Old shit on TV (part 2)

Speaking of Florida Friebus, I loved The Adventures Of Dobie Gillis. Frank Faylen as Dobie’s dad: “I gotta kill that boy - I just gotta.”

Didn’t December Bride follow or lead into I Love Lucy on Monday nights? This guaranteed that it was a hit. It had similarities - Byington and Verna Felton got into some elderly Lucy-Ethel-type scrapes. As a kid I thought it was funny, in reruns - it was also re-run next to ILL on CBS in the morning (mainly watched it in summer).

I'm watching Route 66 these days,

It was airing on MeTV+ for a long time until a few months ago. When they pulled it, I continued watching on Freevee.

Route 66 is on freevee? Cool. I loved that show. Martin Milner and George Maharis were hot together

I was a big fan of December Bride in morning reruns (too young to stay up to watch it in its original run) but just old enough by 1962 to enjoy its spin-off Pete & Gladys, which had for its time, the novel premise of introducing us to a lead character who had only been alluded to in the first series.

And that character was Gladys, married to good neighbor Pete, who was always dropping into Lily's (Spring Byington's) home to whine about his seemingly obstreperous wife. They were played by Harry Morgan (later on MASH, of course) and Cara Williams, a gorgeous redhead (nothing like what we expected from Pete's whining) who was being touted as the next Lucy. I think Williams, who had apreviously been nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar, got a rep for being difficult. And I don't think she did much after this series.

The scripts weren't great though so, in spite of the big push CBS gave it, the series didn't last long. But I think it was one of the very first spin-offs in TV history. I loved it, never missed it. It probably doesn't hold up at all.

KOJAK

John Ritter '74

Watched some MacGyver, Love Boat, and Becker on Pluto but am now watching Caroline in the City and flashing back to when this was on broadcast tv in the 90's and wanting Del and Richard to make porn together. Throw in Charlie and his rollerblades.

Larry, Whitey and Gilbert are in a tree spying on Miss Landers having dinner at the Cleavers. They're surprised to see her...toes.

Any Wiseguy fans? The show is airing on Retro TV or RTV.

Some may be interested in the upcoming "Dead Dog Records" arc. Often considered the best arc, with lots of notable guest performers.

If interested, I put a post on the Wiseguy thread that gives more information.

On Svengoolie tonight...

Attention Turhan Bey fans!

On tonight...

I've been watching "Dobie Gillis" on FreeVee. Tuesday Weld and Warren Beatty disappear early on, but then you have the delights of Chatsworth's mother (the wonderful Doris Packer) as well as both of Patty Duke's parents in recurring roles. And of course Maynard G. Krebs was one of the greatest characters in TV history.

Gilligan wiped out America’s collective memory of Maynard.

Harold : Hazel how do I have to be before I can do whatever I want to?

Hazel: I don't know Sport. As far as I know no man has ever lived that long.

Snort.

My Favorite Matian is on TUBI. The premise is rather stupid but it's funny as hell.

Odetta was the guest star on Have Gun, Will Travel. I thought it was interesting that Peggy Rea who cast the show also had a part in the episode.

I didn't remember that Zasu did a Perry Mason episode.

Tonight...Sister Season Hubley on Kojak

Was r13 supposed to make sense? I think it's missing a few words.

As newlyweds, my folks got a TV set specifically to watch Dobie Gillis.

Del on "Caroline in the City" was hot AF!

R17 That Hubley bitch was everywhere for a while.

[quote] Then I saw Florida Friebus

I’ll see your Florida Friebus and raise you a Toppie Smellie.

MeTV just cycled back to the Mark Shera seasons of "Barnaby Jones." He was so gorgeous. Would love to know where he is today (I think he left the business several years ago).

One Day At A Time was so dumb. Bonnie was annoying. Valerie was stupid and clueless. Alex was gay.

Toppie Smellie sounds like a kind of turd.

R22 Mark Shera (now 74) is still in the Los Angeles area. His Linkedin says that he's been working for the last 28 years as an "ADR Loop Group" coordinator for films and TV series. The company name is BACKTALK.

In 2020, a longtime friend of Shera's, Barbara Deutsch, put a New Years photo up on her Instagram that included Mark. Someone asked her if "Mark does any social media?", and her reply was, "No, he doesn't." So this photo of him is about four years old now:

L-R are: Mark Shera, Barbara Deutsch, Bob Garrett (PING!), and Julie McDonald

btw - Barbara was a young actress herself when she appeared as Mark's partner on the couple's game show, "Tattletales" in 1977. It was a "Barnaby Jones" game with Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether with their spouse/partner's at the time. Young Barbara went on to marry actor, Michael Lembeck, a few months later.

And here Mark and Bob are back in the day with Cheryl Barnes. Cute.

