Maytag man to lose apprentice

Maytag's repairman will find himself all alone next year.

The company said the repairman’s apprentice, who was added to its advertising in 2001, will no longer appear in ads next year.

Mark Devine, who played the apprentice which was mean to show the company's innovation, joined veteran actor Gordon Jump, who played "Ol’ Lonely," the character created in 1967 to symbolize the reliability of the company’s appliances. The repairman was lonely because he never received phone calls to repair Maytag appliances.

Jump died in 2003, but the company continued the campaign with actor Hardy Rawls as the lonely repairman, who continued to appear with Devine at trade shows and in commercials.