Week of March 12: So Long, Father Murphy

Yesterday came the sad news of the death of Merlin Olsen, a Hall of Fame football player during the 1960s, a stellar football announcer and actor afterwards, and a class act always.

Olsen teamed up first with the legendary Curt Gowdy, then with Dick Enberg, on NBC's Sunday National Football League telecasts. In 1988, when Enberg was headed to Seoul to co-host the network's coverage of the Summer Olympics with Bryant Gumbel, Olsen and Gowdy reunited in the broadcast booth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X91l6IuTJLs

And Gowdy was sure right about Olsen: "He's never missed at any effort in his life."

Those efforts included television drama. Olsen was a Mormon, and that influenced his choice of roles. Michael Landon tapped him to play Jonathan Garvey, Charles Ingells' friend, on NBC's "Little House On the Prairie" in 1977:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzB8rVCNrjA&NR=1

This scene also included a young Patrick Labyorteaux (later Lt. Bud Roberts on the CBS program "JAG") as Jonathan's son, Andy.

In 1981, Landon would produce, and Olsen would star in "Father Murphy," in which he played a prospector who pretended to be a priest in order to protect a group of orphans. The show lasted two seasons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf2LTOlaKc4

Moses Gunn and Katherine Cannon were also part of the cast.

So long to Merlin Olsen, gentle giant.