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Mary Jenkins was a bitch to Brenda

Brenda couldn’t act and was dumb as owl shit.

by Anonymousreply 85June 23, 2022 7:08 AM

She's Viola freaking Davis next to her sister who was so bad that even [italic]What's Happening Now!![/italic] fired her when Rerun quit.

by Anonymousreply 1August 8, 2021 12:09 AM

There was an an episode where Mary Jenkins spanked a 15 year-old Brenda

This was in 1985!

by Anonymousreply 2August 8, 2021 12:09 AM

At least she didn't slap her across the face.

by Anonymousreply 3August 8, 2021 12:10 AM

Brenda had to ask her mom, Mary, if she can walk to the front door.

by Anonymousreply 4August 8, 2021 12:10 AM

Judith Light was the textbook definition of "resting bitch face." I can't believe Tony D@nz@ allowed himself to become a manwhore for her.

by Anonymousreply 5August 8, 2021 12:20 AM

Sandra and Pearl were the only two good things about 227. The rest of the characters left a lot to be desired. I'll give Regina a pass since she was young and green. Marla Gibbs and Hal Williams desevered better material in particular.

by Anonymousreply 6August 8, 2021 12:25 AM

Embassy seemed to deliberately seek the writers with the most obscene personal fetishes.

by Anonymousreply 7August 8, 2021 2:28 AM

Mary was judgmental, overbearing, nagging, just unpleasant. In actuality, she would have been the one who everybody in the building would have tried to avoid.

by Anonymousreply 8August 8, 2021 4:53 AM

Mary was judgmental, overbearing, nagging, just unpleasant. In actuality, she would have been the one who everybody in the building would have tried to avoid.

by Anonymousreply 9August 8, 2021 4:53 AM

In this clip, Jackee talks about working with her 227 cast mates. She's very honest...and hilarious!

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by Anonymousreply 10August 8, 2021 5:02 AM

Oops, here's the clip where Jackee talks about her conflicts with the actresses who played Rose and Pearl.

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by Anonymousreply 11August 8, 2021 5:04 AM

Maaaaaaaaa-ry! Don't forget she done sang the them song, given it her Florence-style attitude!

"I mean no place, chile!"

The burnign question is, were Rose (Alanna Reed Hall who was a backup singer for Bette Midler) and I doing the back up "whooos" on it with her?????

by Anonymousreply 12August 8, 2021 5:16 AM

[quote](Alanna Reed Hall who was a backup singer for Bette Midler)

I think you mean Alaina Reed Hall who was on Sesame Street.

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by Anonymousreply 13August 8, 2021 4:21 PM

[quote] There was an an episode where Mary Jenkins spanked a 15 year-old Brenda. This was in 1985!

No there wasn't.

by Anonymousreply 14August 8, 2021 4:25 PM

This is one show that has not aged well. Mary was a shrew and Brenda was treated like a 5 year old when she was a mid teen. It was strange.

by Anonymousreply 15August 8, 2021 4:31 PM

God, Jonny McGovern is repulsive.

by Anonymousreply 16August 8, 2021 4:31 PM

R14 Yes, there was. I just watched this episode on Prime. It's the one where Brenda sneaks out to attend a school dance with Calvin. At the end when Mary acknowledges that perhaps she and Lester are being too strict around dating rules, Brenda also pushes back on 15 being too old to still be punished with a spanking.

by Anonymousreply 17August 8, 2021 4:39 PM

She doesn't actually spank Brenda, which is what you said.

by Anonymousreply 18August 8, 2021 4:53 PM

It’s a classic compared to that godawful guinea show on ABC from the same production company. Racism is the only way that got better ratings.

by Anonymousreply 19August 8, 2021 5:03 PM

Brenda needs to hit Mary on the head with her Oscar.

by Anonymousreply 20August 8, 2021 5:08 PM

At this point, that’s elder abuse.

by Anonymousreply 21August 8, 2021 5:13 PM

Here, you can have my Emmy!

by Anonymousreply 22August 8, 2021 5:13 PM

Now, was Cuntess Vaughn Mary’s and Lester’s daughter? And who was that Goodwin girl? I know one of the other girls was Rose’s daughter. And then in the later seasons what was the point of Barry Sobel and Stoney Jackson.

But yes, the old lady in the window was the best part of the show.

by Anonymousreply 23August 8, 2021 5:18 PM

Helen Martin was one of the best parts of the show, but she was supposedly very difficult to work with behind the scenes. She escalated a lot of shit between Marla and Jackee while Alaina Reed would have to play peacemaker. Martin has also long been rumored to be the one who told Countess Vaughn she was fat to her face.

Robert De Niro's girlfriend and mother of two of his kids, Toukie Smith, was on the last year as well.

