Playwright Neil Simon came up with “The Good Doctor,” built on the foundation of writings by legendary Russian Anton Chekhov, in 1973.

Frances Hussy Sternhagan (know-it-all, know-nothing mailman Cliff’s mother in “Cheers”) and Rene Auberjonois (later, Odo in “Star Trek”) won Tony Awards for their performances.

In 1978 Edward Asner, the formidable Lou Grant and, in real life, formidable union leader; Richard Chamberlain, king of miniseries; and Marsha Mason, Simon’s wife and in the 1973 stage premiere as all 3 of the Three Sisters, resurrected “The Good Doctor” for a TV movie.

In 1981 Mark Dawidziak and Sara Goodman were cast in a Tennessee production of “The Good Doctor.”

A year later, Mark and Sara were married in Johnston City, Tennessee, where Mark was working on the Kingsport Times-News. Or, as Mark calls it, “a run-of-the-play contract.”

Two years later, the kid who grew up on Long Island brought his bride from Tennessee as he came to the BJ to fall under the excellent tutelage of – ahem! – me!!! I was Mark’s TV Editor. As Humphrey Bogart said to Claude Raines in “Casablance,” “It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” He have stayed in touch ever since, 22 years after my retirement from the BJ, including reunions with fellow BJ escapees at Primo’s Deli.

He succeded David Bianculli, who took off for fame at the New York Post after never meeting a deadline he didn’t ignore at Ol’ Blue Walls. David and I gave birth to Channels, the BJ’s television guide which since has disappeared after a technology tsunami overwhelmed it.

Today, the PD and former BJ culture critic Mark and still his co-star Sara are celebrating their 36^th wedding anniversary and are co-CEOs of their Largely Literary Theater Company.

Mark is superb on stage doing Edgar Allan Poe (the family cat is named “Poe,” Mark Twain and Charles Dickens but his best role is with Sara and their daughter Becky and the animals that find their way into their home in Cuyahoga Falls. Paula and I have witnessed Mark and Sara’s performances at libraries in Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Massillon and Hudson.

And, to keep from resting on his laurels, Mark has written more than a dozen books about Columbo, Twain, The Twilight Zone, Dracula – you name it.

Before the BJ & the PD, Mark's career took him to the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee,
the Bristol Herald Courier in Virginia, the Associated Press’ Washington bureau and Knight-Ridder Newspapers’  Washington bureau.

Mark was born in Huntington, New York (think Long Island), on September 7, 1956, a son of World War II Army Air Corps captain/navigator Joseph Walter Dawidziak, buried after his 2016 passing away in Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island, and Claire Dawidziak. Later, Joe married Bernie Dawidziak.

So were siblings Joe, Jr., Jane, Aileen and Michael.

Mark’s email address -- hlgrouch@sbcglobal.net    -- includes tributes to humorist H.L. Mencken and comedian Groucho Marx.

Mencken’s most famous quote seems Nostradomas-like today with Donald Trump in the White House: “On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Mark is justifiably in the Cleveland Press Club’s Journalism Hall of Fame. And forever in my memories and heart. Right alongside the supreme Sara.