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Christopher Mayer (pictured, far left), best known for his 19 episode-long stint as Vance Duke in the 1982-83 season of Dukes of Hazzard, passed away on July 23 in Sherman Oaks at age 57.

During his time on the popular sitcom, Mayer was joined onscreen by Byron Cherry, who played his brother, Coy Duke. The two men were brought onto the show when contract disputes with the show’s main leading men, John Schneider and Tom Wopat, forced CBS to scramble to keep Dukes on the air. The network cast the two men quickly and explained that Schneider and Wopat’s characters had joined the NASCAR circuit. Audiences didn’t take kindly to the new characters, and when ratings sagged and contract disputes were solved, Cherry and Mayer were quickly written off the program.

But their story didn’t end with their stints on Dukes of Hazzard. The men remained close friends, often did press with one another, and helped each other at some of their lowest moments in life. EW spoke with Byron Cherry about his buddy Christopher Mayer, the ups and downs of their relationship, and why the actor will be sorely missed. READ FULL STORY »

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The man behind some of the most influential shows — and theme songs — of the ’60s and ’70s, Sherwood Schwartz, died this morning, his son Lloyd Schwartz and nephew Douglas Schwartz confirm to EW.

Schwartz, who created both The Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island, was 94 and died at 4 a.m. of natural causes surrounded by family and loved ones, his son and business partner since 1972, said. “I learned so much from him. I produced all around. I’ve worked as a network executive, and no one came close to being as good as he was in every single way. And I’m not the only one saying that. If you ask any other producers who was best, they’ll say Sherwood Schwartz,” Lloyd Schwartz tells EW.

SHERWOOD SCHWARTZ: A tribute to his TV legacy

At the time of his death, Sherwood Schwartz was working with his son on the Gilligan’s Island movie for Warner Bros., which Lloyd Schwartz said will go on as planned. “We’ve been getting the script in and we’re turning it over soon. That will be another legacy of his,” he said. “He’s just going to go on. Some of my job is to make sure things are as he’d liked them to be — and they will be.” READ FULL STORY »

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Actress Marilu Henner managed to cross paths with late actor Jeff Conaway often during their shared time in the acting world. Not only did they star together on the hit sitcom Taxi, but they also appeared together on Broadway in Grease (with Conaway playing Danny Zuko, not the role of Kenickie he later made famous in the film version). Henner told Entertainment Weekly that the news of his passing hit her hard, especially considering he appeared to be getting better.

“They had induced the coma to try to help him heal from this pneumonia,” Henner said. “I thought he was going to pull out of this. When I saw him last week, he was moving his head, he looked so handsome lying there. He seemed good. He looked the best I’d seen him in five years.”

Henner said that many of his former co-stars were at his bedside during his bout with pneumonia, which landed him in the hospital several weeks ago. “Tony [Danza] and I went to see him almost every day,” she said. “The Taxi family is really close. But Jeff and I knew each other well. He reminded me of one of my brothers and I reminded him of one his sisters, so we had a real family bond.”

She recalled one particular moment from a few years back that summed up Conaway’s sense of humor. “When we were doing [Andy Kaufman biopic] Man on the Moon, i was so excited because they duplicated the Taxi set. I brought my boys with me, and Jeff watched them in the hair and make-up room while I did something else, and when I walked back into the hair and make-up room, he had turned them completely into greasers,” she laughed.

Though in recent years Conaway became better known as a member of the cast of Celebrity Rehab (“He was playing a character there,” she said. “He had his problems, but he would always wind up a bit for the cameras”), Henner hopes that people recognize him for his body of work and, most importantly, for his big heart. “He was just a big, loving person,” she said. “I was always happy to hear from him, and I hope younger kids don’t think of him as just a guy from Celebrity Rehab because he was so much more.” — Reporting from Kyle Anderson

Bill Monroe, who served as the producer and moderator of Meet the Press from 1975 to 1984, died Thursday in a nursing home, The New York Times reports. He was 90 years old. In addition to Meet the Press, Monroe’s long career in TV journalism included stints as Washington editor of the Today show, NBC’s Washington bureau chief, and a regular presenter on Today. He retired from NBC in 1986.