I think Marla knew Barry Sobel from the comedy circuit and got him a job on her show because she liked his act. Marla had a nightclub out in LA, that showcased a lot of up and coming urban comics at the time. Clean ones, as Marla wanted no profanity on the stage.

It was supposed to run another year, the actors were all set to come back, but NBC went and cancelled it at the last minute.

by Anonymousreply 24August 8, 2021 5:28 PM

Kia Goodwin played Rose's daughter, Tiffany. She was a regular the first season, then was relegated to a few recurring appearances in Season 2, and maybe one in Season 3. Then she was gone.

I am only at the first episode of Season 4 and Countess is on, but they have yet to mention who she is and why she's there.

by Anonymousreply 25August 8, 2021 5:30 PM

I didn't keep watching it after [italic]Facts of Life[/italic] was canceled. Adding the new characters just threw off the dynamic somehow.

[quote]It was supposed to run another year, the actors were all set to come back, but NBC went and cancelled it at the last minute.

They also canceled [italic]Amen[/italic], too, but they brought that back when its replacement on the fall schedule, a TV sitcom based on the movie [italic]Parenthood[/italic] with Ed Begley, Jr. replacing Steve Martin, proved to be a bomb.

After Sony bought out Columbia and with it the skeleton that was left of Embassy Television, this was the first thing to go. NBC also passed on the Jackée spinoff whose backdoor pilot also had the boy who played Reggie on [italic]Small Wonder[/italic] in it.

by Anonymousreply 26August 8, 2021 5:47 PM

Helen Martin was my neighbor back when that show was on.

This was on Beechwood off of Franklin in Hollywood.

She drove a humongous Cadillac, and she wasn't friendly. At all.

by Anonymousreply 27August 8, 2021 5:55 PM

I've been enjoying 227 on Prime, but it really jumped the shark roundabout mid-season 3. I have a feeling butterball Countess isn't gonna help things.

by Anonymousreply 28August 8, 2021 5:56 PM

That's right around the time Embassy Television was absorbed into Columbia Pictures Television, R28. I remember when the Torch Lady replaced the Big Fat *E at the end. TV hasn't been the same since.

by Anonymousreply 29August 8, 2021 6:00 PM

[quote] I have a feeling butterball Countess isn't gonna help things.

I can't think of a worse character addition to a show, ever.

They wisely "Chuck Cunningham'd" her halfway through the season, and it was a huge improvement.

by Anonymousreply 30August 8, 2021 6:02 PM

I'm watching it now on Prime. Mary is being paranoid and fucking up Pearl's new romance and engagement because she thinks the man is shifty.

Lester is fine, fine, fine. Take me now fine.

Mary is unpleasant and judgy but I'd take her over Ann fucking Romano any day.

There was an entire episode that explained Countess Vaughn's introduction. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I remember watching it on Youtube once. It's not a great episode.

by Anonymousreply 31August 8, 2021 6:03 PM

The damage was still done, and the show's ratings still collapsed. It was a Top 20 show and it fell to #46 with ratings that would likely make it #1 today.

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by Anonymousreply 32August 8, 2021 6:04 PM

R27 that’s what I always admired about Helen Martin. She did and acted the way she wanted to outside of being on the set. If she didn’t feel like being nice or cordial she wasn’t. Much like me.

by Anonymousreply 33August 8, 2021 9:14 PM

Streaming hours of 227 on Amazon Prime. Singing “There’s No Place Like Home” the shows theme song while exchanging the original lyrics for my own perverted lyrics like - “There’s no place like home. With your dad on top of you you’re never alone. With his bone inside your ass there’s no need to roam. There’s no place like home.”

by Anonymousreply 34August 8, 2021 9:16 PM

The last season was hard to watch. The new characters were duds exept for Paul Winfrield's character, which was ok. Jackee only appeared in about half of the episodes in the last season and wasn't going to be apart of next season, had it went on.

The ratings were dropping fast and few shows recover after that big of a drop in ratings, so they just cut their losses. They had enough episodes for syndication already.

by Anonymousreply 35August 8, 2021 9:56 PM

Helen Martin was a tough. old school type who had been around for a very long time in the business. She was probably given very oppurtunities because there were few good roles for black women and had to work hard for what she did get. It's not surprising she was resentful of the much younger Jackee, who because the breakout star of the show.

by Anonymousreply 36August 8, 2021 10:19 PM

Marla Gibbs had already struck out on her own with the stillborn [italic]Jeffersons[/italic] spinoff [italic]Checking In[/italic]. CBS did not want a repeat of [italic]Flo[/italic], which started strongly in the ratings and then fell apart after its second season; if that had happened here and that show had gotten the second season, she would not have been able to come back to her old show. But that became a moot point because the audience just was not there even in its first (and only) season. Larry Linville was on it, too, and the real Larry did not even last as long as the fake Larry over on NBC played by a former costar of his.

