Michael starts us off.
Recently saw an old PETTICOAT JUNCTION episode where it was obvious they were using a stand-in in some scenes for the brunette daughter where spent entire scene without speaking and with back to camera or with hands covering side of face as walked past camera. Googling confirmed this was done in a few episodes. Couple questions: 1) Have you ever had to resort to this on any of your shows. 2) Growing up in the sixties, did you ever watch the show just for the daughters and, if so, did you prefer the blonde, brunette, or red head?
When Shelley Long was pregnant in season 3 we had to find ingenious ways of hiding that fact since we didn't want Diane to be in a "motherly way." You’ll notice she holds a tray in front of her, and in one case we had her trapped in the floor -- so the usual hiding techniques.
I did occasionally watch PETTICOAT JUNCTION, and it must’ve been to ogle the girls because the show itself was seriously stupid. I can't tell you one memorable thing about that show except wondering why, in the opening titles, the girls bathed in the town's water supply.
But back then (the Stone Age) we just had three networks so I must’ve watched hundreds of hours of utter crap. I did draw the line at THE FLYING NUN however. Some of you will doubtless comment that it was a great show, but I don't feel cheated not having watched it.
From CheersFanFromBoston:
You and David Isaacs are listed as co-producer for Cheers in season one and then while you wrote more episodes, it looks like you weren't on staff any longer. What happened? Why did you leave the staff?
We left to create our own shows but did come back. We were Creative Consultants and wrote 40 episodes. But we were non-exclusive and were able to work on other shows, pilots, and primarily movies as well. We had a feature career at that time.
Daniel wonders:
Do you think that the characters in "Frasier" knew that they were funny? They often made objectively witty remarks that someone of their intelligence would recognize as witty or funny. But did the writers feel that the characters were that self-aware in-story?
This was always a fine line to walk, but I would say this. If a character intentionally said something witty usually it was recognized.
For the most part, however, the characters did not know they were in a comedy. The laughs come from attitudes and character, not “jokes” per se.
And finally, from Snow Too Soon:
What can you share about the musical talents of the M*A*S*H cast? I always felt sorry for Gary Burghoff and William Christopher, who had to be great musicians to sound that bad (especially Radar with the trumpet).
The cast only sang only on rare occasions. But many of them could sing. Alan had been in Broadway musicals. Gary was in the original YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN. I’m assuming everyone else could carry a tune as well. They were all so talented.
It was such a joy that pretty much anything we dreamed up they could do. Of course, now I wish we had them perform an opera. How did we miss that?
What’s your Friday Question?
Was unfortunately reminded of "The McLean Stevenson Show" this week, and it made me wonder why there were so many instances in one show in which cast members sought their fortune on their own and failed. Don't these people have anybody to tell them, don't do it!
ReplyDeleteIf the girls' dresses are hanging on the edge of the tank, how do they climb out, dry off, and get dressed when they hear the train?
ReplyDeleteIn GRACE UNDER FIRE Brett Butler had a mannerism of grimacing whenever she said a funny line and occasionally glancing at the camera.
Gary Burghoff appeared to be a talented drummer in the "Showtime" episode of "M*A*S*H," the finale from the first season.
ReplyDeleteExcept "The Lawrence Welk Show," no program celebrated the accordion more than "Petticoat Junction." The incidental music on the program seemed like one long accordion arrangement played over and over again.
As I've seen pointed out before, the water where the PJ girls swam was only used for the train. The residents of Hooterville didn't drink it.
ReplyDelete'You’ll notice she holds a tray in front of her, and in one case we had her trapped in the floor -- so the usual hiding techniques.'
ReplyDeleteI've probably posted this before, but I wrote an episode once of a BBC show which revolved around an argument between a husband and wife. By the time they shot it, the actress was heavily pregnant. I mean heavily. The characters were arguing because the wife had come off contraception without telling the husband...
There's a recent BBC show called Vigil where they had to cover up the fact that Rose Leslie was pregnant. Though to be fair, they started shooting that show pre covid, had to stop when covid hit then resume months later.
