adults 25-54 in since years – since February 2009.

Competitively, This Week is outdelivering NBC’s Meet the Press for the first time during a season in 18 years in total viewers (31,000) and by its largest news-demo margin (64,000 viewers) in 22 years – since the 1996-97 and the 1992-93 seasons, respectively.

NBC News today instead focused on the fact that Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was No. 1 among total viewers this past Sunday, besting ABC and CBS, for the first time since Todd’s debut on the show on September 7, ’14. MTP finished ahead of This Week in the news demo for the week but behind CBS’s frontrunning Face the Nation. In the news demo, MTP narrowed the gap to just 3,000 viewers compared to Face the Nation’s half hour average. Todd’s program led This Week by 219,000 viewers in the key adult 25-54 news age bracket.

Best '50s TV Shows

by Kim Potts
The 1950s were, quite simply, the Golden Age of Television. Everything from the biggest rock stars in the world to the top acting and writing talent in Hollywood were represented on the tube, alongside Shakespearean dramas, Broadway shows and operas.

TV schedules in the '50s were also packed with family comedies ('Leave It to Beaver' and 'The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet'), Westerns ('Gunsmoke' and 'The Lone Ranger'), some of the all-time greatest comedians (Groucho on 'You Bet Your Life,' Gleason on 'The Jackie Gleason Show') and, despite the more traditional times, some of the most independent ladies in TV land ('Our Miss Brooks' and, of course, 'I Love Lucy'). In short, though TV was still in its early days in the 1950s, there was plenty to watch, and love, in prime time. -- By Kimberly Potts

The 1950s were, quite simply, the Golden Age of Television. Everything from the biggest rock stars in the world to the top acting and writing talent in Hollywood were represented on the tube, alongside Shakespearean dramas, Broadway shows and operas.

TV schedules in the '50s were also packed with family comedies ('Leave It to Beaver' and 'The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet'), Westerns ('Gunsmoke' and 'The Lone Ranger'), some of the all-time greatest comedians (Groucho on 'You Bet Your Life,' Gleason on 'The Jackie Gleason Show') and, despite the more traditional times, some of the most independent ladies in TV land ('Our Miss Brooks' and, of course, 'I Love Lucy'). In short, though TV was still in its early days in the 1950s, there was plenty to watch, and love, in prime time. -- By Kimberly Potts

40. 'The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis' (1959-63)
Teen Dobie wanted hot girls, money and to do as little work as possible, egged on by equally work-adverse beatnik pal Maynard (Bob Denver). But Dobie's modest background made that difficult, as did nemeses like golddigger Thalia (Tuesday Weld), the girl Dobie wanted, and handsome rich kid Milton (Warren Beatty), Dobie's rival for Thalia's affections.

39. 'I've Got a Secret' (1952-67)
The premise was simple: contestants tried to stump a panel of celebs, who were trying to guess what the contestants' secrets were. The show's charm, and humor, sparked not only from everyday citizens' interactions with the famous folks, but also from guest contestants, like Colonel Sanders (yes, that Colonel Sanders), whose secret was that he started his company with his first Social Security check.

38. 'Lassie' (1954-74)
The story of a boy and his dog focused on collie Lassie, who stole the show from all her (or his, as the female dog was usually played by male pooches) human co-stars. Whether it was alongside owners Jeff or Timmy or a forest ranger, Lassie was a smart and loyal hero who earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Emmys, a Peabody Award and an invitation to the White House.

37. 'The Lone Ranger' (1949-57)
Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels were the Long Ranger and his trusted friend Tonto, two heroes who traveled the Old West, helping to avenge those who had been wronged. Popular with kids, who loved the series' action (and parents, who appreciated the show's relative lack of violence), the Western was the first (and initially only) hit for the then-struggling ABC network.

36. 'The Nat King Cole Show' (1956-57)
The first major black performer to host a TV variety series, Cole put everything he had into the NBC show, which lost money for the network, despite Cole performances and guest spots by showbiz pals like Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. After a year of struggling to find sponsors and viewers, Cole and the network pulled the plug on the show.

35. 'Our Miss Brooks' (1952-56)
The Emmy-winning comedy was one of the first to focus on a working girl: Eve Arden's Connie Brooks, a young high school teacher. The hit series was considered such an accurate portrayal of teachers' lives that the National Education Association made Arden an honorary member, and, in 1956, the series spawned a big-screen movie, with the TV cast intact.

