THE GUY WHO INVENTED THE TV REMOTE HAS DIED. A great invention, if for nothing else, being able to hit the mute and tune out the junk that comes out of that box.

The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died.
Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics said Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.

His wife said he hardly ever watched TV, he read.