It wasn't the town's water supply, it was water for the steam locomotive.
ReplyDeleteHi Ken,
ReplyDeleteHow should a pilot script differ from a mid-season episode?
Best,
Bob Waldman
Hi Ken,
ReplyDeleteThe Infinite Dial is America’s longest-running survey of digital media consumer behavior in America. This week they released a study and the results don’t bode well for radio in the USA. America ranked behind Canada, the UK, and Australia for a percentage of total listeners above the age of 16. A whopping 81% of Brits listen to the radio in a given week compared to America’s 59%.
Why?
It’s my understanding that satellite radio doesn’t exist in the UK or Australia, so it’s unlikely that number is any more than 5% though.
What about podcasts? Well the USA did edge slightly above Australia, 26% to 25%
I think the chart reveals the USA has lost audience because of quality.
While I’m a big fan of what America has done to accelerate their pivot to digital (the iHeart app is a brilliant idea and love what Townsquare does) I long ago lost interest in listening to US radio. I just find it uninspiring.
I’m sure there are still some very good stations in the US but for the most part, I don’t hear it. Especially their music stations. There’s no Beaver Cleaver out there today (love ya Ken!). The next “Real Don Steele” isn’t being cultivated in small market stations.
Do you agree? Has the practice of playing the same song every hour ad nauseum (do I need to say more than “Kung Fu Fighting”) brought about the demise of the once great American radio station and DJ?
Here’s the link for the study referenced:
http://www.edisonresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Infinite-Dial-UK-2021-1.pdf
You rock Ken! Thanks for the daily tv education,
Darren DeGrace from Toronto
Hi Ken,
ReplyDeleteThe Infinite Dial is America’s longest-running survey of digital media consumer behavior in America. This week they released a study and the results don’t bode well for radio in the USA. America ranked behind Canada, the UK, and Australia for a percentage of total listeners above the age of 16. A whopping 81% of Brits listen to the radio in a given week compared to America’s 59%.
Why?
It’s my understanding that satellite radio doesn’t exist in the UK or Australia, so it’s unlikely that number is any more than 5% though.
What about podcasts? Well the USA did edge slightly above Australia, 26% to 25%
I think the chart reveals the USA has lost audience because of quality.
While I’m a big fan of what America has done to accelerate their pivot to digital (the iHeart app is a brilliant idea and love what Townsquare does) I long ago lost interest in listening to US radio. I just find it uninspiring.
I’m sure there are still some very good stations in the US but for the most part, I don’t hear it. Especially their music stations. There’s no Beaver Cleaver out there today (love ya Ken!). The next “Real Don Steele” isn’t being cultivated in small market stations.
Do you agree? Has the practice of playing the same song every hour ad nauseum (do I need to say more than “Kung Fu Fighting”) brought about the demise of the once great American radio station and DJ?
Here’s the link for the study referenced:
http://www.edisonresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Infinite-Dial-UK-2021-1.pdf
You rock Ken! Thanks for the daily tv education,
Darren DeGrace from Toronto
I still remember the theme song to Petticoat Junction. I always preferred the brunette (Bobbi Jo, I think), and my least favorite was the redhead (I think Billi Jo).
ReplyDeleteStan Laurel was once listing his least favorite things about television and comedy, and he included what he called Red Skelton "deliberately breaking up." They used to do that all the time on his show, and, watching some reruns recently, I found it annoying.
ReplyDeleteBut it's like baseball. The first time I heard Harry Caray, I thought someone from another planet had invaded. I grew up with Vin not rooting. And I still think a broadcaster rooting for the team is like a comedy with a laugh track: Why are you telling me when to react? Do you think I am too dumb to figure it out myself? Or maybe you all realize how bad things are?
Speaking of obvious stand-ins and M*A*S*H, there are times where this happened, particularly scenes involving choppers . . . I remember in the episode "Kim," that clearly was not Wayne Rogers who climbed onto the rope ladder dangling from the chopper to get Trapper and Kim out of the minefield: the stand-in had much darker hair, and had a heftier build than Wayne. Similarly in "Comrades in Arms, Part 2," in wide shots, that is so obviously not Mike Farrell sitting in the chopper searching for Hawkeye and Margaret - you can even see the stand-in's face when the chopper comes in for a landing on the helipad to know it's not Mike.
