of the regular panelists, with Dennis James, on Monty Hall's game show Your First Impression. By mid-1964, the show was cancelled, but writing assignments, for both big screen and small, quickly filled the void. From that point on, for more than two decades, Kirgo's screen appearances were confined to bit roles in a handful of TV shows and one feature film, The Best Man, a political drama scripted by Gore Vidal, in which Kirgo's character interacts, albeit briefly, with the president of the United States, portrayed by Henry Fonda. It would be the early 1980s before Kirgo's writing workload lessened, and it was not until 1987 that he was briefly resurrected as an on-air personality, the TV/movie critic for The Morning Program, CBS's ill-fated alternative to ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today. From 1987 to 1991, Kirgo was president of the Writers Guild of America, West, most notably during the contentious 150-day-long strike over compensation from home video sales, which took place between March and August 1988. He also served as vice president of the Writers Guild Foundation between 1995 and 2001. In addition, Kirgo helped script the WGAW's Annual Awards show from 1979 through 1998, and from 1991 through 2001, he produced it. In 1988, Kirgo received PEN Center USA's president's award,<ref>"PEN Will Honor 10 Writers at Banquet Scheduled Tonight". The Los Angeles Times. September 30, 1998. Retrieved 2014-02-09.</ref> and, in 2001, the WGAW's Morgan Cox Award, for his years of service to the Guild. Kirgo was also a founding member of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. Death In 2004, following a long illness, Kirgo died at age 78, having lost his wife of 38 years (and mother of his three children), Terry Newell, nearly two decades earlier. He was survived by his second wife, Angela Wales, then director of the Writers Guild Foundation (previously executive director of the Australian Writers Guild), and three children from his first marriage – screenwriters/producers Dinah Kirgo and Julie Kirgo, and musician-songwriter Nick Kirgo. In addition, Kirgo left behind stepson Alec Perrin, his sister Rita Lapp, four grandchildren, niece Tyne Daly, and nephew Tim Daly. Notes References Further reading Kern, Janet. "Many Persons Can't See Popularity of Paar Show" (or "How I Discovered the Salty Wit of George Kirgo"). The Milwaukee Sentinel. August 31, 1959. Starrett, Vincent. "Books Alive". The Chicago Tribune. November 20, 1960. Cromie, Robert.