RIP: Harry Morgan

Harry Morgan was a great actor. Most of us of a certain age can remember huddling around the TV set watching him in the fabulous series “M*A*S*H* I loved that show and always cried during the final episode, one of the most watched TV episodes in history.

In 1986 I was cast as Hal Linden’s daughter in the series Blacke’s Magic. Harry Morgan was my grandfather and Mark Shera played my cop husband who was a widower with two young children. I was 21 at the time and the kids were around 9 and 10 so it would have been physically impossible for me to be their birth mother but thanks to the magic of television, I could happily play their step mom.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on that show. It was the brain child and favored baby of NBC President of the time and huge magic fan; Brandon Tartikoff, who tragically passed away in 1997 at the age of 48 from Hodgkins disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Tartikoff. He apparently loved magic so much that he green lit the show. Unfortunately the series only ran for 13 episodes before being pulled.

Just like working with Angela Landsbury and Dick Van Dyke or any other older professional, both Hal and Harry had an ease and grace on the set… they had done this many, many times before and it showed.

All in all it was a great experience for me and I hope Harry is among his fellow actors, performing on that great stage in the heavens.

We will miss you Mr. Morgan, thank you for many, many great performances.