ReplyDeleteIn certain episodes of SEINFELD, whenever Kramer would run off throughout the city to get somewhere, 99% of the time, it was just a really tall stand-in wearing Kramer clothes and a tall Kramer wig, hence why we would always just see Kramer from behind while he ran through the city streets.
I'm also willing to bet it must have been a challenge on certain shows to find stand-ins for particular big and/or tall actors, such as 6'8'' and athletically-built Brad Garrett on EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND.
It's been a while since I listened to commentaries on the Seinfeld DVDs, but they mentioned there was a second unit that shot scenes in NYC that used a Kramer double (such as a chase across the rooftops, I think in the episode with the cable guy).
DeleteI certainly agree with your examples, although to be fair some of the “flaws” in old shows might have been not very noticeable on the small, fuzzy TV sets of the day.
DeleteIs there a way to search past Friday Questions so that I don't ask a question that has already been answered ?
ReplyDeleteSorry for my dim query. I just found the SEARCH feature. Carry on, Ken.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on this one. But in the past I've found Ken's archives difficult to navigate since they are chronological and not by subject.
DeleteM.B.
There was quite a lot of musical talent in MASH, particularly in the early seasons.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite episodes from season five, "Movie Tonight" had the whole cast singing "Gee ma, I wanna go home" in what seemed like an impromptu performance. Also, Radar gave an amazing jazz drum solo in a very early episode with a USO troupe visiting the camp. I kind of wish they kept this written into his character, but as far as I know they never brought it back.
And then there's Winchester with his French horn...
Apropos of nothing, it's interesting to me how many shows in the 1960's seemed to go downhill after they switched from black & white to color. I wonder if this was because the switch to color ate up so much more of the budget, or just the natural decline of a show that's been on for several years.
ReplyDeleteFor example the B/W years of such shows as THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, BEWITCHED, ANDY GRIFFITH, THE LUCY SHOW, THE FUGITIVE, MY THREE SONS, etc. were definitely superior to the later color years. Stretching the point, even GILLIGAN"S ISLAND and PETTICOAT JUNCTION were better before their color switch.
Ken, if you can make a Friday question out of this, can you offer your opinion on this phenomenon?
One thing I remember about PETTICOAT JUNCTION is they remade their Season 1 black and white Christmas episode in color in a later season that was virtual identical. However because of cast changes the blonde and brunette daughters parts were swapped because Meridith MacRae was the better singer in later years.
ReplyDeleteAlan Alda has quite the pleasant singing voice. He co starred with the wonderful Barbara Harris in The Apple Tree on stage.
ReplyDeleteOn the landmark children's album FREE TO BE... YOU AND ME, he directed the stories and verse. He sings "William's Doll" with Marlo Thomas. The album is an example of how a "kiddie record" need not be dismissed but can make a major positive change and has never been out of print since 1972. This year, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress (along with "The Rainbow Connection") for being ""culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.
Others include A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi, When You Wish Upon a Star by Cliff Edwards, and Tubby the Tuba by Paul Tripp.
Interesting "Junction" tidbit. The dog actor, Higgins, who played "Dog/Boy" beginning in Season 2 - went on to become the original "Benji," when he was 16 (he died the next year).
ReplyDeleteThe main thing about classic 60s sitcoms such as PETTICOAT JUNCTION, BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, BEWITCHED, and many others, is that they were brilliant for one season, maybe two, then their premises were just played out. Color film was the least of their problems.
ReplyDelete(I say this as someone who is secretly attracted to redheads.)
I would not lump THE DICK VAN DYKE show in with the others whose quality dropped after one or two seasons.
ReplyDeleteThe still at the top reminds me of that show, which ran (according to WIKI) from September 1963 to April 1970, but I had no idea that it overlapped with The Clampetts so much (1962 to 1971). I recall Ellie May (and the clan) but virtually nothing about the Petticoat Ladies.
