New York Times: John Backe, a former bomber pilot who rose to become chief executive of CBS, returning it to first place among prime-time television viewers in the late 1970s before being ousted in a power struggle with the network’s unforgiving founder, Bill Paley, died on Oct. 22 in Gladwyne, Pa., near Philadelphia. He was 83. The cause was heart failure, his son said. During his tenure, Backe was behind shows like the nighttime soap opera “Dallas” and “Trapper John, M.D.,” an offshoot of the groundbreaking comedy “M*A*S*H.”