tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post8928736195325699128..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: I Love AliceBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-10496070186926805302013-10-20T09:38:34.558-07:002013-10-20T09:38:34.558-07:00I saw an interview with Gleason and when Sheila Mc...I saw an interview with Gleason and when Sheila McRae was playing Alice she cried in a scene and he told her that Alice can't cry. If Ralph makes her cry then he's a monster. Alice has to give it right back to him.Ike Iszanyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00242135666260861294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-92169320886854020942013-10-17T02:45:44.364-07:002013-10-17T02:45:44.364-07:00Yes, VP81955, as I said in the comment immediately...Yes, VP81955, as I said in the comment immediately before yours, Anne Jeffreys is 90, and very much alive.<br /><br />Gracie Allen was a comedy goddess. I was in love with her by the time I was 3, and always ever since. I was 14 when she died, and I cried. Last year I read George Burns's book <i>Gracie: A Love Story</i>, and after laughing all the way through, the last two pages had me crying again. It's been half a century, and I'm still not over losing Gracie.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-63267928833987488482013-10-17T00:32:23.873-07:002013-10-17T00:32:23.873-07:00When it comes to TV wives, or husband/wife partner...When it comes to TV wives, or husband/wife partnering in sitcoms, it's good to recall Gracie Allen's important comedic role alongside George Burns first on radio then tv. She didn't do slaptstick zany but kept up a dizzying logic that George played the straight man to.<br /> A_Homernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-59197531167814529742013-10-16T17:53:10.632-07:002013-10-16T17:53:10.632-07:00I believe Anne Jeffreys is still with us, She was ...I believe Anne Jeffreys is still with us, She was a continuation of the sexy Marion Kerby ghost character Constance Bennett portrayed in "Topper" and the underrated "Topper Takes A Trip." The latter featured Skippy, <i>aka</i> "Asta" from the "Thin Man" films and "George" from "The Awful Truth," as "ghost dog" Mr. Atlas. (The TV series also had a ghostly canine, but transformed it from a wire terrier to a St. Bernard, as the TV Kerbys transitioned into the afterlife via an avalanche, not a car accident. I'm guessing an automobile company sponsored the series.) The TV "Topper" was popular in syndication for decades -- WABC-TV in New York ran it on late night weekends as late as the '90s -- and I suppose some episodes are available on YouTube and DVD.<br /><br />And speaking of Connie Bennett, Pert Kelton was her sidekick as a wisecracking riverboat prostitute (yes, that's what I wrote) in "Bed Of Roses," a 1933 pre-Code that UCLA will run later this year as part of a retrospective of Gregory La Cava, director of "My Man Godfrey," the greatest screwball comedy ever made. Learn more about the event at http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2013-11-08/our-man-gregory-la-cava.VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-59956474278803114292013-10-16T17:24:08.072-07:002013-10-16T17:24:08.072-07:00"Mike McCann said...
Two other sitcom wives n...<i>"Mike McCann said...<br />Two other sitcom wives need to be brought up -- Marion Kerby (Anne Jeffreys) from TOPPER... Marion was THE sexiest woman on TV in the '50s -- flirty and flippant and oh-so-fashionable. Sure, she was in the 'other couple' of the plot -- since Cosmo was married to the dowdy, boring and unimaginative Henrietta."</i><br /><br />I 100% agree about the magnificent Anne Jeffreys. And she still looked pretty darn great and charming 30 years later on <i>Falcon Crest</i>. Anne is 90 and still very much alive.<br /><br />However, I must take issue with your dissing of Henrietta Topper, played by the wonderful Lee Patrick. "Dowdy"? Hardly. She was playing the wife of a bank vice president and dressed well. "Unimaginative"? Yes, that was part of the point of the character. "Boring"? <b>No! No! No! No! No! No!</b> Lee's portrayel of the dithering, befuddled, scatterbrained Henrietta Topper (First played, let us not forget, in the movies by beloved Billie Burke) was one of the truly funny women of 1950s and '60s TV.<br /><br />Lee Patrick is one of my favorite actresses, one who always delivered. No one would have called her dowdy as Effie, Sam Spade's sexy secratary in <i>The Maltese Falcon</i>, a role she reprised 34 years later in <i>The Black Bird</i>. (Her final performance, and she steals the film.) <br /><br />No one could call her boring, more likely "Hilarious," as the jolly snobby bigot Doris Upson in <i>Auntie Mame</i>. <br /><br />In her 46 year career in movies and TV she was an asset in every movie an dTV show she graced, whether in tiny roles as in <i>Vertigo</i> (Where James Stewart mistakes her for Kim Novak. Oh yes, dowdy. So dowdy she was mistaken for Kim Novak!), or in large juicy roles, like my favorite of her roles, Mrs. Howard T. Cassin, in one of my all-time favorite movies, <i>7 Faces of Dr. Lao</i>, where she plays