ReplyDeleteFWIW - for my young self Green Acres stole the thunder from Jed, et al.
I was not interested "in that way" in any of CBS's rural sitcom ladies - too young, I suppose. So WHY did I crush on The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (Stefanie Powers) who appeared for only the 1966-67 TV season?
(distant resemblance to MTM?)
Get Smart (1965-1970) was also in heavy rotation in my youth - that featured "99" (Barbara Feldon) as the actual smart agent. No crush there.
"Antenna TV" (on cable, locally) has for years rerun Green Acres which, in addition to it's signature madness, featured the queen of the Hooterville asylum - Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor). Her charms were less obvious the "The Girl's", but she was charming nonetheless.
There's a video on YouTube that someone made by cutting together the first three Petticoat Junction episodes into a "movie" - explains the whole thing. Not really, but it had some continuity and after watching that, I'm good for another 40 years.
ReplyDeleteI only saw Petticoat Junction near the end of its run (my parents preferred whatever movie was on NBC). I agree with Ken's judgement. I did wonder how Sam Drucker could be so sensible on Petticoat when he was so goofy on Green Acres.
ReplyDeletePetticoat did have horrific luck though with Bea Benaderet's cancer causing her to miss half of Season 5- she comes back for Season 6 but after just 2 episodes the cancer returned and was inoperable. Then CBS insists on a Season 7 for no other reason than them having enough color episodes for syndication. I don't think the 2 seasons filmed in black and white were ever syndicated.
FQ. I saw this article stating that movie dialogue has become increasingly hard to understand in recent years. Although there may be stylistic reasons for hard-to-decipher dialogue, like Altman's overlapping lines, the article cites a lot of technical reasons for this. Primarily, the emphasis has been so much on visuals that the sound crew can't get their mics close enough to the actors to properly record the actor's voices, and there's only so much sound editing software can do with subpar source material. Have you found this dialogue comprehension to be an issue, and how did you manage the sound crew's operations when you were showrunning? https://www.slashfilm.com/673162/heres-why-movie-dialogue-has-gotten-more-difficult-to-understand-and-three-ways-to-fix-it/
ReplyDeleteYeah, everybody is so gaga about shared universes these days like it's a fresh idea, but nobody ever gives credit to the Hooterville-a-verse. That's right, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies were all in the same universe.
ReplyDeleteDo ya hear that, comic book fans? You got nothin' that compares to when Granny met Uncle Joe.
Coincidentally I've been watching episodes of the classic Hawaii Five-O and noticing how carefully Jack Lord enunciates his dialogue so every word is clear, even when it's scientific or military jargon. It's a little self-conscious but adds clarity and gravitas to the scenes.
ReplyDelete@Kevin FitzMaurice: I don't believe that was an accordion on "Junction", but some type of harmonica.
ReplyDeleteI wondered about that. Thanks.
DeleteThe most interesting thing about Petticoat Junction was Bea Benaderet. She was the voice of Betty Rubble and Lucille Ball's first pick for Ethel Mertz.
ReplyDeleteBea Benaderet was successful in radio and TV before Petticoat Junction, mostly as a voice actor and sidekicks, and she was happy to finally be the star of her own show. She was Gracie Allen's best friend on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and played Lucy's friend Iris Atterbury on My Favorite Husband. I bought Jess Oppenheimer's memoir when it came out and the book included a CD of MFH which was very funny and some of the shows are clearly antecedents of ILL episodes.
DeleteBea was an uncredited voice actor in over 40 WB cartoons and her roles included Granny, Marc Anthony's mistress, Little Red Riding Hood, Mama Bear, Witch Hazel, and the Statue of Liberty.
I've only seen a few episodes of Petticoat Junction but I liked the premise of Bea as a sort of matriarch of the family. The Beverly Hillbillies is my favorite of the "hix pix" TV shows, mostly because of Irene Ryan and Nancy Kulp, except there were too many awful episodes with coo-coo beatniks.
