Susan Clark

You made me think of Meat. He's still hot.

Fine actress who never got the level of career she probably deserved.

There used to be a hilarious DL description of a "Webster" episode where Ma'am Papadopolis clutched at her uterus...I can't remember why.

It was a real comedown for her to do "Webster." She was a classically trained actress.

But she and Alex did make money doing that show, which hopefully helped once he developed his football related health issues.

But why did little Webster always call her "Ma'am?"

Oh, that's right. "Because it sounds like Mom."

Terrible hair on Webster.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

She was a bore,

Butterbox Babies

When I watched Webster as a kid, I found her terrifying. She was a sitcom personification of a wire mother.

What a "wire mother"?

Oops, I meant, "What's a 'wire mother'"?

She was brilliant in "Babe," and she was a good Amelia Earhart, too - way better than Hilary Swank was.

I'll never forget how she took off her gloves as "Babe." She slightly pulled the tip of each finger in turn from thumb to pinkie, and then pulled the whole glove off her whole hand from the middle finger. I thought that was so glamorous as a kid, so I did it with my winter gloves. That was my "dialing a phone with a pencil" thing.

In the 70's, she was one of those actresses who was on the brink of becoming big and worked all the time, but it never happened for her in the way that it should.

Webster made her and Alex a lot of money and they invested well. She works in theatre from time to time. I don't see it as a comedown. She was in her early 40's and parts for women her age were few and far between.

What do we think of [italic]The Apple Dumpling Gang[/italic]?

Here's a recent interview where she talks about [italic]Webster[/italic]:

I posted about the episode in which Ma'am Papadopolis clutched at her uterus, because I saw it when I was 10 and it scarred me for life.

It was a miscarriage episode. On Webster! WTF?

Ma'am discovers she's going to have a late-in-life baby. She and George tell Webster. He gets jealous.

The uterus-clutching happened in Ma'am and George's bedroom. IIRC Webster says something bratty and he and Ma'am argue. Then she stands up, folds over and either calls 911 or tells Webster to get help ("Hurry! I think I'm losing my baby!") as she clutches her uterus (which must have been expelling its contents at a rapid rate, judging by Susan Clark's hysterics), and drags herself across the floor into the master bathroom.

It was so wrong and off-tone, not just for a fluffy family sitcom but entertainment in general, that it seared into my brain.

R19: Her mother came to comfort her, and they had this conversation, basically implying that her Uncle Derek was gay, and the word Katherine used is of interest considering this was a proto-TGIF show:

I was really freaked out by the child molestation episode. Web was going home from school, and one of his friends, played by Alison Sweeney, who was obviously being fed her lines one-by-one, gets molested by her teacher as he stays and watches in terror. Then we cut to George cooking and singing "I Got Rhythm."

And who wouldn't want to have Ben Vereen for an uncle and Gwen Verdon for an aunt?

Honky bitch ripped off my show!

R21: You ripped off so many of our scripts, it was karma.

Actually Alex and Susan had a show about a hip, happening couple called, "Then came you." When ABC saw Webster in a TV commercial, they told Alex and Susan, add the little negro child or no go on your sitcom.

The rest is history.

She is quite political - as she talks about politics or makes some sort of political reference in every interview that I know of.

She got a hideous "Star Is Born" perm in the mid-'70s and then the dykey cut she sported as "Ma'am," so of course she never made the big-time.

What was the deal with her and Karras, anyway? Lavender marriage?

She was in the great "Midnight Man" with Lancaster. Plays a dyke.

You forgot the part where Webster wasn't allowed to take his hormone shots to grow so he kicked "Ma'am" in her cunt, causing the abortion.

Sad. 😶

She was in tonight's episode of Columbo on MeTV.

[quote] She got a hideous "Star Is Born" perm in the mid-'70s and then the dykey cut she sported as "Ma'am," so of course she never made the big-time.

She had it before Streisand did; [italic]The Apple Dumpling Gang[/italic] came out a year earlier. Contrast that to the longer, more feminine shoulder-length cut she sported in [italic]Airport 1975[/italic] or even at the end of the decade in another Disney film called [italic]The North Avenue Irregulars[/italic].

