Joe Franklin, a New York late night talk show icon that appeared on the airways from 1950 to 1993, died Saturday of prostate cancer. He was 88.
Franklin's talk show holds a Guinness World Record for the longest continuously running talk show in television history, airing from 1950 to 1962 on WJZ-TV, and then continuing
until 1993 on WOR, the New York Daily News reported.
The Daily News wrote that Franklin conducted on-air interviews with more than 300,000 guests over the course of his 43 years on the air.
"Precision in general wasn't his strong suit," the newspaper's David Hinckley wrote. "His Times Square office was world-famous for its utter chaos. Almost swallowed by books, records, tapes and mountains of paper, Franklin would calmly assure a visitor that if something was important, he could find it."
"What mattered, and what made him Joe Franklin, is that he loved the business in which he had carved out his home. He loved show biz, he loved people in show biz, and in his mind, anyone who was on his TV program was in show biz," Hinckley continued.
Deadline.com reported that Franklin appeared as himself in several movies, including "Manhattan," "Ghostbusters," "Twenty Ninth Street," and "Broadway Danny Rose." He was also credited with jumpstarting the careers of entertainers Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, who he hired as a studio singer and pianist.
He was a favorite subject of actor Billy Crystal, who parodied him on "Saturday Night Live" for four seasons.
Other stars passed along their condolences on Twitter.
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