Sad news

To television addicted Generation Xers, he was the voice of Shaggy in the cartoon series Scooby Doo, and Mark, commander of G-Force in Battle of the Planets, the Americanized, sanitized child-friendly version of Tatsunoko Productions' gritty science fiction anime series, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, and Cliffjumper in the original series of Transformers. On top of that, from 1970 to 1988 he was also the host of radio's American Top 40. I speak of course of Casey Kasem.

I watched some old episodes of Battle of the Planets on DVD recently, which got me thinking about what Kasem has been up to lately. I was saddened to read that Kasem, 82, is suffering from dementia, and that his wife and daughter are involved in a messy legal dispute over his custody and care.

Kasem came across as warm and friendly, and in an interview on the Battle of the Planets DVD, said that it was his favourite of all of the animated series that he worked on. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family at this difficult time.

Postscript: Kasem died on June 15, 2014.