Tom Poston - interesting obit from tvgameshows.net
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In 1958, Mark Goodson---looking for a replacement for columnist Hy
Gardner on the To Tell the Truth panel---turned to Poston. Gardner's
bland, uninspiring personality never clicked with viewers. Poston's
intelligence-with-humor persona did. Quickly, he was signed as a
regular to join Carlisle, Polly Bergen and actor Ralph Bellamy.
In 1959, having left The Tonight Show behind and with his Sunday
night show's ratings sagging, Allen moved to the West Coast and his
variety show switched to Mondays. Poston stayed behind in New York.
NBC gave Poston his one and only shot as a game show host in 1959.
However, his late afternoon Split Personality bombed quickly against
the insurmountable The Edge of Night at 4:30 on CBS.
The following year, the Truth set was redesigned with a mirror flip-
flop. With the panel now stage left, Poston assumed the anchor seat
and, with host Bud Collyer, became the steady face as his castmates
underwent a fruit basket turnover. Carlisle left in 1960 to join her
playwright husband Moss Hart in Hollywood (though she returned the
following year after his death). Bellamy departed for film roles, such
as "Sunrise at Campobello." Bergen exited to pursue a movie career,
scoring with the chiller "Cape Fear."
For a time in the early '60s, the Truth panel consisted of Poston,
Dina Merrill, Johnny Carson (moonlighting from Who Do You Trust?
before taking over The Tonight Show) and Betty White. Merrill's seat
was also shared by, among others, Broadway actress/singers Sally Ann
Howes and Mimi Benzell and comedienne Pat Carroll.
Poston's gamesmanship began to shine. He rose to the top of Goodson-
Todman celebrity players with his intelligence and district attorney-
style inquisitions. Rarely stumped more than once on any given show,
Poston became so frustrated in a 1962 episode after missing the first
two central characters, he vowed to walk off the set if he missed the
third. He did and he walked. Said Collyer at show's end: "I didn't
know anyone would ever walk away from Dina Merrill."
In 1961, Poston and Carlisle were instrumental in the launch of
another Goodson-Todman classic. They did the pilot week of episodes
for Password on CBS. With G.E. College Bowl's Allen Ludden doubling as
host, the series sold and began a six-year run. Poston and Carlisle
returned for an all-star edition in 1962 against husband-and-wife
Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy. The original week of CBS shows are
said to no longer exist.
After Carson's fall 1962 departure for The Tonight Show and the
availability of former Jack Paar regular Peggy Cass after her sitcom
The Hathaways failed, CBS and Goodson-Todman signed Cass and raconteur
Orson Bean to join Poston and Carlisle on To Tell the Truth. The
Poston-Cass-Bean-Carlisle quartet became the best-known and most
beloved in Truth history. In 1965, the foursome was signed to add the
CBS daytime version to their ledger after a contract with actress
Phyllis Newman expired for the afternoon series.
For a time in early 1965, Poston's game show career appeared to be
at an end. Talent Associates, David Susskind's company, signed him to
an option to play Agent 86 Maxwell Smart on the proposed Get Smart
sitcom. Ultimately, the decision was made to go with comedian and
cartoon voice specialist (Tennessee Tuxedo) Don Adams. Poston stayed
on Truth through its most successful years in the prime time Nielsens
in a perennial Monday at 7:30 slot.
In 1967, only a few months after the nighttime Truth was canceled
after 11 years on the air, Poston was abruptly fired from daytime
Truth. The parting was bitter. CBS daytime programmer Fred Silverman,
who was already tampering with the show by adding gimmicks such as a
"couples" edition of Truth in an attempt to dovetail off the sudden
success of ABC's The Newlywed Game, ordered the axing of Poston at the
age of 45. Reason: a younger face on the panel, per Silverman, would
add up to younger viewers for the aging Truth.
Enter Bert Convy, 34, a youthful former minor league baseball
player and Broadway singer who was a virtual unknown to television
audiences. An almost eye-blinding new off white-and-yellow set, a
harpsichord-driven revamped Score Productions theme song and Convy
added up to even lower ratings.
TV Radio Mirror magazine was first to break the news of why Poston
was fired. Viewers would embrace Convy as a game show personality in
the 1970s. In 1967-68, they were angry at his supplanting the affable
Poston (though two decades later, Poston would play Convy's Super
Password several times as a guest). In September 1968, CBS canceled To
Tell the Truth and, with it, eliminated game shows from its daytime
lineup for four years.
Poston, upset at his treatment, decided to leave show business
virtually altogether for a career as a Wall Street investor. In the
same year, his marriage to his first wife Jean ended.
For several years, Poston was a rarely-seen figure on television.
He rejected an overture to return for the syndicated revival of To
Tell the Truth in 1969 (Bill Cullen took over the anchor seat) but
came back to his familiar chair several times in a substitute role. He
did a week of Beat the Clock with Jack Narz in 1971.
Finally, in 1975, Poston was tapped for a one-shot role on The Bob
Newhart Show which re-launched his acting career. Guesting as Bob
Hartley's old friend Cliff Murdock, Poston played the lovable, if
bumbling, Murdock to a tee. In a classic scene, Murdock (Poston) talks
Bob into re-creating their old college number "Sonny Boy" in Hartley's
office. Moments later, in one of the series' most hilarious sequences,
dentist Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz) and Murdock lure Bob into a trio
of "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover." The take of receptionist
Carol (Marcia Wallace) when she walked in on the impromptu number was
priceless.
Critics and producers immediately rediscovered Poston. He was
called back to recreate the Murdock role four more times before the
end of the first Newhart series. In 1979, he signed to play eccentric
neighbor Franklin Delano Bickley on ABC's Mork & Mindy.
When Newhart opted to return to series television in 1982, he was
certain to bring Poston along as handyman Utley in the Vermont inn and
restaurant where Dick and Joanna Loudon (Newhart and Mary Frann) set
up shop. Poston's portrayal was once likened to "a mature Eb from
Green Acres." While he never won an Emmy for Utley, Poston was
nominated as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series three
times.
He again became a favorite for game shows. In March 1982, Poston
appeared with actress Audrey Landers (Dallas) for the final week of
Password Plus. As the last episode was going to credits, Poston was
overheard telling host Tom Kennedy of his playing on the opening week
of the original Password.
When Newhart ended its CBS run in 1990, Poston was still a popular
guest actor. He returned one more time as a series semiregular, making
23 appearances as Floyd Norton on ABC's Grace Under Fire between 1995
and 1998.
His last TV appearance was in 2006 on The Disney Channel's The
Suite Life of Zack and Cody. One of his guest shots on ABC's Dharma
and Greg is scheduled for a repeat airing Friday (3 p.m., EDT/PDT) and
Saturday (7 a.m.) on FX.
Poston married Kay Hudson in 1968. They divorced in 1975 but
remarried in 1980 and remained together until her death from
complications of arterial lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1998.
In May 2001, Poston and actress Suzanne Pleshette, Newhart's TV
wife on his first series, stunned the nation with the announcement of
their marriage. Pleshette, who appeared with Poston on Broadway in the
late 1950s, has been recovering from lung cancer in the last year.
Poston is survived by Pleshette and his three children, Francesca,
Hudson and Jason. A private funeral is scheduled for family members. A
public memorial service is planned in the coming weeks.
GSN will air a single Poston To Tell the Truth episode as a tribute
Sunday night/Monday morning in the overnight slot of 3:30 a.m. The
show is a 1970 syndicated version with Poston substituting in the
Orson Bean slot with Bill Cullen, Peggy Cass and Kitty Carlisle.