New York Times television critic, JOHN J. O’CONNOR, was born (d: 2009); O’Connor joined The Times as a television critic in 1971 and retired in 1997. His tenure oversaw the sweeping changes in television from a time when it was ruled by three networks to the modern state of cable and broadcast television media with hundreds of cable outlets. He and his partner of 47 years, author and translator of children’s books Seymour Barofsky, adopted a son who died of lymphoma at the age of seven.