Lava1964 Archives - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

Who Remembers Warren Ferguson aka Jack Burns?

For five memorable seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, Don Knotts superbly played Barney Fife, sheriff Andy Taylor’s well-intentioned but inept deputy. Deputy Fife was such a beloved character that anyone who attempted to replace him would have a difficult task. Knotts opted to pursue a movie career at the end of the 1964-65 TV season and left the TAGS cast. His replacement was comedian Jack Burns who was cast as deputy Warren Ferguson. Ferguson was the nephew of town barber Floyd Lawson. He was a recent graduate of a police academy who zealously enforced Mayberry’s statutes. (In one episode he raided a ladies’ club bingo game.) Ferguson is best remembered for his grating habit of punctuating his monologues with the word “Huh?”. He was also bungling, but nowhere near as popular as Barney Fife. After just 11 episodes, deputy Ferguson vanished without explanation. He was never seen or even mentioned again. Sheriff Taylor never had another regular deputy throughout the rest of the series (which ended in 1968).

This article was originally written by YouRememberThat member Lava1964 in February 1969.

Cheers – Death Of Eddie Lebec

Jay Thomas, who appeared as Eddie Lebec in nine episodes of the TV sitcom Cheers, died from cancer on August 24, 2017 at the age of 69. On Cheers, Lebec was a French-Canadian goalie for the Boston Bruins whom Carla (Rhea Perlman) meets while he is riding a hot streak. However, as soon as Eddie and Carla start dating, he slumps badly. (To thwart the jinx, Eddie and Carla continue to date, but they go through a ‘breakup’ ritual before every game.)

The Eddie Lebec character was popular, so the show’s writers decided to have Carla and Eddie marry. However, Thomas, who hosted a radio show, got himself into hot water one day when a caller innocently asked him what it was like to be a Cheers cast member. The irrepressible Tomas replied, “It’s brutal. I have to kiss Rhea Perlman.” Perlman happened to be listening to the broadcast–and Thomas never made another appearance on Cheers. The show’s writers had to come up with a way to drop Eddie Lebec from the show.

In his final episode on Cheers, Eddie’s hockey career was over so he had gotten a job in an ice show as a skating penguin. The writers came up with the memorable idea of killing Eddie off in a Zamboni accident in an episode cleverly titled “Death Takes a Holiday on Ice.” (The premise is quite ridiculous: Have you ever seen how slowly a Zamboni moves? Its design makes it almost impossible for a Zamboni to run over anyone.) Despite the absurdity of the plot twist, Cheers fans loved it. Eddie’s death also led to a further plot development: At Eddie’s funeral it was revealed that he was a bigamist whose second wife was strikingly similar to Carla! According to writer Ken Levine, this idea worked well as it made Eddie look like a heel, thus viewers were happy he was no longer part of the show.

This article first appeared in our former website YouRemeberThat.com on August of 2017 and written by member Lava1964. Eddie LeBec played by Jay Thomas died on Thursday at 69 after a battle with cancer.

Michael Landon Final Tonight Show Appearance

In April 1991, TV icon Michael Landon was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. A month later, on May 9, 1991, Landon was in high spirits when he made a guest appearance on The Tonight Show. He died seven weeks later at the age of 54. I apologize for the poor quality of the clip, but it’s worth watching.
Video clip was originally uploaded by YouRememberThat.com member Lava1964 on September 6, 2008.