Sunday, December 2, 2018

Ken Berry (1933-2018)

Another piece of our childhood is gone.

Ken Berry, the energetic song & dance man who turned pratfalls into high art as Captain Wilton Parmenter on F-Troop, passed away Saturday at 85.

Berry served in the Army with another future 60's icon, Leonard Nimoy, who ultimately recommended Berry to various Hollywood studios. Berry's first series gig was a recurring comedy relief role on Dr. Kildare, which he left when cast for F-Troop in 1965.

A year after F-Troop ended, Berry returned to series television in the Andy Griffith Show spin-off, Mayberry, RFD, which outlasted Troop, going three seasons to Troop's 2. During this time, Berry also made frequent appearances on The Carol Burnett Show, which led to his being cast in the belated spin-off from that series, Mama's Family. Berry also used his talents as a singer & dancer, as memory serves, to serve as a pitchman for Kinney Shoes during the 70's. Along the way, Berry also headlined his own series, the short-lived Ken Berry Wow Show, in 1972, for ABC, which, as a sort-of make good, took a chance with him two years later with a back-door pilot on The Brady Bunch, but the proposed Kelly's Kids never got off the ground beyond said pilot.

Berry's passing leaves Larry Storch (Agarn) & James Hampton (Dobbs) as the only surviving cast members from F-Troop. At least now Captain Parmenter now joins his beloved Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson) in heaven.

Meanwhile, we serve up this 1976 spot for Kinney Shoes:



Rest in peace, Ken.

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