TVSquad

It's not often that two people are so connected in these TV obituary roundup posts I do every week or so, but these two people are worth mentioning in the same post.

Alexander Courage, who composed the theme song for the original Star Trek series, died on May 15 at age 88. He also did music for episodes of many other series, including Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Waltons, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, The Loner, Eight is Enough, Daniel Boone, Riverboat, and many others. He was also an orchestrator on several movies, including L.A. Confidential, The Haunting, The Mummy, First Knight, The Shadow, Rudy, Malice, Hook, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Poseidon Adventure, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, and a ton of others.

But Courage wasn't the only Star Trek figure to pass away that week...

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 6
• Beverly Hills, 90210 - Season 4
• Burke's Law - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Cheers - Season 9
• Dark Shadows - The Beginnings Collection 4
• Desperate Housewives - Seasons 1-3
• Grey's Anatomy - Seasons 1-3
• I Spy - Seasons 1, 2, and 3 (Remastered)
• Joey - Season 2
• Lost - Seasons 1-3
• Roswell - Seasons 1, 2, and 3
• Sabrina The Teenage Witch - Complete Series (Animated)
• Scrubs - Seasons 1-6
• The Waltons - Season 7
• A Touch of Frost - Season 13
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - Vol. 3: Years of Change

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow:

• The All-New Super Friends Hour - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Between the Lions - Season 1
• Clifford The Big Red Dog - Playtime with Clifford
• Family Feud - All Star Family Feud with Richard Dawson
• Gunsmoke - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Lovejoy - Season 2
• MI-5 - Vol. 5
• The Naked Brothers Band - Season 1
• The Riches - Season 1
• Two and a Half Men - Season 2
• The Waltons - Season 6
• What's New Scooby-Doo? - Season 3

You don't know the name, but you know his work. He was the voice Ernie the Elf in the Keebler commercials and guest starred on...well, just about every single TV show produced since the early 1950s, it seems.

A partial list: The Waltons, Quincy, M.E., Stingray, Flamingo Road, Little House on the Prairie, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Riptide, Falcon Crest, Knot's Landing, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Dallas, Barnaby Jones, Gunsmoke, Columbo, Bonanza, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Name of the Game, The Wild, Wild West, H.R. Pufnstuf, The Big Valley, Star Trek, Batman, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Maverick, The Bob Newhart Show, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

He was known for his voice work, and you could hear him in such shows as The Flintstones, Jem, The Smurfs, Spider-Man, and The Transformers. He also kept me up nights as a kid when he did the voice of that damn devil doll in the Trilogy of Terror movie in the 70s.

Edmiston died on February 15 in L.A. of cancer.

Wow, not only did this guy have a long career - he acted, wrote, and directed since the mid-1930s - he also romanced Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, and Francine York. Nice.

(Davis and Crawford? Those must have been some conversations...heh.)

Sherman directed many TV shows over the years, including The Waltons, Baretta, 77 Sunset Strip, Trapper John, M.D., Alias Smith and Jones, Medical Center, and Hagen. He also directed the films The Adventures of Don Juan, Mr. Skeffington, The Naked Earth, Bogie, and The Young Philadelphians.

He died of natural causes on Sunday.