Was Phyllis a good show?

Mother Dexter was a hoot. That’s about it.

I miss Cloris but somewhere I got the idea that she wasn't such a nice person - estrangements with her children? Something like that.

It was a good show, a positive show.

Henry Jones — always a welcome, droll presence.

Poor Lisa Gerritsen was cast as the straight woman to Phyllis. She left the business soon after.

The funniest episode was when Bess started dating a normal-height guy whose parents were midgets. Too bad the rest of the show wasn't that funny.

The theme song is tremendous!

I think it was a snappy show. The linked episode is a decent effort.

The theme song is very mean.

I’ve always thought that the opening number was the most clever writing/directing of the entire series.

I think Rhoda was an empathetic character (at least to most viewers). Phyllis was an annoying character who was best in small doses. Ms. Leachman did amazing work to make the character more funny than she was on the page, but I think it was hard to sell that self-centered character weekly for each ~23 min episode for a long series run.

I agree the opening credits were the best thing about the show. It was awful.

Everyone in the show was self-centered and mean, or victims, but it was done in such a funny way

Cloris Leachman appeared with James Dean in a live television performance early in her career and was one of the few who saw Bitchy Twat ("Betty White" to her fans) for the phony untalented cunt she really was. Those things make Ms. Leachman OK in my book.

Cloris was a bitch. Funny on screen but not a nice person

Mary Hartman! Mary Hartman! Is more my speed

The opening theme song borrowed heavily from Jerry Herman's "Mame". I had read in one of his bios that he considered suing CBS and MTM productions to cease using the song by the second season, but then the show was canceled.

The opening theme song of 'Rhoda' (which I loved) was a rip-off of 'The Yama Yama Man'. Not sure how they got away with that.

Great cars, funny show. What’s not to love about Henry Jones and Carmine Caridi?

Great cars ? I never noticed any cars on the show.

What's up with the blackface in the very opening seconds of the theme song?

^ Film negatives are not blackface 🙄

This is NOT a white woman in blackface

The first season was extremely well written and well performed and the ratings were in the Top 10(#6 for the season). The second season had a rough go of it. The complications resulting from the deaths of several cast members during the show's run, as well as the ill health of actress Jane Rose, are said to have been factors in the series' cancellation. It finished in 40th place the second season.

R12, Cloris Leachman was certainly a more experienced and talented serious actress than Betty White and maybe under appreciated. I don’t for a minute view Betty White as a said but suspect Cloris and others were mostly just jealous of all the attention, great lines and love Betty received.

@r20, I thought it lasted longer than that 🤔

I'm suspicious about Betty White - having issues with both Cloris and Bea Arthur. No idea what's going on though. It might be they were three Queen Bee types fighting for dominance? Just a guess but not many people are all happiness and light.

Speaking of Queen Bee's, an interesting item in this article - a late night phone call from Joan Collins to Cloris:

"Cloris, this is Joan. George just left here. We see each other every day. I'm in love with him. What do you want to do about that?" she asked.

Leachman shared she was sleepy and perplexed by what she had just heard and responded: "I don't know. I'm not sure what the choices are. Do you think you two can make a go of it?" [apparently Joan moved on with Warren Beatty after her affair with Cloris' husband]

... but Leachman said they had a pretty open marriage - she "secretly dated" Gene Hackman and Andy Williams during her marriage to producer George Englund. (assuming this is a legit source but the gossip is found in many other articles)

Where anywhere does it say that Betty White and Cloris Leachman had issues?

I mean, she was nominated for the Emmy 4x for playing this character on the MTM show and won twice - the spin-off was inevitable.

[quote] What's up with the blackface in the very opening seconds of the theme song?

R18 It seems they tried to lessen it by using reverse black and white of that clip, but clearly it didn’t fool us.

The show was brilliant and would have been a smash success were it not for the murder of co-star Barbara Colby, just three episodes into filming. They had to replace her with that dreadful woman Liz Torres, and this killed the show.

Colby’s murderer was never apprehended but I’ve always suspected PAUL LYNDE as the MURDERER.

