In other news that you may have missed, two more old friends we grew up watching on classic TV sitcoms have left us.<\/p>\n
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Allan Melvin, a character actor whose name you probably don’t know but whose face<\/a> ought to be instantly recognizable, died<\/a> of cancer on January 17. He was 84 years old.<\/p>\n Melvin was best known as Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch<\/i>, but, as Mark Evanier emphasizes in his tribute<\/a>, Melvin appeared frequently on many of the landmark sitcoms from the 1950s through the ’70s, including The Dick Van Dyke Show<\/i>, The Andy Griffith Show<\/i>, Gomer Pyle, USMC<\/i>, and All in the Family<\/i>, as well as its spin-off Archie Bunker’s Place<\/i>. I remember him very well from all those series, especially his turn as a bully who intimidates and torments poor Barney Fife on one of the early episodes of Andy<\/i>, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Sgt. Bilko<\/i> show that Evanier mentions. It must not have been rerun in this area when I was a kid, or I’d surely remember it.<\/p>\n A few days after Melvin’s passing, we also lost<\/a> the beautiful Suzanne Pleshette<\/a>, who co-starred with Bob Newhart on the ’70s-vintage Bob Newhart Show<\/i><\/a> and also made a memorable guest appearance in the finale of Newhart’s ’80s-vintage series<\/a> (surely the best — or at least funniest — use of the “it was just a horrible dream” trope in all of television history!). Suzanne was one of the first women I recall being aware of as something other than just a person on TV; I knew she was sexy before I even knew the word “sex.” I think it was her fabulous voice, husky and wise, smooth like twelve-year-old whiskey. I’ve always been a sucker for those rough blues-singer voices. Of course, that voice probably resulted from the cigarettes that ultimately killed her. Don’t smoke, kids.<\/p>\n Screenwriter Ken Levine eulogizes<\/a> Suzanne as “a gifted comedienne, a first class beauty, and one helluva broad.” I don’t think I can do any better than that. Go read what he has to say about her.<\/p>\n
![face<\/a> ought to be instantly recognizable,](\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/media\/photo\/2008-01\/34827248.jpg\"){kind=link}
![beautiful Suzanne Pleshette<\/a>, who co-starred with Bob Newhart on the ’70s-vintage](\"http:\/\/www.meredy.com\/suzannepleshette\/sp08.jpg\"){kind=link}