Letters to the Editor: Remembering Sam Rubin, 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' pitchman

To the editor: I found KTLA's statement after the death of Sam Rubin to be very true of him: "His laugh, charm and caring personality touched all who knew him."

In the 1990s, I was a copywriter at Walt Disney Home Video. After the sad news of Rubin’s passing, another copywriter who knew of my friendship with him emailed me. He mentioned he had watched the Jerry Seinfeld film "Unfrosted” and was disappointed.

I wrote back to him that after his pan, I looked up the reviews for “Unfrosted" on Rotten Tomatoes, and could sympathize with the copy writers who had to scrounge around for a positive two words here, three words there, and string them together to make them look like a rave review.

He replied, "Those were the days, finding a few words to make a horrible movie rentable!" He also reminded me that I had pulled the quote for the "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" VHS release:

"'... it's...it's UNFORGETTABLE, that's what it is!' – Sam Rubin, KTLA Morning News, Los Angeles."

I wrote back: "OMG, I forgot about that! That's probably the movie that inspired the creation of Rotten Tomatoes! I called Sam and told him I wanted to use that quote on the packaging, would he mind. He laughed, and said, 'No, go for it!' I sent him the video when it came out and he called me and said, 'Bob, thanks! But you shouldn't have, you really, really, really shouldn't have!"

Sam's warm laughter still rings in my memory.

Bob Canning, Petaluma, Calif.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.