34. 'Playhouse 90' (1956-61)
The ambitious anthology series -- the 90-minute stories were presented live -- set the standard for the popular '50s genre, thanks to top writers and talent, from Rod Serling's Peabody and Emmy-winning 'Requiem for a Heavyweight' episode to installments penned by Horton Foote and A.E. Hotchner and starring the likes of Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds and Angela Lansbury.

33. 'Peter Gunn' (1958-61)
Created and produced by Blake Edwards, Gunn (Craig Stevens) was the super cool private eye who solved cases for a living, but really loved hanging out at Mother's, the jazz club where his girlfriend sang. The show's music was its trademark, in fact, provided by Henry Mancini, whose classic 'Gunn' theme has been repeated everywhere from 'Sixteen Candles' to Monty Python.

32. 'Have Gun Will Travel' (1957-63)
It spawned a hit radio series and a hit single with its theme song, and was unique in both its immediate favor with viewers and its plotline: Well-educated Paladin (Richard Boone) ate gourmet food and lived at San Francisco's swanky Hotel Carlton, where he operated as a gun for hire. The high-class hitman "advertised" with a calling card that included his name and a paladin.

31. 'The Dinah Shore Show' (1951-56)
Shore's program entertained viewers twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, with a 15-minute live show that preceded the evening news on NBC. Shore would sing, chat with guests and share the spotlight with her piano player, before signing off by blowing a kiss to the audience and crooning "See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet," a nod to her sponsor.

30. 'The $64,000 Question' (1955-58)
The only series to dethrone 'I Love Lucy' as the No. 1 show was also an inspiration for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,' as contestants had to answer an increasingly more difficult series of questions to win an increasing amount of cash. The show became a phenomenon (President Eisenhower was reportedly a fan) until the quiz show scandal of the '50s did it in.

29. 'The Phil Silvers Show' (1955-59)
Silvers was U.S. Army Sgt. Ernie Bilko, who spent most of his time at a Kansas Army base trying to, ahem, bilk his fellow enlistees and his superior, Col. Hall, with get-rich-quick scams. Bilko was always the crafty one, though in the series finale, Hall finally got revenge, catching Bilko (whose persona inspired the cartoon 'Top Cat') in a con and jailing him.

28. 'The Rifleman' (1958-63)
Former pro baseball and basketball star Chuck Connors was the titular 'Rifleman,' aka Lucas McCain, a Civil War vet and widowed father raising his son on a New Mexico ranch. What distinguished McCain (in a series created by filmmaker Sam Peckinpah) from other TV Westerners: his gun, a modified Winchester rifle that could aim rapid-fire shots at troublemakers.

27. 'The Donna Reed Show' (1958-66)
Reed was an uncredited producer on this typical '50s family sitcom, which made up for a lack of powerhouse ratings with its longevity. Donna (Reed) and Alex Stone (Carl Betz) were 'rents of teens Mary and Jeff, played by Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen, who enjoyed spin-off pop music careers with songs introduced on the show, including Fabares' gold record 'Johnny Angel.'

26. 'This Is Your Life' (1952-61)
A sort of video scrapbook, 'Life' was hosted by Ralph Edwards, who surprised ordinary citizens and celebs by bringing them to the studio and recalling highlights of their lives, with friends and family in attendance. The presentation was usually a surprise to the honoree, with a few exceptions. Singer Eddie Cantor, for example, was warned, because he had a heart condition.

25. 'Make Room for Daddy' (1953-64)
Star Danny Thomas had flopped with a variety show and vowed never to do TV again, but he signed on for this sitcom, modeled after his real life as a traveling entertainer. The series was a hit, and ratings only increased after Jean Hagen, the actress playing Thomas' wife, quit the show and her character was killed off, the first character death on a prime-time comedy.

24. 'You Are There' (1953-57)
Walter Cronkite served as anchorman on this documentary series that re-created historical events like the Salem witchcraft trials, the Gettysburg Address and the Hindenburg disaster. Cronkite then wrapped up the "news report" by telling viewers, "What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times ... and you were there."

23. 'Wagon Train' (1957-62)
Sparked by the 1950 John Ford movie 'Wagon Master,' the show followed a group of post-Civil War cowboys wagon-training it from Missouri to California. Adventures along the way revolved around regulars as well as guest stars like Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis and Leonard Nimoy. Another 'Star Trek' connection: Gene Roddenberry reportedly pitched 'Trek' as "'Wagon Train' to the stars."

22. 'The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show' (1950-58)
The showbiz couple starred together in this charming series that followed their Vaudeville and radio careers with this format, set in the Burns/Allen home and revolving around George playing straight man to and breaking the fourth wall while commenting on Gracie's daffy adventures. The show was a ratings hit, and ended only when Gracie decided to retire.

