Steve Landesberg Dies at 65.

Detective Dietrich has left the precinct.

Steve Landesberg was not only one of the most unusually funny actors on the greatly funny TV series "Barney Miller", but also proved himself the real article on other shows like "The Rockford Files", "When Things Were Rotten", "On The Rocks" - all shows from my foolish misspent youth.

I even remember him doing a special on either HBO or Showtime where he played in several different blackout skits and was funny simply by the virtue of never straying too far from playing himself (even when he supposed to be Abraham Lincoln at one point).

Which makes this particular obituary a hard one to take; not only is too close to the end of the year, and not only have we lost yet another funny man, but we are now coming dangerously close to losing all of the subtle comics this world has ever had or ever will know. In fact, I think it was because of Steve Landesberg in the cast that I watched most of "Barney Miller" growing up. Not that Hal Linden or Max Gail weren't enough of a comedy powerhouse, but Landesberg was a perfect addition. Period.

Let us then remember Steve the way he was supposed to be remembered: funny.



Rest in peace, Steve.

Dope out.

- TGWD