This ties in with Tuesday's Mel Brooks blog. I've asked this before, but it's worth asking again.
ReplyDeleteFRIDAY QUESTION: When did you officially decide to be a comedy writer? That is when did it become more than just a whim or fantasy. And what was the first thing you did to put the plan in motion? BONUS QUESTION: What is the first script you wrote?. (Either practice or real) And do you still have it filed away somewhere?
I will accept an archived answer if you've discussed this before.
M.B.
P.S. Even though I'm not normally into redheads, Linda Kay Henning was my favorite "P.J." daughter.
Re "Lucy Show" being in color
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that Paley was in no hurry to pull even with NBC on color because if you bought a color set it would probably be an RCA. But apparently he foresaw the inevitable of not just color but reruns. Some seasons they shot "Lucy Show" on color film even though CBS broadcast it in b/w
Who knows - maybe I read that here?
I watched Petticoat Junction, Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres as a kid in the 60s but most of the jokes went over my head. When they were syndicated years later, watched them again and realized how painfully corny they were. The only one I still watch today is Green Acres as the absurdist humor of it still makes me laugh. Ones that really held my attention back then were the "animal" shows....Flipper, Gentle Ben, Daktari, etc. I assume it must have been a real pain in the ass filming with animals and was sorta hoping to see Gentle Ben snap and eat Clint Howard. Besides the orangutan story from "Just Shoot Me", what other animal filming horror stories can you enlighten us on, either your own or ones you heard about from other shows?
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of hiding body parts of an actor, there was Radar's left hand, which was badly mangled. It's always hidden by a clipboard, package, or some other item.
ReplyDeleteJon12/03/2021 6:30 AM
ReplyDelete“As I've seen pointed out before, the water where the PJ girls swam was only used for the train. The residents of Hooterville didn't drink it.“
Call Me Mike said...
Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies were all in the same universe.
Don’t want to nitpick, but
• I’m absolutely certain a season 2 PJ arc had Drucker paying $5 a potable pint for water the blonde bathed in.
• Though not always in the exact same universe, characters from — for example — the Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and Fibber McGee radio sitcoms were all spun off into their own series. Paul Henning— the Stan Lee of the Hooterverse — wrote for the McGee show, which spawned The Great Gildersleeve and Beulah (the latter of whom was a black maid character portrayed by a white man)
• Petticoat Junction might’ve been more aptly named Petticoat Terminal, given the turnover rate of its characters/actors:
Bea Benaderet, Jeannine Riley, Gunilla Hutton, Pat Woodell, and Smiley Burnette were all replaced by Henning or God by series’ end. Only Edgar Buchanan’s Uncle Joe was in all 222 episodes, thereby proving — if nothing else— the benefits of “movin’ kinda slow at the Junction (Petticoat Junction).”
The girls weren't bathing in the town water supply. They were bathing in the train's water supply. The train told me personally at an autograph convention in West Bumbutt, Arkansas in 1986 that it was quite pleased about it, but the train was kind of a drunk by then and didn't seem very happy about anything. The train wanted $20 for an autograph. I offered $10 and the train took it.
ReplyDeleteI saw that original production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. One of my very favorite theatrical memories.
ReplyDeletewg
I respectfully disagree about BEWITCHED's switch to color, I actually prefer the color episodes over the black-and-white ones - not that there aren't some really enjoyable black-and-white episodes ("Driving is the Only Way to Fly," featuring a pre-Uncle Arthur Paul Lynde being one of my favorites), but, as some critics have pointed out, with BEWITCHED being a fantasy show, the switch to color seeming like such a magical time in television history, the color film and the fantasy aspect of the show went hand-in-hand with one another. The same could be said with I DREAM OF JEANNIE, the color on that show was absolutely stunning (as was the color on HOGAN'S HEROES).
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, I agree, color did not work for THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. The whole point was that Mayberry was sort of frozen in a simpler, bygone era that was otherwise being rushed out of society during the 60s, and in that case, the black-and-white really lent itself to the old-timey atmosphereof Mayberry. When the show switched to color, it felt like Mayberry was suddenly trying to catch up with the times, which sort of defeated the purpose.
