He made bumbling look easy, but whether it was on TV, Broadway, or in films it was hard work; it came as no surprise to learn that he had the physical dexterity to pull it off. I said hello to him once in a Santa Cruz restaurant and he was very gracious and down-to-earth, as you might expect. His third wife was BOB NEWHART SHOW star Suzanne Pleshette.

AP obit Tom Poston

To many of us here, he was first and foremost the star of ZOTZ!

Tim beat me to it!

I loved Tom Poston's work. He was a very funny, warm performer. He was great in both MORK & MINDY and NEWHART, but I have a vivid memory of sitting in a hotel room somewhere - on vacation with my family - and being absolutely enchanted by a late night broadcast of ZOTZ. Oddly, I haven't seen it since, even though I have such fond memories of it. At some point, I think I became afraid that the movie wasn't as good as I thought it was. At this point in my life, though, I'm sure I would enjoy seeing it again. Is it out on video as far as we know?

D.

I think there was a VHS release, long ago. I know it played on Cinemax a few times, many years ago. I watched it again recently and it's NOT one of Castle's better pictures, but it's a nice, amiable hour-and-a-half, seemingly made in hopes of capturing some of the success of THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR. And Poston (who also starred in Castle's remake of THE OLD DARK HOUSE) is well-cast in it.

Such a cool juvenile fantasy - I desperately wanted a Zotz coin for weeks after seeing it. If anyone made fun of me at school, all I had to do was point.

D.

About 9-10 years ago, I was visiting a buddy of mine and his wife, who had moved to Orlando, FL. When I was at the airport to fly back home to Ohio, I saw some airline official shaking Tom Poston's hand and escorting him AROUND the check-in line.

Tom Poston got the star treatment!

I'll always think of Tom Poston as Bob's old college buddy, Cliff, "the Peeper", on the 70's BOB NEWHART SHOW. Someone, Howard ??, had a great moment when he innocently asked them how he got the nickname Peeper in front of Emily and another woman.

Another memorable role for Poston was on an episode of THRILLER, which was available on laserdisc and tape, "Masquerade", with John Carradine and a very sexy Elizabeth Montgomery (in the set used for PSYCHO).

I always enjoyed seeing Poston when he would pop up on television, and I liked that he kept working, like contemporary Louis Nye. What I would really like to see is some kind of multi-DVD collection of bits from the Steve Allen version of the Tonight show. I've seen tantalizing clips over the years (including performances by Jack Kerouac, Lenny Bruce, and Miles Davis), but nothing substantial. Poston was a regular, as were Don Knotts and Louis Nye ("Hi-ho, Steverino!").

Do any of the Allen Tonight Shows even survive in their entirety? It's been frequently lamented over the years that NBC wiped the tapes for all of the early Carson Tonight Shows to save on storage costs.

I never knew Poston was married to Suzanne Pleshette. For whatever reason I find this amusing and bizarre...

"I never knew Poston was married to Suzanne Pleshette. For whatever reason I find this amusing and bizarre... "

Pleshette and Poston used to date when they were young actors on Broadway, before they became better known due to appearances on television. They broke up and reunited several years ago after going through the deaths of their respective spouses. Their wedding announcement was quite memorable, as it had "then and now" pictures, with "then" from their appearance in the same play. I saw it on the net somewhere years ago, but I can't find it now.

Poston's first wife, Jean, is quite striking (she looks like an extra in the nightclub scenes of THE BIG SLEEP), as is his daughter Francesca Poston. (See pictures on imdb.)

"Do any of the Allen Tonight Shows even survive in their entirety?" I don't know; the clips are coming from somewhere, right? Another interesting period for Steve Allen was a week that he filled in for Dick Cavett and recreated the feeling of his old show. Through the mists of time, I remember one of his guests was a relatively unknown Steve Martin.