a flighty, deluded widow (Who turns out to have been deserted, not widowed) who is hilarious for most of the movie, and then turns on a dime and breaks your heart in her great scene with the fortune teller, which came, word-for-word out of the novel. <br /><br />She was known primarily as a <i>superb</i> comic actress, yet she had hidden depths. Check out her scary, tough, Lesbainic female inmate in the women's prison movie <i>Caged</i>. But most often she was making us laugh, in <i>Visit to a Small Planet, I Married Joan, Mr. Adams and Eve, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday, Pillow Talk, Pete & Gladys, The Alvin Show </i>(Voice acting many characters in that animated series), <i>The Real McCoy, Wives and Lovers, The Farmer's Daughter, Hazel, The Donna Reed Show</i>, and many others, in between dramatic roles in <i>The Rifleman, Summer & Smoke, 77 Sunset Strip, The Lawman, The Untouchables, Hawaiian Eye, Wagon Train, King's Row, Racket Squad, The Snake Pit, Mildred Pierce</i>, and many, many others.<br /><br />Lee Patrick, comic foil for Abbott & Costello and also for Laurel & Hardy, was one of the great comic actresses of the era (The "Era" being 1929 to 1975), when not being one of the great dramatic actresses of the era. Nobody disses Lee on my watch.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-28035519326406795942013-10-16T10:43:21.798-07:002013-10-16T10:43:21.798-07:00Yeah, I have to disagree with you Ken on Leave It ...Yeah, I have to disagree with you Ken on Leave It To Beaver. Watch it again. It's a remarkably clever (and wise) show, and Barbara Billingsly and Hugh Beaumont were the funniest things on it. Their little talks are always a highlight, and I think pretty modern and sharp.<br /><br />I think 50s sitcoms in general were more even in the husband and wife dept than people remember, whether it was June Cleaver, Alice Kramden, or Margaret Anderson. (I also happen to think I Love Lucy is still a great show - there's an odd revisionist history going on lately regards to what that show was like.)Bob Sassonehttp://www.bobsassone.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-34287749523499034782013-10-16T08:32:38.246-07:002013-10-16T08:32:38.246-07:00Ah, that Barney Rubble...what an actor!Ah, that Barney Rubble...what an actor!chuckcdnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-16746885026768966892013-10-16T08:28:11.141-07:002013-10-16T08:28:11.141-07:00I disagree somewhat with your assessment of Harrie...I disagree somewhat with your assessment of Harriet Nelson. She often put down Ozzie for his off-beat schemes, and had a pretty good delivery.Candanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-50377095621068565642013-10-16T03:31:04.508-07:002013-10-16T03:31:04.508-07:00Thanks for reminding me just how good she was.Thanks for reminding me just how good she was.Barry Traylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134880916215990198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-57317453815797548702013-10-16T00:48:06.557-07:002013-10-16T00:48:06.557-07:00An exception to the no spanking rule. If she greet...An exception to the no spanking rule. If she greets you at the front door wearing the apron and not much else, gives you a wink and a smile, it might be okay if you turn her over and give her...a spanking.Mike in Seattlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-62906752572086233852013-10-16T00:36:21.528-07:002013-10-16T00:36:21.528-07:00I read that the title was supposed to be Father Kn...I read that the title was supposed to be Father Knows Best? But, the sponsor balked at the question mark.Albert Giesbrechthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17742338183833125104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-85896941314646024462013-10-15T23:13:25.333-07:002013-10-15T23:13:25.333-07:00I'd take Roseanne off that list. That series s...I'd take Roseanne off that list. That series should have been called "The John Goodman Show." Jake Mabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01908036270824377919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-73161014335630753782013-10-15T21:25:36.356-07:002013-10-15T21:25:36.356-07:00Ward Cleaver (reading a note): "Hope to see y...Ward Cleaver (reading a note): "Hope to see you back on your feet again. Cornelia Rayburn. <br /><br />June Cleaver: "Who's Cornelia Rayburn? And when did she see you off your feet?" <br /><br />That's one for Barbara Billingsley. And pretty good for 1957. <br /><br />Mark Potashnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-41585528059406639752013-10-15T21:18:20.258-07:002013-10-15T21:18:20.258-07:00I haven't seen much of the Goldbergs TV series...I haven't seen much of the Goldbergs TV series of the 50s, but the 15-minute radio serial written by Gertrude Berg in the 30s and 40s is actually very impressive compared to the other soap operas of the time. Perhaps the long-form storylines gave the characters more room to develop past stereotypes that carried the sitcom. Berg herself is one of the major soap auteurs of the radio period, along with Goodman "Easy Aces" Ace and Paul "Vic and