Marvin Kitman, 1929-2023

Some Memories of America's First Great TV Critic

"The Marvin Kitman Show" has been canceled.

The obituaries say that Mr. Kitman died today (June 29) of cancer, age 93. Sam Roberts, ace of the New York Times obit desk, captures both the details of the life and examples of Kitman's disheveled genius here. Personally, I think Marvin found an uninhabited UHF channel to occupy, or will be going into permanent reruns on one of those cable channels none of us know we have, but I could be wrong.

But I knew Marvin Kitman as a colleague and mentor, and once as a farcical  victim of mistaken identity (I'll get to that later). And to address him as "Mr. Kitman" would be a little hoity-toity. You might be at one of those moderately fancy Italian restaurants near Newsday's original office on Stewart Avenue in Garden City, L.I., and the maitre'd might say, "good afternoon Mr. Kitman." And Marvin would literally hit you in the side with his elbow, and chuckle, under his breath: "Didja hear that? Mr. Kitman!" As if to say, "What a schmuck." Actually,…