Bob is a longtime dialogue, vocal, singing coach. He seems to know everyone.

Is there a Mrs, Garrett, r26?

It takes a lot to make someone who looks like Lee Merriweather look like a dumpy frau. The costumers on Barnaby Jones were somehow able to do it though.

R27 I've never seen any kind of husband in the picture, and Garrett's FB page indicates he's "Single."

Yes, r29, there *is* a Mrs. Garrett.

Speaking of old sitcoms, Bob Garrett wrote the lyrics to the "Gimme a Break" theme song used in the first two seasons.

R4 Cara Williams had her own TV show in the 1964-65 season. As I recall, the lyrics to the theme song were simply “Cara…Cara” sung by a female vocalist. Frank Aletter played her husband. And yes, I think she disappeared from TV after that.

For any Britcom fans reading this, the plot of that show was done much better in a 1980s show named “Executive Stress” starring Penelope Keith and either Peter Bowles or Geoffrey Palmer as the husband, depending on which series/season of the show.

Cara was also in...

R15, Odette was outstanding in that episode. Her bearing, her aura was indescribable.

Lee Merriwether is extraordinary

We all have an actor or two that we wish had a bigger career. Lee is one for me.

Lee. Pre Barnaby Frau.

Lee Merriwether as Betty Jones was really quite unique

r35/r38 - Is she any relation to Lee Meriwether?

a distant cousin.

Meow.....

There she is...

That bitch is pussywether

JFC! This is a Methuselah thread if there ever was one on DL!

Lee was married to Frank Aletter, mentioned above.

I watch BJ every night for several hours on Pluto

Lee is in every episode as Betty

Didn't she carry the show for like the last three seasons? Barnaby was show looking through his microscope.

R44 We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re old as Methuselah.

[quote]JFC! This is a Methuselah thread if there ever was one on DL!

Do you have reading comprehension problems, r44? Did you blindly come to this thread without reading its title? Or...are you just so desperate for attention that you'll accept negative attention? That's what children do, you know.

But Methuselah didn't own a television machine.

As a child watching morning TV in the ‘60s, I loved watching really old series like “My Little Margie,” “December Bride,” “Burns and Allen,” “Our Miss Brooks,” “The Thin Man,” with Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk and “Mr. Adams and Eve,” with Ida Lupino and Howard Duff. And “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” before it was permanently yanked in the mid-‘60s.

Sterling Silliphant was involved with both “Route 66” and “Naked City,” and the two series often cycled guest actors from the set of NC in NY to the southern locations of R66. Though I think “Naked City” was the better series (more adult and hard-hitting) you can feel how prescient “Route 66” was in anticipating the stresses and conflicts of the end of that decade — all of the anger, restlessness, disillusion, the sense that old ways weren’t working anymore, the way women were breaking out of their traditional roles — it’s all there when ypu look back at those episodes. In Glenn Corbett’s first episode replacing George Maharis, he plays a Vietnam vet tortured by PTSD (when it was still called shell shock) who is trying to become a Buddhist, furious about what he had to do and witness over there. And this was in 1963!

Don't forget Mrs. Steele's episode...

R25/R26, thank you! That was a great update on Mark. I really appreciate it. Nice to know he's doing well. Just out of curiosity, do you know if he ever married and had a family? I do recall someone posting on DL about him a long time ago and saying that he's straight.

By the way, though Mark isn't on social media, I believe Lee Meriwether is. She's 88 now.

*Miss Billingsley's dresses by De De Johnson*

*

DeDe invented pedal pushers!

1974 Kojak with Andrea Marcovicci...she was stunning.

This is on tonight. Think I'll skip it.

"Barney Miller" is still a very funny show. Holds up quite well.

Anyone catch That's My Mama! on Catchy!TV this week? Never heard of it seen it before. Catchy has featuring some rarely seen shows from the 70s.

Currently watching Newhart. Current scene features Larry, Daryll & Darryl selling pics of themselves posing with cars for "a buck a pic. Ten bucks for nudies!"

Oh, the lovely Ellen McRae is guesting on Perry Mason this morning.

Todsy on Perry...Anne Welles!

She looks like she could do with a couple of dolls, there.

Picked back up with Murder, She Wrote and as a child of the 80's who loved this show and murder mysteries, there are so many character and bit actors who were gay and are no longer with us. I'll look up and ep on IMDB and see so many attractive faces playing straight as Jessica's nephew or next door neighbor's son-in-law or whatever and they died in '92, or '95 and it's like a fingerprint time stamp on the impact of the plague from that time. Rest in power, kings. May your memory always be a blessing.

[quote]Today on Perry...Anne Welles!

Perry probably would've preferred to have Lyon Burke "on" him.

He probably would have preferred Mel, r63.

Was Paul Drake a big mo too?

