Rant #1,270: Co-Star Pam

In the aftermath of the tragedy of Robin Williams, I am going to cover an eerie, unfortunate footnote to this episode.

It is really a non-story, just somewhat interesting, because I haven't seen it brought up elsewhere.

It involves actress Pam Dawber, who now, because of her work history and absolutely nothing else, is linked to two of Hollywood's worst tragedies.

Of course, she was Williams' co-star on "Mork and Mindy," the show that brought Williams to stardom.

They co-starred, but honestly, Williams was the real star of that show, and Dawber's character was there, but it was Williams' show.

Fast forward a few years, and Dawber co-starred with a young, very up and coming actress by the name of Rebecca Schaeffer in "My Sister Sam," a semi-successful sitcom that ran for a couple of seasons.

If the name Rebecca Schaeffer does not ring a bell, let me ring it for you.

I am sure you will remember the incident when I describe it to you.

If I remember correctly, "My Sister Sam" had been cancelled, but Schaeffer's star was rising anyway.

One day, someone came to call on her, she opened the door to her home, and she was blown away, murdered in cold blood by a stalker.

It made lots of headlines 25 years ago or so, but now is pretty much a forgotten, rotten piece of Hollywood history.

So the link between two unfortunate Hollywood tragedies is Dawber, and very unwittingly so.

Due to the tragic circumstances of her former co-stars, she has had to answer twice right after their deaths about what it was like to work with them.

Neither was family to Dawber, who is married to actor Mark Harmon, but each is forever linked to her through countless reruns of these two shows.

It is kind of strange, isn't it?

Nothing more, nothing less.

And before anybody gets crazy about this, I am NOT reading anything into this. It is just an unfortunate, no, make that a very unfortunate, coincidence.

I just thought I would bring it up because, quite frankly, I am surprised nobody else did.

Speak to you again on Monday.