A passing noted in passing

Tom Poston has died at the age of 85.

While I expect for many he's best known as George Utley, the handyman at Bob Newhart's Vermont inn in "Newhart," I'm old enough to recall him as a "man on the street" (along with Louis Nye and Don Knotts) on the old Steve Allen show, his broad grin fading to panicked, wide-eyed desperation as he realized he couldn't remember his name.

By all accounts of which I'm aware, a gentle soul and one whose comedy didn't poke fun at anyone but himself.