A talk show host whose TV show gained notoriety in the New York metro area, even while failing to gain exposure beyond the local market, has died. The New York Times reports that Stanley Siegel died Jan. 2 in Los Angeles of pneumonia. He was 79.

“The Stanley Siegel Show” aired on WABC starting in 1975, and its ratings surged soon after its premiere. “But it fizzled after only five years, having failed to gain exposure beyond metropolitan New York, a victim of too many shifts in programming schedules and maybe of Mr. Siegel’s irrepressible personality itself, which could overwhelm his viewers,” The Times reports.

In the five years his show was on, Siegel’s highlights included asking transgender former professional tennis player Renée Richards about her sex life; getting Gloria Steinem to tap dance; and infuriating Marlo Thomas when he noted she was of “the Lebanese persuasion.”