TVXOHOF, HAT SQUAD EDITION - STEVE LAWRENCE & EYDIE GORME

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eydie Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer as a solo act and as a team with her husband, Steve Lawrence, has died. She was 84.

Gorme, who also had a huge solo hit in 1963 with "Blame it on the Bossa Nova," died Saturday at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas following a brief, undisclosed illness, said her publicist, Howard Bragman.

Gorme was a successful band singer and nightclub entertainer when she was invited to join the cast of Steve Allen's local New York television show in 1953.

She sang solos and also did duets and comedy skits with Lawrence, a rising young singer who had joined the show a year earlier. When the program became NBC's "Tonight Show" in 1954, the young couple went with it.

"Eydie has been my partner on stage and in life for more than 55 years," Lawrence said in a statement. "I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time."

In the last couple of years, it's been my practice to admit qualified candidates into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame upon news of their deaths.  In this case, it just didn't seem right to induct Eydie Gorme without Steve Lawrence.

Here are the three sitcom appearances in which they appeared entitling them to become members of the TVXOHOF:

'The Nanny'
"Canasta Masta"

At Sylvia's, Brighton shows an incredible talent for playing canasta, so he joins Yetta's canasta team to play in Atlantic city.  Fran runs into Steve & Eydie there but thinks they're celebrity impersonators.  They sing for her but can't convince her that they're the real Steve & Eydie.

'Sanford And Son'
"Earthquake II"

Fred wakes up one morning to discover what looks like a robbery took place but learns that there was a small earthquake overnight. Grady breaks the news that a big one is scheduled to hit on the 6th and a fed up Fred decides to sell the house and move. Meanwhile, Fred heads to Las Vegas to avoid the earthquake on the 6th and has a run in with Merv Griffin and Steve and Eydie.

'Here's Lucy'
"Lucy the Peacemaker"

Lucy attempts to resolve the marriage separation between Eydie Gorme and Steve Lawrence.

Good night and may God bless, Eydie Gorme......