[quote] Was Phyllis a good show?

A great show.

A brilliant show.

Phyllis sure wasn't it.

R15: MTM (the company) regularly ripped off theme songs--this was very common in those days. "Love is All Around" obviously borrows from "I'll Never Fall in Love Again".

The producers of "Bewitched" (Screen Gems) didn't want to pay royalties to whom ever wrote the song Sinatra made famous, so they had someone compose a song that had some similarities for which they (Screen Gems) owned the publishing.

Sometimes, cheapness came in other forms--Bill Loose, who composed incidental music (w/o credit) for many shows wrote the theme for "The Donna Reed Show" and various arrangements of it turn up on other shows including "The Flintstones" and the "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett".

R24

Cloris, this is Joan. George just took a big shit in my bed. I’m pissed. What do you think I should do about it?

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what the choices are. Do you think you can clean it up yourself”?

The negative comments about Betty came in the 2010s, didn't they? By that time Betty had become almost an American saint and Cloris was naturally envious. The two were probably equally famous until Betty got The Golden Girls and Cloris got to replace Charlotte Rae in the final dying years of The Facts of Life. Obviously Betty got the better role and left Cloris in the dust fame wise.

Can you imagine Betty in Cloris' role in The Last Picture Show?

Can't say I blame her for being upset at ending up second fiddle. But reading about her marriage to George with the two make-up babies, five kids, I get Angelina Jolie/Mia Farrow vibes. One of her sons overdosed and she goes on and on about their love will live forever, she doesn't miss him because he's always with her, yada yada.

But I'm frustrated that I'm not at all sure who's the biggest bitch in this wild saga. Probably Joan.

Oh I didn't finish my thought -- if he died, why does she make the story all about herself? Is she grief-stricken? How will she pull through? What does she do to keep going? (uh, Bryan who?)

Cloris in Raising Hope >>> Betty in Hot in Cleveland

Mother Dexter's Wedding. I couldn't find part 1.

R36 good clip

R31 is hilarious

The Phyllis opening theme song was shit

The ability to Eldergays to debate a minor sitcom from 50 years ago is one of DL's charms.

^^ability OF Eldergays...

^^Honey I’m not the DL school marm.

I’m a real person. A real man.

[quote] What's up with the blackface in the very opening seconds of the theme song?

It's from the 1940 MGM film "Babes on Broadway"--but shown in negative. It is indeed a blackface number: the camera pans dramatically a chorus of white men in blackface dressed in tuxedos dropping to their knees right before they cut to the stars singing the title number.

However, since the shot is shown on negative stock, and the TV show is from half a century ago, to complain about it would be ridiculously petty.

Cloris Leachman actually claimed she was the one who encouraged Grant Tinker and James L. Brooks to promote Betty White to the regular cast of "The MTM Show" to take her place when she left to do "Phyllis." Before then, Sue Ann Nivens had only been a (much loved) recurring character.

[quote]Can you imagine Betty in Cloris' role in The Last Picture Show?

I could see it.

Betty was James L Brooks first choice to play the Shirley Knight role in As Good as it Gets, but she objected to the scene where the puppy gets put in the mailbox and refused to do the movie unless it was taken out.

I wonder if that would have done for Betty what Ordinary People did for Mary.

[quote] Betty was James L Brooks first choice to play the Shirley Knight role in As Good as it Gets, but she objected to the scene where the puppy gets put in the mailbox and refused to do the movie unless it was taken out. I wonder if that would have done for Betty what Ordinary People did for Mary.

"Bowser never would have BEEN in that mailbox."

"Out of the Closet"

The opening shot of the credits is meant to set up a big, worshipful musical number in a classic Hollywood Mode - which the song ultimately undercuts.

Blackface was, by the mid-70s, seen as outdated and corny, and it would have been rather offensive (but not career-ending) to do it at the time, but to “quote” a then 35 year old shot was somewhat making fun of it - a “we don’t do this stuff anymore” way to be edgy. It was totally a have your cake and eat it too attitude, but that’s with an additional half century of hindsight.

