While he has met his maker, his cultural legacy will live on.

Actor Allan Melvin, best known for his portrayal of Sam the Butcher on television sitcom The Brady Bunch has died at the age of 84.

Let us all take a moment and reflect on the passing of everyone’s favorite “Meat man,” and a damn fine character actor. His recurring walk-on role was, in retrospect, the best part of The Brady Bunch. When watching reruns, anticipating an appearance by Sam is the only thing that keeps me interested. Other than Alice, and Tiger the family dog, Sam was the only appealing character. From the CBC news obit:

The jowly, jovial Melvin spent decades playing a series of sidekicks, second bananas and lovable lugs, including Archie Bunker’s friend Barney Hefner on All in the Family and Sgt. Bilko’s right-hand man Cpl. Henshaw on The Phil Silvers Show.

But his place in pop culture will be fixed as butcher and bowler Sam Franklin, the love interest of Brady family maid Alice Nelson, who was played by Ann B. Davis. Melvin played the role from 1970 to 1973.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1923, Melvin grew up in New York and attended Columbia University.

He was appearing on Broadway in Stalag 17 when he began his decades-long television career with The Phil Silvers Show, playing a role his wife said was always his favourite.
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“He was proudest of that show,” Amalia Melvin said. “I think the camaraderie of all those guys made it such a pleasant way to work. They were so relaxed.”

Read the rest of the story.

Adieu, Allan. Thanks for the memories, old and new.

A little late: This meme is from Jay Nova.

I will preface this by saying some of my ‘toon watching was done in my 20s. As young lad I watched a lot of The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, and Three’s Company, Good Times, and M*A*S*H, cartoons weren’t my main diet. I’ll split this meme into two parts – early years, and late.

Early

Spider-Man (1967)

Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can, can he swing from a web? Take a look overhead, hey there, there goes the Spider-man!

This was, and is, a favorite of mine, and now considered a Cult TV Series. I love all things Spiderman. Yes, the animation is bad, the psychedelic colours disturbing, and two episodes were Rocket Robin Hood backgrounds with Spidey substituted, but, it was real fun when seven-years-old. It was the voices of the original ‘67 Spider-Man actors I heard when I read the occasional Spiderman comic.

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Thundarr the Barbarian

Can anyone remember this, one of the classic cartoons from the Saturday mornings of yesteryear?

The year 1994: From out of space comes a runaway
planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon,
unleashing cosmic destruction. Man’s civilization is
cast in ruin.

Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn…

A strange new world rises from the old: a world of
savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man
bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions
Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength,
his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the
forces of evil.

He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!

A guy in a vest with a cool light sword, a princess, and an obvious Chewbacca rip-off (who new spell check had Chewbacca in its dictionary?). I watched this gem and wish the DVD set was available.

Battle of the Planets

You must remember G-Force: Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop, and Tiny? Battle of the Planets was a big deal in the late 70s. Everyone watched it. G-Force protected earth from Planet Spectra and the evil Zoltar. They had a cool spaceship, that could morph into a fiery phoenix when needed, a never-ending supply of missiles, and other hackneyed trademarks of late 70s-early 80s cartoons. I recently re-watched an episode and was amazed at just how bad it was. I guess being a stupid kid makes you overlook a lot of things.
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Dungeons and Dragons

Five kids get on an amusement park ride and are transported back in time to a world of swords and sorcery. Donny Most (Ralph Malph from Happy Days) and Willie Aames (Eight is Enough, Charles in Charge) doing voice acting? A win-win.

The characters were badly written, the dialogue too-typical, but as a D&D aficionado I loved it. My one wish is that the characters would have gotten very hungry and eaten the damn unicorn that accompanied them.
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Late

Spiderman (1994) X-Men (1994)

I started watching these when my working life began. I watched X-Men while drinking coffee in the morning, and Spiderman in the breakroom during the late afternoon.

I had never read X-Men comics. The series intrigued me as it was a continuing story. I was introduced to Wolverine, one of the coolest superheroes. A Canadian with giant claws? A definite role model. Perhaps watching this before entering my computerized world was a yearning for simpler times.

As I said above, I have always liked Spiderman. Each season of this series was one long story arc. Many characters from the Marvel universe paid a visit. I wish there was another season or two. As a late afternoon escape, it was amazing.