THE MUNSTERS' test pilot (which cast Joan Marshall and Happy Derman as Lily and Eddie instead of Yvonne De Carlo and Butch Patrick) was filmed in color and looks great, but unfortunately, the series' proper was filmed in black-and-white for two reasons: 1) The producers didn't want to pay extra for color film, and 2) The network felt the characters were too ugly for color, and the black-and-white helped toned down their ugliness. F-TROOP was canceled after its second season switched to color because Warner Bros. didn't like paying extra for color. MY FAVORITE MARTIAN faced a lot of technical challenges when the show switched to color, because black-and-white made it easier for them to conceal some of the primitive special effects like wires and such.
I recently saw the end of a news story about a "creative" robot capable of writing poetry and creating artwork. Is this the future...robots writing film and tv scripts across all genres? I ask your opinion with only partial tongue in cheek.
ReplyDeleteNot a Friday question, but there is a bizarre/interesting interview with Jeff Garwin in Vanity Fair. I think he is basically saying, if I don't jump over a moral line I set for myself, I can do what I want until HR calls me on it. I think he said, he can do whatever he wants until somebody talks to him and says he went too far and then he'll stop it. Wow. I'm sure the women PA's are going to be comfortable telling him he went too far when he's the star of the show.
ReplyDelete@Lorimartian - One downside to robot scripts is they do -NOT- respond well to multiple network notes calling for rewrites.
ReplyDeleteBetty Jo was played by Linda Kaye Henning, daughter of show creator Paul Henning.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I read that the reason Skelton laughed so much was because he was thinking of the blue version of the joke he wanted to use.
ReplyDeleteOne of Edgar Buchanan's best film roles was playing Cary Grant's defense lawyer Sam Yates in the brilliant screwball comedy Talk of the Town, directed by George Stevens. He's a rough-hewn delight and integral to the plot. Grant is unusually low-key and riveting as an escaped convict who's been framed for a crime he didn't commit. Jean Arthur is a schoolteacher who tries to redeem him with the help of stuffy law professor Ronald Colman. The film relentlessly exposes the dark side of small-town corruption but sustains a comic tone throughout with eccentric flourishes from Arthur et al.
ReplyDeleteI was obsessed with the Hooterville trilogy. https://www.rogerogreen.com/2012/09/04/h-is-for-paul-henning-and-the-hooterville-trilogy/
ReplyDelete• The three USA networks’ mid-1960s switch to all-color programming was observed by less than half of the country’s households: b&w homes were in the majority until the early 1970s
ReplyDelete• Red Skelton used his own laughing to cue/increase the response of his audiences, but his TV rehearsals were often R/X-rated, and thus some of the laughter of Red and his staff during a taping may have been prompted by memories of the rehearsals. Arthur Marx, whose later writing career mostly consisted of racy show biz bios (Groucho; Martin and Lewis; Goldwyn; Rooney...) penned a Skelton exposé that is now slightly back in the news for an anecdote (page 277) that seems to involve Red and an unnamed, recently-passed, MGM starlet.
• Talk of the Town was the under-publicized inspiration for Neil Simon’s
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seems_Like_Old_Times_(film) which was released by the same studio
• Fans of Green Acres surrealism should check out the 63 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_McDoakes/ film comedy shorts— Acres and McDoakes were primarily directed by Richard L Bare. McDoakes was portrayed by (uncredited co-writer) George O'Hanlon, best known today as the voice of George Jetson. Here’s their parody of Robert Montgomery’s
Lady in the Lake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ztgMuOLxlg
Cap'n Bob said...
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of hiding body parts of an actor, there was Radar's left hand, which was badly mangled. It's always hidden by a clipboard, package, or some other item.
James Doohan (Scotty) hid one of his hands, which was missing a finger, on Star Trek in a similar way.
