You gave us one of the best, mass-appeal, fantasy films, The Princess Bride, and two of the best, Stephen King adaptations, Misery and Stand By Me.
And let's not dare overlook A Few Good Men, Ghosts of Mississippi, The Wolf of Wall Street, Throw Mama from the Train, When Harry Met Sally, The Story of Us, Sleepless in Seattle, The Bucket List, The Magic of Belle Island, And So It Goes, The American President, LBJ, Primary Colors, Everyone's Hero, Alex & Emma, Flipped, The First Wives Club, Being Charlie, North, Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, Shock and Awe, Rumor Has It, This is Spinal Tap and Spinal Tap: The End Continues (which I watched just last night and like even more than the first, and I like the first a lot).
Your television, guest spots were fun, too, with The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Odd Couple, Room 222 and Thirty Rock among the queue (and even a hardy, writing job for The Smothers Brothers Show), but it was your role as Mike "Meathead" Stivic on All and the Family that drew me to you when I was a spry, impressionable kid.
Mike's engagements with Carol O'Conner's Archie Bunker may have been heated, but in those quarrels, I learned so much, in particular that two sides prevail for most any philosophical notion. (Too bad that two-way street isn't practiced more these contentious days.)
Alas, your passing was both unexpected and startling, but it's the long run of your aesthetic contributions that folks will recall: the foundation of a fruitful, mindful and creative life.
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