Cloris once said that fat people polluted the aesthetic environment and there should be fat catchers who apprehended chubbies and forced them to go on a diet. Fatboy James Coco said Cloris was the only costar he ever worked with that he really hated and she was every bit as terrible as he had heard.

Cloris--in my opinion--enjoyed playing the victim a bit too often. Granted, in the case with Joan Collins, it was warranted. But she was given even greater opportunities than Betty White after her Oscar win and essentially squandered them (including her very hammy Mel Brooks roles). The fact that she took 'The Facts of Life' for a paycheck is very telling. At that point in her career, she should've been playing Meg Ryan's mum in 80s movies, at the bare minimum.

Phyllis was better in small doses. Building a show around her was a mistake.

It's funny how Cloris had good cause to hate Joan Collins, and that the actress she replaced (Charlotte Rae) vociferously did.

The episode of "Celebrity Wife Swap" where Cloris swapped with Pia Zadora was so bizarre it was great.

[quote]Film negatives are not blackface

That's not "film negatives," doll. The Phyllis intro shows performers in blackface in the opening seconds. You can see the thick makeup around their mouths that are meant to portray thick lips. Go back and look, and don't be so quick to rewrite history. You're wrong.

While the series as a whole didn't work, there were some good episodes of Phyllis... the pilot was well written and the bits with the sugar cubes and flowers was pure Cloris. The "Out of the Closet" is another good episode ("Can I speak my mind?", "Sure we have a minute"), even more so when you consider the topic. The one where Mary visits is okay, and only noteworthy because it gives Mary Richards the chance to finally tell Phylllis off. In the show's favor were Mother Dexter, who was a hoot, and Barbara Colby would have been a strong character for Phyllis to play off of (as seen in the pilot) had she not been murdered.

R49 she went on to win nine Emmys after her Oscar win, so she must’ve been doing something right. I would’ve loved to have seen her in more dramatic roles, but I think Cloris was smart in knowing where most of her strengths were, which was comedy, and sometimes sloppy comedy. She did a lot of paycheck stuff, but that’s every actor. Phyllis was a great role for her, but she really shined in the MTM ensemble than her own show. Even the Rhoda ensemble had a better supporting cast for Valerie.

Nancy Walker and Julie Kavner were huge assets on Rhoda.

This is just my stupid uninformed opinion, but I think Betty White got a reset as American's Grandma in the same way that Queen Elizabeth got a reset as England's Grandma. Not saying that both ladies weren't nice and fine ladies, but I just don't think that either one was a saint. They lived their lives, did their dirt, pissed off some people along the way - whom they outlasted, and remained somewhat current. And for being strong broads with some living in learning under their belts they were rewarded with their respective country's grandma titles.

Unlike that bitch, Livvie de Havilland.

Phyllis was a very funny show.

See: Mother Dexter's Wedding episode.

When Cloris was making the media rounds after the publication of her autobiography, she was a guest on Leonard Lopate's WNYC radio interview show. Mr. Lopate had been interviewing people for decades by that time. After he introduced Cloris and asked the first question, she responded by bluntly asking, "Did you read the book?" Mr. Lopate didn't say anything, and Cloris repeated her question. Again he didn't say anything. I thought it was the rudest thing I'd ever heard a guest say to an interviewer. He switched to another question, and because she had to hawk her book, she finally started answering questions.

The much-beloved sequence in the "Phyllis and the Little People" episode where Phyllis has to explain to Leo why she's depressed ("Bess wants to marry a boy whose parents are midgets") starting at 15:10 is still the funniest variation on Abbott & Costello's "Who's on First" routine I've ever seen.

Starting at 15:10.

Garn Stephens, who played Phyllis’ co-worker in OP’s clip died just last month.

[quote]Blackface was, by the mid-70s, seen as outdated and corny, and it would have been rather offensive (but not career-ending) to do it at the time, but to “quote” a then 35 year old shot was somewhat making fun of it - a “we don’t do this stuff anymore” way to be edgy.

