Tom Poston isn't doing too well.

Poston was the last ( to go ) of the three men in the street Steve Allen used to interview on the old Tonight Show. Louis Nye and Don Knotts were the other two guys. Knotts died last year. Nye? I don't know when he exited life's stage.

Tom Poston was 85.

Steve Allen was the host of the Tonight Show before Johnny Carson took over in, I think it was 1961. Steve Allen was always one of my heros. A Renaissance Man if there ever was one. He could do it all and he was funny as hell. Crazy funny. Watch some old Letterman shows on tape and you'll see his influence. Ernie Kovaks influence, too.

But getting back to Steve Allen. Those three men in the street. Nye, Knotts and Poston. Hilarious stuff. Nothing like that on TV now, at least that's the way I see it.

Poston's gone. The comics and comedians influenced by Allen, Kovaks, Vaudeville - they're dying. Life is knocking them dead.