That’s why she was so protective of her position on [italic]227[/italic]. She did not just star on it and sing the theme song, she also got “story by“ credit on several episodes.

by Anonymousreply 37August 8, 2021 10:26 PM

[quote]I didn't keep watching it after Facts of Life was canceled. Adding the new characters just threw off the dynamic somehow.

Speaking of Facts of Life...Irma Kalish was the showrunner of FOL for its last two seasons. Not only did she squander the talents of Cloris Leachman (I mean, FOL should have actually been a FUNNY show with her as the lead!), but she wrote the dreadful episode introducing the pointless and annoying Pippa. When FOL ended and NBC didn't pick up the unfunny and uninspired backdoor pilot (which she also wrote), Embassy gave her the showrunner job at 227 -- and she promptly introduced a bunch of new characters no one wanted to see. 227's dip in quality can be traced back to when she took over the show.

by Anonymousreply 38August 8, 2021 10:29 PM

She and her husband Austin also took over the post-John Amos years of [italic]Good Times[/italic]. Whenever you see their names on a show, you know the end is near.

by Anonymousreply 39August 8, 2021 10:38 PM

If you want to see a real waste of Cloris Leachman, I can sum it up in three words: [italic]The Nutt House[/italic]. The combination of Mel Brooks and Disney worked better on paper than in the actual execution.

by Anonymousreply 40August 8, 2021 10:41 PM

Helen Martin was great as Pearl.

by Anonymousreply 41August 8, 2021 10:44 PM

She went from that to being the old lady who smoked weed in the movie [italic]Friday[/italic].

by Anonymousreply 42August 8, 2021 10:46 PM

R42 that is my all time fave scene.

by Anonymousreply 43August 8, 2021 11:16 PM

I give 227 credit for being willing to make Mary Jenkins so goatish. It worked, but it was rare back then to have a lead be so cranky. For the record, I loved Mary and her slow burns and reactions.

Also, I really like Marla Gibbs' wig in the first part of S2. Was that considered a triangle cut?

by Anonymousreply 44August 8, 2021 11:22 PM

R42 It was from Dont Be a Menace. I love seeing old assed Pearl smoking a huge joint.

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by Anonymousreply 45August 8, 2021 11:33 PM

[quote] No there wasn't (Spanking)

It was in season 1, episode 15 "Brenda's Last Date"

Brenda lies to Mary about going to the library, but actually goes to the school dance When Mary finds out, she goes to the dance and takes Brenda home.

The next scene we see Mary sitting at the table, upset she had to use use Corporal Punishment on Brenda and talks to Lester about it. Later Brenda comes out and she and Mary have a heart-to-heart talk, about why Mary had to use Corporal Punishment.

by Anonymousreply 46August 8, 2021 11:41 PM

Kia Goodwin was released from her 227 contract at her request. She was from the East Coast and she and her mother really hated living in LA without the rest of their family. Marla Gibbs discussed it in her Television Academy interview. They didn't see a need to replace her.

The window lady came off as just nosy and rude and not funny. She did an interview with Jiminy Glick.

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by Anonymousreply 47August 9, 2021 12:20 AM

If she was having that bad of a time, then why did she linger over the next two seasons making recurring appearances? I think Marla is trying to save face.

by Anonymousreply 48August 9, 2021 12:23 AM

R48, probably so they could slowly ease the character out, her disappearance completely from the show would be jarring, since her mother was a single mothe (Hall-Reed) and also she was usually featured with Brenda. They probably didn't want to kill the character off OR introduce Roses ex into the storyline.

by Anonymousreply 49August 9, 2021 12:34 AM

Check out Conan O'Brien's hilarious interview with Helen Martin when she was promoting "Menace"

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by Anonymousreply 50August 9, 2021 12:35 AM

Conan was cute and young then.

by Anonymousreply 51August 9, 2021 12:37 AM

Who keeps talking about streaming 227 on Amazon Prime? The show is not available for streaming on Amazon Prime, but you can buy the Season 1 DVDs from Amazon.

by Anonymousreply 52August 9, 2021 12:43 AM

You can stream all seasons on Amazon Prime for free

by Anonymousreply 53August 9, 2021 12:45 AM

Helen Martin’s pussy stunk!

by Anonymousreply 54August 9, 2021 12:45 AM

Brenda whined on the show as much as Mary treated her like shit.

by Anonymousreply 55August 9, 2021 12:46 AM

227 gave me a chance to show what I could do with Diane getting in the way!

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by Anonymousreply 56August 9, 2021 12:50 AM

Marla was an absolute doll!

