Timing is everything

Not that many people remember now--and too few gave it proper notice at the time--when Groucho Marx died, because he had the bad historical luck to die three days after Elvis. (You can look it up, at this hypnotically guilty-pleasure site.)

Darren McGavin had the same poor timing, dying the same weekend that Don Knotts sucked all the oxygen out of the Classic TV memorializing.

Expect an orgy of Knotts episodes of "Andy Griffith" and "Three's Company" to begin any moment on TVLand, if it hasn't already.

Well, here at p3 we're happy to leave Knotts' fans to sing his praises; we'll stick with McGavin any day. We're talking about:

• The original television Mike Hammer. Of his hard-boiled-and-then-some character, McGavin said, "He was the kind of guy who would've waved the flag for George Wallace."


• The star of the classic 1970s horror-and-camp fest "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." "Kolchak" was an inspiration for producer Chris Carter for the series that bumped it to the next level: "The X-Files." In fact, McGavin had a recurring part as a retired FBI agent who had discovered all those unexplained-phenomena cases long before Agent Mulder became obsessed with them.


• The actor who immortalized the line: "It's a major award!"

Take that, Mr. Limpet!