21. 'Maverick' (1957-62)
James Garner became a star as gambler Bret Maverick in this first comedy Western. Garner's comedic chops made him the breakout, even though the show split episodes between Bret and his more serious brother, Bart (Jack Kelly). Garner even played the brothers' "Pappy" in one memorable installment, while in another, guest Clint Eastwood played Bret's murderous nemesis.

20. 'The Red Skelton Show' (1951-71)
Skelton was a beloved radio star whose audience followed him to this Emmy-winning series on NBC and CBS. The sketch-comedy series opened with Skelton's monologue, and included celeb guests and his regular lineup of characters (like Freddie the Freeloader), with sketches penned by show writers like Johnny Carson and 'Brady Bunch' creator Sherwood Schwartz.

19. 'What's My Line?' (1950-67)
It's the longest-running game show in prime0time history, and its winning premise was simple -- a panel asked yes or no questions to determine contestants' occupations. Among the panelists: humorist Bennett Cerf and Steve Allen, who coined the phrase "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" for the show. One of 'Line''s most memorable contestants: a breadbox maker, whose job Allen guessed.

18. ''77 Sunset Strip' (1958-64)
The detective series, set on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, became a TV phenomenon thanks to the hair-combin', slang-talkin' presence of secondary character Kookie, the parking attendant played by Edd Byrnes. Sales of combs went up, as did Byrnes' paycheck when he quit the show and was enticed back with a role that promoted Kookie to detective alongside P.I.s Stu and Jeff.

17. 'You Bet Your Life' (1950-61)
There were prizes, but the real point of this game show was host Groucho Marx, whose chatter with contestants and unflappable announcer George Fenneman led to classic Groucho wisecracks. Contestants also tried to guess the "secret word" of the day, which would earn them $100 and a visit from the stuffed duck (and, once, Harpo Marx) that dropped down from the ceiling.

16. 'The Untouchables' (1959-63)
The drama was inspired by real-life Prohibition agent Eliot Ness (Robert Stack), who, with his brave "untouchable" team, battled Chicago crime baddies like Al Capone. Critics dinged the show for its violent shootouts and Italian-Americans disliked that villains often had Italian names, but viewers embraced the unique, action-packed series, making it one of ABC's first hits.

15. 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' (1955-62)
Featuring one of the most famous TV openings in history as Hitchcock walks into a caricature of himself, the anthology series brought the Oscar-nominated director to the tube with top stars (Bette Davis and Walter Matthau among them) and suspenseful tales, including one story -- involving a woman being sawed in half -- that NBC originally deemed too gruesome for TV.

14. 'Dragnet' (1951-59)
Until actor/producer Jack Webb (who starred as Sgt. Joe Friday) brought 'Dragnet' from radio to TV, the tube had been dominated by variety shows and comedies. 'Dragnet' was the first series to realistically portray gritty Los Angeles cop life, focusing episodes on actual LAPD robbery and homicide cases and challenging his set designers to copy details from real police offices.

13. 'The Jack Benny Program' (1950-65)
Benny's TV hit was an almost exact transfer of his long-running radio show to the tube, with his money-hoarding, bad-violin-player persona also prevalent on the TV series. Benny's subtle humor was also bolstered by co-stars Dennis Day, Don Wilson and voiceover legend Mel Blanc, and the show also featured one of Marilyn Monroe's only TV appearances, in a 1953 skit.

12. 'Perry Mason' (1957-66)
A talented sleuth and attorney, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) always got his culprit. Perry's specialty was representing clients who seemed overwhelmingly guilty, but by the time he and associates Della and Paul rearranged the facts, and Perry hounded witnesses in the courtroom, the real wrongdoers were always unmasked and TV's first star legal eagle was born.

11. 'The Jackie Gleason Show' (1952-59)
Gleason's variety show was popular on its own, but its biggest contribution to '50s TV was as the birthplace of 'The Honeymooners' sketches, which Gleason spun off into its own series. In fact, the comedian halted production on 'Jackie Gleason' for a year to film 'The Honeymooners,' resuming the variety show in 1956 and eventually adding Buddy Hackett as a sidekick.

10. 'The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet' (1952-66)
So true to its stars' lives that it was almost like a reality show, 'Ozzie & Harriet' was mostly about Nelson brothers Ricky and David, whose real-life wives even played their TV wives. The series also mirrored Ricky's real-life career as a rock star, with TV Ricky crooning real Ricky's songs, and real-life Ozzie editing them into early versions of music videos.