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by Anonymousreply 57August 9, 2021 12:56 AM

Pearl was a nosy old battleaxe.

by Anonymousreply 58August 9, 2021 1:16 AM

R58 that’s why I like her. I am attracted to that type.

by Anonymousreply 59August 9, 2021 1:27 AM

Holy shit, Jackee is currently on Days of Our Lives and appearing in a guest stint as her mother is none of than MAAAAAARY!

by Anonymousreply 60August 9, 2021 11:08 PM

I’m sorry but Brenda was a stupid ugly bitch

by Anonymousreply 61August 9, 2021 11:15 PM

Marla Gibbs has lost her edge. I know she’s 90 but she can’t act anymore.

by Anonymousreply 62August 10, 2021 1:26 AM

R61 = Calvin

by Anonymousreply 63August 10, 2021 1:47 AM

Hey, R27, I lived across the street from Helen in the “chessboard” apartment on Beachwood just north of Scenic Drive. I sometimes worked with her neighbor Brenda (of the L.A. cabaret act Wayne & Brenda).

One night, we did a show at the Gardenia Lounge on Santa Monica and La Brea, and Helen was there. It was her birthday, and they gave her a little surprise party. As the cake came out, she shouted out “Happy Birthday to me!” and drank a fairly large cocktail – the first of many that night. The more she drank, the funnier and bawdier she became, and she was pretty tossed by the time we left that night.

by Anonymousreply 64August 10, 2021 3:28 AM

Hey Stevie - did you get a wiff of Helen’s snatch? It reeked!!!

by Anonymousreply 65August 10, 2021 9:20 AM

I always felt Helen was an off-brand Lawanda Page

by Anonymousreply 66August 10, 2021 12:44 PM

Fortunately not, R65; the large number of candles on her cake temporarily obliterated the stench. After they were blown out, I discreetly kept my nose perched just above my brandy snifter for the rest of the evening.

by Anonymousreply 67August 10, 2021 7:17 PM

R64 tell me more Helen Martin late in life stories! I loved her!

by Anonymousreply 68August 10, 2021 8:03 PM

r68 is obviously not Countess Vaughn or Jackee Harry

by Anonymousreply 69August 10, 2021 8:49 PM

Countess. what delusional or fucked in the head parents she had to name her ass that.

by Anonymousreply 70August 10, 2021 9:14 PM

r70, they must have gone to the same Church that the delusional Marla Gibbs went to. She hired her to be the cute kid to breathe life into a dying sitcom. She missed on that one!

by Anonymousreply 71August 10, 2021 9:17 PM

Growing Pains was one of the rare few to bring in a new kid in that was great. Leonardo DiCaprio was a good addition, though he wasn’t on long. They knew the kid who played Ben didn’t have it, so they more or less replaced him.

by Anonymousreply 72August 11, 2021 12:45 AM

Growing Pains did it twice. Don't forget baby Chrissy went from a newborn to a seven year old in like one season. Then they brought on Leonardo.

by Anonymousreply 73August 11, 2021 4:18 AM

Anything to take the focus off of you-know-who killing the comedy by bashing it to death with The Holy Bible.

by Anonymousreply 74August 11, 2021 5:45 AM

Conversational Jackee

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by Anonymousreply 75August 15, 2021 4:49 AM

Mary was insufferable towards everyone.

by Anonymousreply 76August 15, 2021 4:43 PM

A Black Lady Sketch Show had a sketch where they rebooted the show. The last 2 minutes are worth it!

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by Anonymousreply 77August 15, 2021 5:32 PM

Mary was a cunt to Brenda

by Anonymousreply 78August 16, 2021 6:44 PM

Helen Martin had a VERY active pussy!

by Anonymousreply 79August 16, 2021 7:51 PM

How do u know, r79? Did you eat it?

by Anonymousreply 80August 16, 2021 7:58 PM

R80 I wish!

by Anonymousreply 81August 16, 2021 8:28 PM

Sandra was fat. She wouldn’t attract the men in real life. Too fat.

by Anonymousreply 82August 19, 2021 9:44 AM

R82=The Ghost of Helen Martin, the 227 set scale.

by Anonymousreply 83August 19, 2021 11:18 AM

It's on Hulu now.

I watched it at a kid and haven't seen it since, so I'm jumping around a bit.

Two different episodes where characters go on have shows! The WoF episode was decent, but the Family Feud one (season 4) was awful, awful, awful. Not remotely funny.

What a dive in quality.

by Anonymousreply 84June 23, 2022 5:33 AM

Countess Vaughn also didn't get along with Brandy on Moesha. Repeatedly called her a bitch to her face and claimed that she was the star of the show not Brandy.

by Anonymousreply 85June 23, 2022 7:08 AM
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