Bea Benedaret also played Cousin (of Jed) Pearl Bodine, Mother of Jethro (and Jethrene), nemesis of Granny. I think she was supposed to be a regular or at least semi-regular on The Beverly Hillbillies before PJ was created
ReplyDeletealso, for my money the best MASH musical moment was early on, Hotlips singing My Blue Heaven with great gusto and little talent
ReplyDeleteOf the Hooterville Universe, Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres did all exist in the same Universe. Characters would often crossover to one of the other shows. However, there is an episode of Green Acres in which the Hooterville Theater Players send to Hollywood, asking for a script from an episode of Beverly Hillbillies which they hope to perform. Hollywood comes through and sends the script. Eva Gabor's character, Lisa Douglas, performs the part of Granny. As a kid seeing this episode, and aware of the crossovers between shows, my mind was totally blown.
ReplyDeleteWhen Nancy Kulp ran in Pennsylvania as a Democrat for the US House of Representatives, Buddy Ebsen volunteered to help the GOP incumbent Bud Shuster, and cut radio spots against Kulp on his behalf. Shuster— still living — won re-election, eventually retiring in 2001. He is best recalled nationally for introducing a resolution to investigate Archibald Cox (!) after the Saturday Night Massacre, his opposition to the automobile airbag (!), pork barrel transportation projects (he was a Chair of the House Transportation Committee), an ethics investigation, and for handing over his House seat off to a son.
ReplyDeleteEbsen had a late-in-life memoir.
Irene Ryan, who had starred on stage radio and film with husband Tim,
and was a regular for a while on the Bob Hope radio show,
co-wrote the now-scarce GRANNY'S HILLBILLY COOKBOOK"” (1966).
She starred on Broadway in Fosse’s Pippin until brain cancer forced her retirement.
I checked out that cookbook, it looks like a fun history of the show with some mighty tempting recipes. My grandma grew up in rural Kentucky and she never cooked possum but we did get tasty ham hocks.
ReplyDeleteI've been watching the show on PlutoTV, there's a 24/7 Beverly Hillbillies channel, and Granny talks of "conjuring" to cook up love potions, curses, etc. That's rooted in long traditions of Appalachian folk medicine, working with plants to cure and heal. I'm surprised that got through on a network show, but it's probably too obscure for viewers to react.
When she died she left a great legacy, the Irene Ryan Foundation, which funds acting scholarships at the Kennedy Center every year.
Paul Henning has said in interviews that Bea Benedaret was interested in playing the part of Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies, but he thought she was too tall and shapely for his mental image of Granny
ReplyDeleteMax Baer Jr — still living — really could’ve had a strong post-Hillbillies comedy career if he had so chosen.
ReplyDeleteHenning likely was influenced in his Granny and Jethro body-type casting by the Mammy and Abner Yokum in the Al Capp Li’l Abner strip and its subsequent live action movies. The mediocre public domain (?) 1940 Abner film had a strong supporting cast of silent comics, headed by Buster Keaton.
The 1940 Li'l Abner movie is available free on PlutoTV on demand. I'm surprised by what pops up there, currently in the Classic Movies lineup are Chaplin's The Kid, Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr., Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie, After the Fox with Peter Sellers (written by Neil Simon), and Wonder Man with Danny Kaye.
ReplyDeleteThe first two seasons of The Beverly Hillbillies remain unmatched for their expert use of exterior filming (check out the Kirkeby Mansion, the real house used on the series) and Perry Botkin's background music (including music composed for specific characters -- when's the last time you saw that on a show?). The real mansion, and Perry Botkin, departed before the show switched to color, so naturally the color episodes seem tame by comparison.
ReplyDeleteShared universes on TV predate Henning. In the 1950s, Warner Bros. created two in which characters often crossed over from one to another: Detectives (77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, Bourbon Street Beat) and Westerns (Cheyenne, Maverick, Bronco, Sugarfoot, Lawman).
ReplyDeleteAnd "F Troop" wasn't cancelled because of color; it was still a Top 30 show. What happened is that Warners was bought by Seven Arts, which had little interest in television; they were appalled that such a giant chunk of the backlot was being occupied for a crummy half-hour show and pulled the plug. ABC was furious but there was nothing they could do about it.