9. 'The Milton Berle Show' (1948-56)
The show was originally titled 'Texaco Star Theater,' and Berle was not originally the permanent host; only after a few months of winning over viewers was he given the full-time gig. Uncle Miltie ran with it, making the show the most popular hour on TV, and truly earning his "Mr. Television" title by getting credit for the sales of more than 30 million TV sets.

8. 'Father Knows Best' (1954-60)
It would go on to become a big hit on CBS and NBC, but the first season of 'Father''s transition from radio to TV earned such low ratings that CBS canceled it. A save-the-show campaign by viewers prompted a pickup by NBC, where the series thrived as a beloved and top-rated family sitcom until star Robert Young wanted to move on and quit the show.

7. 'The Steve Allen Show' (1956-60)
Comedian Allen hosted this live variety show that was most notable for the careers it helped launch, including those of comic stars Don Knotts, Tom Poston, Pat Harrington (and, in a brief 1961 reincarnation of the show, Tim Conway and the Smothers Brothers) and Elvis, who sang 'Hound Dog' to an actual dog on Allen's show before his famous 'Ed Sullivan Show' appearances.

6. 'Leave It to Beaver' (1957-63)
The Cleavers made Americans wish they were part of a family where everything could be made better with a home-cooked meal by pearl-wearing mom June or a pithy bit of advice from papa Ward. Mischievous Beaver and bro Wally were always getting into one scrape or another (thanks, often, to instigating Eddie Haskell), but the Cleavers remained the ideal suburban family.

5. 'The Honeymooners' (1955-56)
He was a scheming, not-so-bright loudmouth, but Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden set the stage for future blue collar TV heroes because viewers could embrace the efforts of the Bensonhurst bus driver who, despite his frequently loutish ways, just wanted a better life for himself, sewer worker pal Norton and wife Alice, who he really did think was the greatest.

4. 'Gunsmoke' (1955-75)
The first and most successful of the "adult Westerns," 'Gunsmoke' was a radio hit that was conceived as a TV show CBS hoped would star big-screen legend John Wayne. Wayne nixed the part, but recommended his pal James Arness, who would spend 20 seasons with Chester, Festus, Doc and Miss Kitty, playing Dodge City's pillar of law, order and Old West justice, Marshal Matt Dillon.

3. 'The Ed Sullivan Show' (1948-71)
Originally called 'Toast of the Town,' Sullivan's live variety series became known for bringing to viewers the A-list among established performers (the series premiere included Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis) and the best of soon-to-be-stars like, most famously, Elvis Presley in 1956 and '57, and the Beatles' 1964 performances, which drew more than 70 million viewers.

2. 'I Love Lucy' (1951-57)
One of television's first major hits was also one of the first hit shows with a female star -- comedy legend Lucille Ball, whose interactions with hubby Ricky and the Mertzes led to hilarity and some of the most classic moments in TV history, from the grape-stomping scene and the candy factory episode to Lucy's tango with the egg-filled shirt and her Vitameatavegamin commercial.

1. 'Your Show of Shows' (1950-54) The sketch comedy series with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca was a hit on its own, but it was even more successful for the projects it inspired from its writing staff: Carl Reiner's TV classic 'The Dick Van Dyke Show,' Neil Simon's play 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor' and the flick 'My Favorite Year,' produced by 'Your Show of Shows' writer Mel Brooks.

Actor John Ratzenberger touts $1M try to boost U.S. manufacturing

By Cheryl K. Chumley -

The Washington Times

Actor

John Ratzenberger, best known for his role as know-it-all postal worker Cliff Clavin on “Cheers,” took to Atlanta on Wednesday to announce with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal with a million-dollar campaign to bolster U.S. manufacturing.

Mr. Ratzenberger founded the nonprofit Foundation for America to showcase the importance of bringing back manufacturing to the U.S. and returning the nation to one of creator, not importer.

Mr. Deal said Georgia would be implementing a National Educational Initiative to boost the public relations image of the blue-collar job sector, help bring back shop classes to schools.

“One of the most critical issues confronting Georgia manufacturers today is the shallow pool of work-ready talent interested in and capable of embarking on well-paying careers in manufacturing,” Roy Bowen, the president of the Georgia Association of Manufacturers, said in a press release, the Gainesville Times reported. “Achieving success with this endeavor is absolutely essential to ensuring the long term viability of Georgia’s manufacturers and for Georgia to maintain its distinction as the No. 1 state in the U.S. for business.”

Mr. Ratzenberger told Fox News the initiative will hopefully spread to other states.