He never got over the trauma of fathering Rhoda Penmark.

Oh look, Princess Leia was on Have Gun Will Travel...

Lightning Strikes Twice is on this evening...

I think the proper term is old as dirt.

Watching Night Tide...

The Friday night film on PBS was "Love Story" (1970).

Why is this some kind of classic? The acting is horrible. My boyfriend and I couldn't stop laughing. We had to turn it off after 20 minutes. There are better "Made for TV" movies than this.

It's not a classic, R71. It was a triumph of marketing over art even at the time, its main impetus having been that studio head Robert Evans fancied Ali McGraw and was determined she would be a star. It was a big hit on release, and then was never heard of again. It's not only the acting that's bad, it's the Hallmark story as well. The novel was a bestseller, but around the time that bestsellers were great works of literature such as Airport. Come to think of it, that great work of cinema, Airport, has been on TV and at retro cinemas way more often since the early 1970s than Love Story. Its idiotic marketing slogan, "Love means never having to say you're sorry" -- also a line from the film in case you didn't get that far -- was satirised at the time by just about every comedy writer living, and then was deservedly forgotten. Astoundingly, Evans's next hit was The Godfather, which essentially erased Love Story from history.

Ali McGraw, under the delusion that she WAS a star (and/or that Love means never having to say you're sorry), left Evans for Steve McQueen on her next movie and, happily for all, was virtually never seen again.

I was in middle school at the time, and I still remember vividly how dreadful it was and how, for about a year, it was wherever you looked. It was a Swiftian situation, but whether Taylor or Jonathan I leave you to deduce.

I can't believe this has devolved into a discussion of Love Story, but my two cents is that I saw it again not too long ago and it holds up pretty well.

R72 Thanks for the reply. I thought it must be considered some kind of "classic" because that's basically how PBS promotes the movies they show on Friday and Saturday nights.

It *is* a classic, r74, but it's still a piece of dreck.

But it's the biggest piece of dreck you'll ever love. Until you get to The Other Side of the Mountain.

You have to remember that Segal wrote it as a screenplay first and they put it out as a book first and the book was *huge*....but still dreck. The movie was going to be a success no matter who they cast or how bad it was.

As a young gayling I loved both Love Story and The Other Side of the Mountain (when Jill picks up that potato chip… Mary!) — both the movies and the books.

There were certain movies that I would see on tv once a year or so that really just imprinted on me. Not sure that would happen now since media is consumed in such a different manner.

I just watched The Other Side of the Mountain. Marilyn Hassett should have had a bigger career. Much bigger. She was more appealing than Ali MacGraw. Not that the bar wasn't low but she could act circles around Ali. Marilyn made corn poe respectable.

WHET Marilyn Hassett?

Marilyn and Natasha Richardson look like twins.

R80 Hassett left the business for almost a decade. In 1988, the Los Angeles Times ran a short interview referring to her a "missing person" and she told the interviewer:

[quote] “I walked out on a career,” she said. “I was trying to keep a failing marriage (to “Other Side” director Larry Peerce) together and couldn’t. Then there was an extremely emotional divorce, which a sea cruise or a year of therapy wasn’t going to quickly overcome. But when I finally felt strong enough to work again, a lot of people didn’t think I was serious.”

Getting back in proved difficult, and she mentioned this again in 1991 when she was a guest on Tom Hatten's local KTLA film/interview show that was broadcasting The Other Side of the Mountain 1/2. (link below)

She's on Instagram, but rarely posts. Her most recent one was from December 2020. Due to old shows being picked up by streamers, she had a photo showing what looked like a pile of residual checks joking that she's finally back at work. The location on her photo said West Hollywood, California. She was also seen at a West Hollywood art gallery showing for painter Danny Minnick in 2017. (link in next post).

2017

Wow, she looks great in R83’s picture.

She was good in both Other Side of the Mountain movies.

I think was on an episode of Hotel.

Don't forget Olivia's gorgeous theme to The Other Side of the Mountain.

PBS does not show movies on Friday nights. Your local PBS station does.

The old show that doesn't seem to get much love anywhere, including DL, is My Three Sons. The show was on for 12 seasons yet just seems so forgotten. I love the show.

COZI TV shows Columbo reruns. The original series in the 1970s have so many actors in small or supporting roles who later became famous, but virtually every actor from the 1980s series - except the guest star playing the villain - is a nobody. It’s amazing to see so many actors in a tv series that you never saw again. It’s like the casting director was batting zero. Even the guest stars look terrible.

Tonight on Svengoolie...

I Love Lucy was never not entertaining and it's enduring.

Tonight on The Lucy Show:

[quote]Lucy schemes to measure a burly and unsuspecting pal (Clint Walker) for a sweater she's knitting. Lucy: Lucille Ball. Mooney: Gale Gordon. Mary Jane: Mary Jane Croft.

