When I was growing up, Newhart was one of the few television shows that I really liked to watch. Guess it was all those weird characters living together in that tiny Vermont town. One of the quirkiet was Tom Poston's George Utley. I think it was in his very first appearance on the show that he gave Bob Newhart's character Dick Loudon his business card and all it says on it is "GEORGE UTLEY", no phone or address: people have to shout for him if they wanted him. The look on Dick's face after that is what set the tone for all the years of the show that followed.Well, news is coming out tonight that Tom Poston passed away Monday night at the age of 85. In addition to a life of great acting and comedy roles, he was also a pilot during World War II who flew soldiers in and out of a lot of dangerous areas. I think I remember reading that at one time he was a boxer, too.
Sad to see him go. We are steadily losing an entire generation of performing giants, and there really isn't anyone with their kind of caliber to fill in for them. But I couldn't wind down this post without sharing my all-time favorite George Utley scene from Newhart. It was from that episode that was made up entirely of dream sequences (I think this was like two years before the show ended with perhaps the most famous dream sequence in television history). Anyway in the first act we see George's dream and in it Dick is showing George all the crazy thing that can happen while dreaming, and at the end of it George lifts up his arms and goes flying off like Superman. It was hilarious!
Thanks for the years of good laughs, Mr. Poston.
EDIT 12:57 a.m. EST: Hey, here's a clip of that scene on YouTube! Enjoy!
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