Poor Susan...this thread has been around for more than five years and the only interesting thing in it is the interview with Meat from Porky's.

God he aged well and you can even get a quick peek of his peen in Porky's.

Plus now that Mary Higgins is dead she must be rolling in the dough!

Susan Clark's tour-de-force uterus-clutching scene begins at 12:00:

She was as bland as plain yogurt, and always reminded me of Anne Murray, the blandest pop singer of the 70s.

I always liked her. I agree, she should have been a bigger star but she is a good actress and I'm sure made some good $$ from Webster.

The Webster Wikipedia page is quite interesting. Apparently she and Karras fought hard to keep their own vision of the show but it was a constant battle. It was the same kind of issue Valerie Harper would have when Valerie came on a few years later: allowing the adults to have stories instead of being supporting players to the kid(s).

My favorite performance of hers, was as "Cherry Forever" in Porky's.

"What do you use for a jockstrap, kid? A peanut shell and a rubber band?"

"You know we'd better tie a board across his ass, or he's liable to fall in."

The perm is what killed her career.

I love how threads like these get repurposed on Sitcoms Online soon after.

....

[quote]Contrast that to the longer, more feminine shoulder-length cut she sported in Airport 1975

It wasn't shoulder length there either . . .

So '70s chic on Columbo!

She has Courteney Cox's eyes or. Courteney Cox has hers. Either way they have similar looking eyes.

R40: You're right. This was the movie I was thinking of:

She won an Emmy for this. She looks so feminine here.

She and Karras reportedly mistreated Lewis during the run of that show out of professional jealousy.

Link, R45? I don't doubt you, I'd just like to read more.

Susan Clark was a working actress who got a lot of work. She was not star material because she was ordinary and bland. There's nothing unique or surprising about her. Clark should be HAPPY, no, deliriously happy, that she got so much work. For all of you queens who think she never got her due or deserved to be a star, come down to planet earth.

Her Husband Alex Karras was great in bed, and had a nice thick big beefy cock!! I loved Alex in "Victor-Victoria".

[quote]I always liked her. I agree, she should have been a bigger star but she is a good actress and I'm sure made some good $$ from Webster.

There was some 1970s/1980s TV podcast years ago where she did an interview and claimed Paramount is still stiffing her on money owed to her. They gave her the same line of BS they gave to Winston Groom regarding [italic]Forrest Gump[/italic], but likely she didn't want to pursue it in court she already had to deal with Alex Karras' dementia.

Oh come now. the Clark Harris is in no way mistreated Emmanuel Lewis. He was theirCash Cow For Heaven's Sake!

Karras Clark's, I mean.

They actually did a TV movie before their sitcom called [italic]Jimmy B and Andre[/italic] in 1980 about a real-life case of a white restaurant owner in Detroit trying to adopt a black boy.

Lewis hit hard times years back, losing his Atlanta area home to foreclosure for back taxes that hadn't been paid for 4 years. Must not been much of a house as it sold at a tax auction for only $56,000.00 in 2011.

[quote] Oh come now. the Clark Harris is in no way mistreated Emmanuel Lewis. He was their Cash Cow For Heaven's Sake!

If you think that would keep Hollywood types from being jealous of another performer you've got a lot to learn about those types of people. What I read was that they did not like playing second fiddle to a child who got better press than they did.

Some entertainment people are the most heinous and envy riddled human beings on the planet. They see every other performer as a competitor they need to beat at all costs.

That episode of Columbo at R41 was on last night on MeTV. She played a British beyotch who murdered her own brother in order to take over the family company.

So someone who saw the movie Babe help me with this. I swear there was an opening sequence where she is later in life riding a horse down a country road when a cement truck comes along and the pour shoot is unhinged knockIng back and forth. When it goes to pass her it comes loose and practically amputates one of her legs. Whenever I look up biographical information about this and Babe I don’t find anything, but I swear it was this movie that I saw it in. Help!

I love the fact that DL spends Black History Month talking about [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic] and [italic]Webster[/italic].

Cane face.

This show demands an E True Hollywood Story.

I always thought she looked kind of butch.