TVSquad

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Mel Ferrer: He was best known for his movie work (including such films as The Sun Also Rises, War & Peace, and Lilli) but he was also a regular on the CBS series Falcon Crest. He also appeared on Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, Christine Cromwell, Hotel, Dallas, Return of the Saint, Hawaii Five-O, Baretta, the miniseries How The West Was Won, and many others. He also directed and produced many films and was married to Audrey Hepburn from 1954 to 1968. He died near Carpinteria, CA at age 90.

Hardcore Stephen Colbert fans might take one look at this list and scoff. To them I say, "Hey, girls who live on the Colboards, chill out." This list is meant for the casual fan of The Colbert Report, who loves the show and, at most, knows Colbert's history through The Daily Show and maybe a little Strangers with Candy.

As someone who has been a fan of Colbert for about eight years, I'm here to educate, here to spread the good Word. It is the duty of a good fan -- especially one with too much time on her hands -- to change the minds of people that see Colbert just as the TV blowhard who happens to share his name.

NBC has ordered six episodes of celebrity improv competition Thank God You're Here. The series, which was originally produced in Australia, is being described as Whose Line is it Anyway? meets Let's Make a Deal. Celebrity guests will choose one of several doors to open. Behind each door, a comedy sketch they know nothing about is being performed. Whether they stumble into an operating room, a motorcycle race or an undersea adventure, they'll be greeted by the line, "Thank God you're here!" From that point, the celeb is on his or her own. Their performances will be judged by Kids in the Hall alum Dave Foley and host David Alan Grier.

NBC Universal Television gets to go mining for comedy gold over at the famous Second City Improv Theatre. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio and the theatre have signed a two-year deal that allows NBC access to Second City shows, talent, and comedy library. NBC intends to use the information to develop comedy content for new television programs. "We look at it as a great resource of talent and ideas that we can share back and forth," said NBC Universal TV president Angela Bromstad.

Good move on NBC's part. Second City alumni include Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Andy Dick, Chris Farley, Bill Murray, Fred Willard, Bonnie Hunt, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert... and the list goes on and on. These people know what funny is.

As I already mentioned, Conan O'Brien will be bringing his show to Chicago next week. He sat down (or maybe he was standing, I have no idea) recently with Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune for an insightful interview where he talked about wanting to do the show in Chicago for a long time. That's understandable, since Chicago, home of Second City, has been a place where a plethora of comedians were molded into the fleshy joke machines we know today. I found it very interesting that Conan once did a stage show in Chicago with Robert Smigel (creator of SNL's "TV Funhouse" segments and the voice of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog) and Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show and Tom Goes to the Mayor) called "The Happy Happy Good Show," which I totally would have gone to see had I known it existed and had I not been twelve years old at the time. Well, his famous "In the Year 2000" sketch originated from that stage show, so I guess we all got a little taste of it after all.

In a fairly wide-ranging interview with the always-thorough Onion A.V. Club, Stephen Colbert talks about doing a character he calls a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot" on a daily basis on The Colbert Report. Among the topics covered in the interview: his college years, his comedic influences, his years working with Second City, where he understudied Steve Carell, his comparison of the Craig Kilborn and Jon Stewart versions of The Daily Show, and how playing Dungeons & Dragons influenced his acting ability.

(The only thing that bugs me a little is that the article says that the Report is Colbert's third collaboration with Amy Sedaris, after Exit 57 and Strangers With Candy. One little problem: Amy is nowhere to be found in the IMDb listing for the Report. Doesn't seem like her type of humor, anyway.)

My favorite detail in the interview is how Colbert dives into how his set was designed: "[I]f you look at the design, it all does, it all points at my head. And even radial lines on the floor, and on my podium, and watermarks in the images behind me, and all the vertices, are right behind my head. So there's a sort of sun-god burst quality about the set around me. And I love that. That's status."