The Peeper, the Steve Allen Show guy, frequent game-show panelist, and much, much more.
He was also the original choice to play Max on Get Smart (which shared a number of writers with the Steve Allen show) when it was pitched to ABC, but ABC turned it down and NBC bought the property for Don Adams. But he did get a break years later when Jerry Van Dyke was unavailable to play the part of George on Newhart.
Not much Poston online (he's hardly in the few Steve Allen Show clips I could find), but here's one game-show appearance and one clip from a David Mirkin episode of Newhart.
Aww, man. He's one of the all-time greats.
ReplyDeleteI saw him on a plane once. No one I told was excited about it, but I was. He was a much more impressive looking guy in person, with piercing blue eyes. Man, he was great as Peeper. RIP, Tom.
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