I WILL SHOW YOU FEAR IN A HANDFUL OF DUST: Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Newton Minow dead at 97.

Newton N. Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97.

Minow, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, died Saturday at home, surrounded by loved ones, said his daughter, Nell Minow.

“He wanted to be at home,” she told The Associated Press. “He had a good life.”

Though Minow remained in the FCC post just two years, he left a permanent stamp on the broadcasting industry through government steps to foster satellite communications, the passage of a law mandating UHF reception on TV sets and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television.

Sherwood Schwartz named the SS Minnow in Gilligan’s Island after Minow; and as the above AP obit notes, Minow’s 1961 speech “‘caused a sensation. ‘Vast wasteland’ became a catch phrase. Jimmy Durante opened an NBC special by saying, ‘Da next hour will be dedicated to upliftin’ da quality of television. … At least, Newt, we’re tryin’.’”

(Classical reference in headline.)