Sade" Rhymer. E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-9592906332551872702013-10-15T18:51:21.898-07:002013-10-15T18:51:21.898-07:00Two other sitcom wives need to be brought up -- Ma...Two other sitcom wives need to be brought up -- Marion Kerby (Anne Jeffreys) from TOPPER and Molly (Getrude Berg) of THE GOLDBERGS. Marion was THE sexiest woman on TV in the '50s -- flirty and flippant and oh-so-fashionable. Sure, she was in the "other couple" of the plot -- since Cosmo was married to the dowdy, boring and unimaginative Henrietta (I mean, you just knew from the name, right)? That character may have (technically) been dead, but she was having more fun -- and with less angst (the way Lucy lived) than any female on TV that decade. She would make a great subject for your class -- there was no one else on television doing what Marion (Anne) did. And I'll bet she never was nominated for an Emmy.<br /><br />Then, we look at Gertrude Berg's portrayal of a post-WW2 Jewish mother. Watching her on those scratchy kine's, she makes me so incredibly uncomfortable (and, despite the stage name, I am 100% Jewish-American). Neither of my grandmothers spoke with an over-the-top accent like hers. Neither of them were as meddling or awkward. Who did Ms Berg think she was portraying? Not any Jewish matriarch I ever knew. She was a bad parody of the comic's stereotype -- and probably did more harm to the Jewish-American image at a time when barriers to a lot of ethnic groups were beginning to fall.Mike McCannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06369457898152250682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-56846280707338498072013-10-15T17:47:00.610-07:002013-10-15T17:47:00.610-07:00yes, i too raise a glass to audrey....
and gracie ...yes, i too raise a glass to audrey....<br />and gracie allen.normadesmondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17325110017442011627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-40463760678104975652013-10-15T17:14:20.270-07:002013-10-15T17:14:20.270-07:00Meadows was just as smart off-screen, getting wise...Meadows was just as smart off-screen, getting wise council (her lawyer brothers)and winding up with royalties from THE HONEYMOONERS "forever" (whether that truly in perpetuity or simply her lifetime, I'm not sure)...far-sighted thinking for the time.Paul Ducanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-10999343776453520932013-10-15T16:40:52.166-07:002013-10-15T16:40:52.166-07:00(Continued from above)
Mother never became a big ...(Continued from above)<br /><br />Mother never became a big supporter of Women's Lib. On questioning, I learned it was because she never felt in need of liberating. She <i>was</i> liberated. She certainly wore the pants in our house. I'd have liked to see Dad try to give her a spanking like Ricky Ricardo. He'd have found himself in divorce court with a broken nose and a black eye. (Her first husband, <i><b>NOT</b></i> my dad, who would never have dared, once punched her hard enough to knock her down when she was 8 months pregnant. He found himself single again quite quickly, and no man was <i><b>EVER</b></i> going to lay a violent hand on her again!) For 40 years she cancelled out Dad's votes with hers (He was a Democrat; she a Republican), and gave all the orders.<br /><br />1950s TV had as little to do with real life then, at least in my home, and I don't see how we could be unique in this, as 1950s TV does to real-life now.D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-4967023762426392342013-10-15T16:40:11.512-07:002013-10-15T16:40:11.512-07:00"This reflected American society at the time....<i>"This reflected American society at the time. Hubby went off to work and wifey stayed home, raised the kids, did the housework, and cooked the meals."</i><br /><br />Hello? Not at our house. I was born in 1950, and for 90% of my childhood (and 100% of the time after I grew up until she died) my mother <i><b>ALWAYS</b></i> worked. She only left a job when pregnant, and once I and/or my siblings were a year old, it was baby sitters (or older siblings) for us and back to work for her. Always. <br /><br />She was "retired" for about a year and a half and then went back to work. Dad was okay sitting around reading and watching soaps and game shows, but Mother was bored out of her mind. She was usually employed as a switchboard operator, though later on, she became a bank officer. Her last job ended only 8 months before she died, and 5 of for those months she suffered severe dementia. She always said being stuck in the house would drive her insane, and it turned out she was right. Further, most of the teachers I had in school, from Kintergarten to my fourth year of college, were married, so were the telephone operators you dealt with if you were phoning someone more than 50 miles away, the women you met working in banks, in stores, and the ones I didn't meet who kept those wartime jobs in Airplane factories after the war ended. And so were Lucille Ball, Joan Davis, and all the other actresses you saw on TV and in movies.