Totally agree, he was the absurd "Voice of Authority". Great on News Radio, as well.

That was a really great article, I really enjoyed the side link of the entire interview with Conan. I've always been interested in his time as a writer there - I was a big Conan fan in high school and was always pleasantly surprised to note that the episodes he wrote were favorites of mine already.

Yeah, a lot of people define the show as before Hartman's death and after it, the "after" shows being generally loathsome. I agree he was hilarious and brought a lot to the show, for sure.

Odd; I was just telling my British friend about PH... he's not well known here other than as Troy McClure.

Something died with him.

His wife?

Hartman was great. Watching old News Radio episodes is a great way to get a fix.

lionel hutz is still my favorite recurring character. you gotta love a lawyer that filed a false advertising class-action lawsuit against the producers of the neverending story...

Oh, syntax, that's one of my favorite Simpsons jokes ever. I'm gonna laugh all day. Thanks.

Phil was a big loss, but I would say a bigger one, one that most people don't realize even happened, was Brad Bird. After he left, I thought the Simpsons seemed to falter. But hey, we got the Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. So, how can we complain about that?

Update: I'm still laughing about that Neverending Story joke.

I didn't realize how funny he was until he was gone. Just such a great utility player, always bringing the goods, that he was easily overshadowed by the "bigger" personalities he tended to work with. He was brilliant on News Radio. Supposedly a hell of a nice guy, too.