SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Remembering Robert Sterling of 'Topper'; Benson TV Land Weekend

Robert Sterling was best known for the 1953-1956 TV series Topper, based on the Thorne Smith novel, and the 1937 film starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett. He appeared with his wife Anne Jeffreys in the television series. He died this past Tuesday of natural causes at his home in the Brentwood area of L.A. Sterling and Jeffreys played George and Marion Kirby, a fun-loving couple killed in an accident but returned as ghosts to haunt the new occupant of their home, a banker named Cosmo Topper. Sterling appeared as a guest star in series such as Love American Style, Nanny & the Professor, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Murder She Wrote, Hotel, Simon & Simon, and Fantasy Island. He will be missed greatly. Topper is a rare TV series these days. I remember it aired on WABC here in the NYC market a few years back once a week like at 4 a.m. Too bad I never caught it. Mr. Sterling was 88.

I hope you are all watching Benson this weekend on TV Land. I know I am! I'm enjoying every minute of it. Finally a TV series that has not been aired much in recent years. The show is not even on DVD, so no one can complain that this is another series that is everywhere. I do hope however that Benson gets on DVD very soon. Benson is a spin-off of Soap...now only if TV Land would air that, too. I'm glad that is on DVD already, though. Watch Benson all this weekend and weeknights at 11 p.m. ET/PT starting Monday on TV Land! Well, I better get back to Benson before someone else dies or is dying!