<br /><br />Why did my Mom always work? Was it that we needed the money? It was the 1950s, not now; one person could make a very nice living back then. We lived in Palos Verdes Estates, very, very nice. (<i>The Honeymooners</i> seemed to me, as a kid, to take place on another planet. I could not imagine that people actually lived in a two-room apartment with bare walls and your neighbors practically living in your home. I was sheltered in that regard then. <i>Amos 'n' Andy</i> also seemed another planet. "Where were all the white people?" I wondered, without ever looking about all-white Palos Verdes and wondering why there were no black people.)<br /><br />Mom worked because it was more interesting than staying home. She was bored at home. Housecleaning and chores? She had five kids she could order to clean the house for her. (And believe you me, she did. Once I was old enough to run the vaccuum cleaner, mother never vacuumed another rug. Never washed a dish, never did anything around the house that she could order us to do.) And once a month a maid came in and cleaned the house. (<i>RE</i>-cleaned the house. Mother always made us clean the house the night before the maid came, as she didn't want the maid thinking she kept a messy house, So she paid a very nice woman money to dust what was freshly dusted, vacuum what was freshly vacuumed, scour what had been scoured 10 hours before, etc.) The maid was the only black person I generally ever saw in person. (I intentionally chose a college where black students outnumbered 2-to-1 the white students because it was by then obvious to me that I needed to know some people who weren't white protestant Republicans.) Cooking? She had a husband who was always home from work earlier than she was, so <i>HE</i> did the cooking. (And Dad was a rotten cook.) (Continued below)D. McEwannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-73319852931344128322013-10-15T15:20:29.732-07:002013-10-15T15:20:29.732-07:00I wish I still had my copy of Audrey Meadows' ...I wish I still had my copy of Audrey Meadows' autobiography - which went into how she was cast (the obituary mentioned in Brian Phillips' comment is pretty accurate, from what I remember) and how she cut back on her work when she remarried in the 1960s. From what I recall, Gleason was okay with Sheila MacRae as Alice, less so with Sue Ann Langdon, who made occasional appearances in the early '60s.<br /><br />On another topic: Ken, have you read <i>Mary and Lou and Ted and Rhoda</i> by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong? I'm about halfway through it, and I'd be interested in hearing your opinion (if you have indeed read it).Curt Alliaumehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05875046706746482871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-82846490799326979522013-10-15T14:44:59.061-07:002013-10-15T14:44:59.061-07:00One often overlooked aspect of Meadows' perfor...One often overlooked aspect of Meadows' performances in The Honeymooners is that she had previously worked for two years as the female foil to Bob and Ray on their nightly NBC series. Since the team improvised their routines from a general outline, Audrey quickly developed the ability to wing comedy on live television with them. This was a skill that was particularly helpful later when having to keep a sketch moving opposite Gleason, who refused to rehearse ahead of a show and was apt to go up on his lines without warning (at which point he'd put both hands on his stomach to alert the other performers). <br /><br />And she'd race every night from the Bob and Ray show to appear with Phil Silvers in "Top Banana" on Broadway, too!E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-58034334521133750982013-10-15T13:54:13.685-07:002013-10-15T13:54:13.685-07:00Then there are young people like one of my wive...Then there are young people like one of my wive's students, who said in class one day, "If it was made before I was born, I don't care."<br />Garynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-9306804783461597442013-10-15T13:26:34.419-07:002013-10-15T13:26:34.419-07:00I always think Alice and Dandy Nichol's chara...I always think Alice and Dandy Nichol's character in TIL DEATH US DO PART - the British precursor of ALL IN THE FAMILY - were sisters.<br /><br />wgWendy M. Grossmanhttp://www.pelicancrossing.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-13656160098781836932013-10-15T13:21:39.637-07:002013-10-15T13:21:39.637-07:00Friday question: There appear to a large number o...Friday question: There appear to a large number of deals being signed for pilots this year being produced by actors for shows they will not appear in. Examples include Rashida Jones, Zooey Deschanel, and Kristen Ritter. Do they have an inherent advantage in being able to get meetings with network executives and/or more skilled at pitching projects?Michaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-16493958533270205202013-10-15T13:05:44.966-07:002013-10-15T13:05:44.966-07:00I read a piece within the last few months about ho...I read a piece within the last few months about how Ralph and Alice Kramden have a "classic abusive relationship" and how the show should only be seen now when it's presented in that light.Scottnoreply@blogger.com