On Kojak: Jennifer Hair Warren murders her hoodlum husband.

R88 I think the situation about the supporting players may have been because Columbo was produced by Universal, and I believe the studio still had some kind contract player mechanism at work at that point in time. I remember reading an interview with Howard McGillin (who's primarily known today for his work on Broadway) wherein he said he was among the last of these type of players signed by Universal, and yep, he was on Columbo.

Route 66 had the best theme song.

r94=Nelson Riddle

Peter Gunn theme song is iconic.

r96=Henry Mancini

The father-in law of The Who’s Pete Townshend’s wrote the theme song to The Saint

Two snaps, two snaps, one snap, shimmy!

I hate the current vogue for having minimal opening credits. The theme song or tune is a great casualty of this silly idea.

The Patty Duke Show. Another sitcom where parents just leave their kid for someone else to raise.

See: Family Affair (And Uncle Bill left the kids to be watched over by the swishy butler).

Well on Family Affair the parents didn't exactly drop their kids of and then go to Bermuda.

That we know of, r102.

Look how Harold’s parents dumped him on his uncle and moved to the Middle East on “Hazel.” Talk about cold-blooded!

I can't watch any of that season.

R105, neither can I. It was dreadful plus Shirley Booth seemed like she was totally over it.

[quote]Look how Harold’s parents dumped him on his uncle and moved to the Middle East on “Hazel.” Talk about cold-blooded!

Lucy Ricardo dumped Little Ricky when he was a baby and hightailed it to Hollywood where she could hang out with Hedda Hopper, John Wayne, Eve Arden, William Holden, Rock Hudson, Harpo Marx AND Don Loper. THEN dumps him again when she wants to swan off to Europe.

What about Princess Summerfall Winterspring OP?

Such a sad story, r108. She died in a car accident at 24.

On tonight...

*The Man I Love*

[quote]During an extended California visit, a singer wards off the propositions of her shady new boss, gets involved in the struggles of her siblings and falls for an ex-Jazz pianist. Read More

A shout out to Rita Norma Somers.

I've been watching "Four Star Playouse" on Tubi. It was a 1950s anthology series started by four film actors (DIck Powell, Ida Lupino, Charles Boyer, and David Niven) as their foray into television. The picture quality is pretty abysmal, but some of the stories are interesting and well-done. Lots of other movie star types show up too -- Ronald Colman and his wife, Merle Oberon, Joanne Woodward, Joan Fontaine, Dorothy Malone, Broderick Crawford, Maureen O' Sullivan -- and virtually every character actor working in Hollywood in the mid'50s.

Eddie Mekka and Lani O'Grady (in a bikini!) canoodling on The Love Boat.

R107, Little Ricky does come to Hollywood eventually; Lucy's mother brings him, but Lucy does leave him at home when they go to Europe.

R70, I’m late to the party, but I hope you enjoyed Night Tide. I remember it as a weird, haunting movie that stayed with me after it was over … but mainly I remember that Dennis Hopper was ridiculously handsome in it.

This is not a still from the movie, but I wanted to post shirtless Dennis from the same period.

Tonight on Svengoolie...

No one speaks of Angel Tompkins anymore, and that saddens me.

On today...

Lee Meriwhatever managed to look frumpiest as Andy Griffith’s pregnant wife in Angel In My Pocket. And her mom and brother were trash on it. Miscast.

Starting off my day with Billy Mumy, Connie Ford and Diane Ladd...

All day today on Catchy Comedy -

Sledge Hammer!

And why not?

Tonight on Hawaiian Eye:

[quote]*Kakua Woman*

[quote]Lopaka has two unlikely allies in a quest for an escaped killer---the man's wife . . . and his mistress. Carol: Stella Stevens. Grimes: Mike Road. Dora: Anita Loo. Cricket: Connie Stevens...

Diana Ross & The Supremes guest-starring on a 1968 episode of Ron Ely’s “Tarzan” TV series and, unfortunately here, singing.

Tonight on Kojak:

Mary Beth Hurt

Charles Kimbrough

and

Miss Page!

Miss Landers on Perry Mason this morning...

Not old TV but I just ran across this. I used to have it on VHS and I haven't seen it in years.

Oh no. Wally goes out with a good-time girl.

1960s Short Lived Tv Shows

The fabulous Nita Talbot (as Rowena) on Peter Gunn tonight.

*

[quote] KOJAK -John Ritter ‘74

Kind of disappointed to read that Ritter used hookers.

Anne Francis wasn’t sexy to me. She was pretty, but not sexy. Too level headed.

I just ordered the complete series of "Maya" on DVD, liked it as a kid. Also picked up the complete "Brady Bunch" - 20 discs for only $25!