Ken Ober, 52, was found dead at his home Sunday. He had planned to meet friends on Saturday but was ill with a headache and flu-like symptoms Lee Kernis of Brillstein Entertainment Partners said. It is not known what caused Ober's death at this time.
A stand-up comic, Ober became the host of MTV's 'Remote Control' in 1987 after being discovered on the show 'Star Search'. The show featured college-age contestants in a basement set. contestants answered questions on TV reruns. Those who guessed wrong were pitched backward from the lounge chairs they had been strapped into.
Ober had recently worked as a writer and producer on the show The New Adventures of Old Christine.
Ober's goal was not to be a game show host reports the
LA Times:
"I remember the first time it hit me," Ober said in a 1989 interview with the San Diego Union Tribune. "I was in a supermarket line reading 'TV Guide,' and it said 'Ken Ober, comma, TV game show host.' And I said, 'Oh, no, I'm a game show host.' "
MTV reports that Adam Sandler and Denis Leary, both who wrote for Remote Control were some of the first to sent statements to
MTV News.
"Ken Ober was one of the sharpest, quickest, sweetest guys I ever met," Sandler said. "He was always a great friend and I will miss him very much."
Leary said: . "Kenny Ober was and always will be the quickest wit in the room," he wrote. "He was fall-down funny from the moment he was born — a smart, fast and hilarious human being who made many of us, including myself, laugh until we cried. As the star and host of 'Remote Control,' he was a welcoming ringmaster who helped to kickstart the careers of numerous talents, including Adam Sandler, Colin Quinn and myself. He will be remembered always by each of his friends not only for his massive talent but for his true, deep and enduring friendship."
Ober is survived by his mother Claire Freeman of West Hartford, Conn.; his father, Burton, and stepmother, Iris, of Palm Beach, Fla., and a brother, Andrew of Old Greenwich, Conn.
