TVSquad

David Lloyd was one of those TV writers whose work spread across the history of television. He worked on shows ranging from The Tonight Show in the 60s to Frasier in the 90s and early 2000s.

Lloyd died last night after a long illness.

Lloyd had a part in many memorable TV shows over the years, as a writer and/or a producer, including Cheers, Wings, Taxi, Lou Grant, Rhoda, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Phyllis, The Tony Randall Show, Dear John, The Dick Cavett Show, The Associates, The Best of the West, and many other shows.

Ken Levine has a great tribute to Lloyd on his site, including a discussion of how Lloyd was as a writer. It includes an example of Lloyd's script for the classic Mary Tyler Moore Show episode "Chuckles Bites The Dust."

As Bob mentioned in his DVD post this week, The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Fifth Season was released in a 3-disc set on Tuesday. I have fond memories of watching this show as a kid, and the clips after the jump confirm once again that it featured one of the best casts in TV history.

Not only was each actor perfect for their role, but their timing and delivery of lines was second to none. I also love all of the 1970s-era props, clothes and decor, because of course, the show was made in the 1970s.

Sometimes a celebrity dies who wasn't just a TV star, they actually had a hand in almost every aspect of television over a very long period of time. We lost two such stars over the weekend.

For example, fans of NCIS will know Nina Foch (right) from her role as Ducky's mother on the show. But did you know she also starred in several vintage horror movies back as early as the early 40s, such as Return of the Vampire and Cry of the Werewolf? She also had the honor of being the very first murder victim on Columbo, in 1968's Prescription: Murder (done in by hubby Gene Barry). She also appeared in several other TV shows, such as Bull, Just Shoot Me, Dharma & Greg, Murder She Wrote, L.A. Law, Hunter, Lou Grant, Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-0, That Girl, and a ton of others. She appeared in Spartacus, The Ten Commandments, An American in Paris and others. She was even the associate director on The Diary of Anne Frank.

Foch passed away in Los Angeles on Friday at age 84.

A lot of people don't understand this, but even though we write for a television web site and watch tons of television every single day, we can't keep track of everything or watch everything. There are many shows that I realize are on my television but simply don't watch (Grey's Anatomy, CSI, The Bachelor, Maury), and there are a few that I don't watch because I had no idea they were still on. Below are five such shows that I recently found out were still going strong (OK, five are still going strong, one is an old show that I didn't realize was being shown nowadays).

The People's Court: I used to watch this every single day when I was younger (the show's legal expert, Harvey Levin, now runs TMZ.com). That was when a real-life courtroom show was unique, before there were 27 of them on TV every single day. I knew that Judge Judy was still on, and shows with other various judges (Judge Hackett, Divorce Court, Judge Mathis, Judge Maria Lopez, Judge David Young, Christina's Court), but I didn't know this one was still on. It can't be the same without Judge Wapner and baliff Rusty though.

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

• Pete Wilson: He was a veteran, award-winning news anchor and talk show host for California TV station KGO-TV. Over the years he also worked for KRON-TV and KTXL-TV. He died in Palo Alto from a heart attack during surgery. He was 62.

This obituary doesn't go into Barnard Hughes' many years of television work, so I will.

Hughes starred in many TV shows over the years, including Blossom, The Cavanaughs, Mr. Merlin, Doc, As The World Turns, The Guiding Light, and had recurring roles on both All in the Family and The Bob Newhart Show. He guest starred in many shows since the 50s, including Hawaii Five-O, Lou Grant, The Love Boat, Cannon, Kraft Television Theater, Hotel, Tales From The Darkside, and Hotel. His most recent role, in 2000, was on Deadline. He also starred in the classic TV movie The UFO Incident.

Barnard's film roles included Tron, Oh, God!, Hamlet, Midnight Cowboy, First Monday in October, and The Lost Boys, and he was a critically-acclaimed theater actor as well, winning a Tony for Da and starring in Advise and Consent, A Majority of One, Hamlet, The Good Doctor, and many others. He died yesterday of natural causes.