Fox News: NEW YORK – Jack Riley, who played a counseling client on "The Bob Newhart Show" and also voiced a character on Nickelodeon's animated "Rugrats," died Friday. The 80-year-old actor died in Los Angeles, according to his representative Paul Doherty.
Hat tips to Jeff Meyerson and Deb.
4 comments:
I thought I remembered Riley's character on the show, but had to check to make sure. Ah, yes, Elliot Carlin! A great character. Carlin was highly successful as a real estate salesman or developer, so egotistical that he had huge portraits of himself on his apartment walls, and sociopathic in the extremis. Riley played him well.
The Bob Newhart Show was pretty good back in the day... I've probably seen every episode. I wonder if it holds up today.
Howard--I've tried to watch some of them--the plots, acting, and jokes hold up, but the sound quality is atrocious. I'd love to watch them again but with state-of-the-art audio re-engineering.
My favorite moment with Mr. Carlin was when Bob and his group therapy patients were to appear on a local tv show. As they were waiting in the studio, Mr. Carlin asked Bob, "Do you think viewers will know I'm wearing a toupee?" To which Bob responds, "No Mr. Carlin, it looks perfectly natural." Almost immediately a disembodied producer's voice says, "Put some more makeup on the guy wearing the rug."
RIP, Mr. Carlin
A classic.
The 70s outfits are a little hard to look at these days, but the characters and the cast were great. I recently watched the one where Bob, Jerry, and Howard got drunk watching football and Bob tried to order Chinese food on the phone ("More Moo Goo!").
And, of course, any show with Suzanne Pleshette was worth watching.
Riley was not so much the man-you-love-to-hate as he was the-man-you-love-to-dislike. And he was hilarious.
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