Last week, television lost another veteran performer, a former Growing Pains kid has a new show, there are some similarities between Lost and Once Upon a Time, a former presidential candidate comes clean about his Pokemon connection and some dates in TV history.

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
Alan Sues, the sometimes flamboyant castmember of the popular NBC comedy series, died on Thursday, December 1st. Sues was 85 years old and passed away from an apparent heart attack at his home in West Hollywood. He appeared on Broadway before and after Laugh-In and guested on shows like The Brady Brides, Punky Brewster, The Wild, Wild West, The Twilight Zone, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Sues is survived by his sister-in-law, Yvonne.

Growing Pains
Tracey Gold grew up on television, in front of millions of people, while playing brainy Carol Seaver on ABC’s Growing Pains. After putting on a few extra pounds, she was asked to go on a diet. She lost the weight, liked the compliments that she was getting, and it spun out of control into anorexia. At her lowest weight, Gold weighed just 79 pounds. Now years later, Gold is sharing her story and hoping to educate viewers about eating disorders. Her new Lifetime series, Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold, airs on Friday nights.

Death of Television?
The number of people who still use traditional televisions is still quite high (83.2%) but dropping (down from 84.1% last year). A new article suggests those numbers could plunge very quickly and we could see a collapse in five years. The example given is the shift in land-line telephone service. In 2005, 7% of US households used only their cell-phones for calls. This year, that number has grown to nearly 30% — meaning that one in three households doesn’t have a traditional home phone line. As cable prices continue to increase, we can expect the number of cord-cutters to grow as well.

Once Upon a Time and Lost
Executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis had the idea for Once Upon a Time eight years ago but it took working on Lost to figure out how to make it work. Both shows have ongoing storylines and use flashbacks to give viewers better understanding into who the characters are. Horowitz says, “We never thought about Lost or Once really as mythology shows, even though mythology obviously is a part of [both]… They are character shows to us. That was the greatest lesson on Lost: Really learning how to approach the story through character.”

Pokemon
On Saturday, when Herman Cain announced his decision to drop out of the presidential campaign, he made a surprising confession. No, he didn’t admit that he had a 13-year affair. (In some people’s eyes, this admission might be worse.) Cain admitted that he’s been quoting the animated feature film, Pokemon: The Movie 2000 — specifically the movie’s theme song, “The Power of One.” In an August debate, Cain quoted a “poet” as having once said, “Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it’s never easy when there’s so much on the line.” Some bloggers picked up on the Donna Summer song lyric right away. On Saturday, he said, “I believe these words came from the Pokemon movie. I’m not sure who the original author is, so don’t go write an article about the poet, but it says a lot about where I am — where I am with my wife and my family, and where we are as a nation.”

ON THIS DATE IN TV HISTORY…

2006: James LeBeau killed herself on Nip/Tuck.

2005: FOX pulled Kitchen Confidential off the air, leaving nine unaired episodes. The comedy stars Bradley Cooper.

1993: Twins Chip and Roxy Rubble are born to adult Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm during the Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby Flintstones TV movie.

1986: The last episode of the original ThunderCats animated series aired.

1984: Krystina Emma Carrington is born to Blake and Krystle on Dynasty on ABC.

1977: For Richer, For Poorer debuted on NBC and ran for one season.

What do you think? Do you remember watching Alan Sues? Are you still watching TV shows the old fashioned way at all — on a television? Do you like the Lost influences on Once Upon a Time?