We've lost Larry Gelbart.

Damn it.

Playwright, screenwriter, personal real-life hero. God, the way that man could use language. And he used it---

To turn M*A*S*H from a book and movie into a TV show.
To help get Dustin Hoffman into a dress;
And make sure any number of Funny Things happened on the Way to the Forum

He put the words of God into the mouth of George Burns.
He turned the lights onto media tycoons, and then turned them very, very dark.

(I figure you'll get the other references, but it occurs to me that last one might be a little obscure, more's the pity. I'm talking about this great made-for-cable movie.)

And boy...he wrote for Sid Caesar. Do you understand me? He wrote for Sid Caesar. There are DVDs out. Go out and rent them ASAP.

Our paths actually crossed, virtually speaking, a few years ago on the M*A*S*H newsgroup where he would fairly regularly stop by and answer questions. I had the temerity to send him a link to some theatre reviews I was writing at the time--and he was kind enough to say that he'd read and enjoyed them; sent his compliments.

He didn't have to do that (obviously), but from what I read, it was just the kind of man he was. It meant and continues to mean a lot to me.

Somewhere back around that time I formed a theory which I'll still stand by today: Anything funny done on screen, stage or radio in the past 50-60 years can be connected to Gelbart within six degrees or less.

(Yes, radio too--he wrote for Duffy's Tavern, one of the great old-time radio shows, when he was still a teenager)

I own his book Laughing Matters, and treasure it almost as much for his appreciations of other writers, like Ernest Lehman, as for the excerpts from his own work. It's sort of (but not quite) a memoir, and very inspiring.

I just remembered another time our paths sort-of crossed. After the experience of seeing amateurs and divas change the words and intentions of a play I'd written, I actually e-mailed Gelbart again and again he wrote back, saying in so many words (only his were better): Keep fighting. And you don't have any choice.

I always remember, he once wrote that he knew M*A*S*H hadn't made much of a difference when the producers got a letter from a young man who said: I love your show. And: I can't wait to join the army.

I know what he means, but of course, as we all know, M*A*S*H did make a difference. I suppose some could argue that it wasn't the best TV series anybody ever did...but if it's not in the top 3, I'd like to know what is.

Hail and farewell, conquering hero.