Comedies were using blackface pretty frequently from mid 1970s to early 1980s. There's one of the Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor movies that has Gene in blackface (Silver Streak maybe?) and they put Neil Diamond in blackface for The Jazz Singer in what was supposed to be a funny scene, Billy Barty is in blackface in Rabbit Test, and I'd bet the last famous example of this brief blackface craze was probably Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places. I'm sure there were other examples but those are the only ones I can remember.

The credits used the blackface clip in a negative (and Rotoscoped probably, given the colors) to indicate that Phyllis was basically a low-rent Mame, I think, given the lyrics to the song and the various clips that make Phyllis look awful. Which she was.

Was Phyllis a Phyllis or a Sally?

R61 "It's 'Aaaow' and 'Garn' that keep her in her place. Not her wretched clothes and dirty face."

A good show, a positive show?

R39 it also shows how culturally present television series were in those days of three networks and public television as the only choices, and no internet. Television then was almost like the golden age of the actors under contract in the 1930s-1950s at the Hollywood movie studios, the network could make someone a huge star, or keep an established star going who wasn't in demand for studio films, without tarnishing their celebrity too much.

I never found Dick Schaal to be funny @ r60

For Season 2 they brought in John Lawlor (pre-Mr. Bradley on TFOL) to play a Ted Baxter type of character. He, Liz Torres and Lisa Gerritsen are still among the living.

Hasn't it been said that Betty was much more like her Sue Ann Nivens character than Rose Nylund?

r43 Betty was never a regular on MTM.

The theme song (well, the presentation of the theme song) also stole from "The Wild, Wild West" opening credits.

An aside - Jane Rose was a University of Washington friend of Frances Farmer. They shared an apartment in NYC when Frances got back from her trip to Russia. Then Frances got her Paramount contract and moved west.

Jane was one of the few friends who showed up when Frances appeared on This Is Your Life in 1958.

R1...I was just thinking that. I loved Mother Dexter!

I want my room back!

Rae and Leachman were longtime friends, from when they first started in the business together. It was Rae who suggested Leachman to take over her role in 'Facts of Life' when she decided to leave - Leachman accepted as she was an out-of-work actress in her 60s at the time.

I've always thought Betty White would have been better as Rae's replacement of FOL, and Leachman would have made a very interesting cast member as 'Rose' on The Golden Girls.

the theme song was used in the infamous "Datalounge Theme" so that tells you everything you need to know

[quote]the infamous "Datalounge Theme"

Beg pardon?

R77, back in the 1960 someone thought Datalounge needed a theme. They approached Jerry Herman, but he thought being associated with Datalounge would out him as gay (I know). He did recommend a young writer whose name I forgot and who died of a heroin overdose in the 70s. He wrote the Datalounge Theme which was instantly dispised and soon forgotten.

R76 is wrong. The Datalounge Theme predated the Phylis theme by a few years, so who plagiarised who?

[quote] I never found Dick Schaal to be funny @ [R60]

Why would I give a shit?

[quote]the theme song was used in the infamous "Datalounge Theme" so that tells you everything you need to know

I have no idea what this is, and I've been on DL for a long time.

I assume the "Datalounge Theme" is just random tinkling going on in an elderqueen's head at all times.

Someone is playing a stupid game by pretending there was a Datalounge theme (and that DL existed in the 60s), so here's his stupid prize to collect.

My mom died a few years ago and a few of her friends call me regularly, like they have taken over as my second moms. I mentioned Cloris to her and she flipped the fuck out. Saying fuck that horrible bitch.

I asked her why she hated her so much and she said that Cloris made comments about fat people being disgusting back in the 60s or 70s.

It didn't change how I feel about Clois... and I kind of agree with her, despite being fat off and on my entire life.

Is this true and if so, what exactly did she say about the morbidly obese?

@r70, "Betty was never a regular on MTM. "

She guest starred more times than most series run...

"In total Betty White portrayed Sue Ann Nivens in 45 episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” according to IMDb.com."

The Phyllis cast was far too geriatric.

Betty White wasn’t a guest star. She was recurring. She was in the last episode in the final scene and walked off with the rest of the cast. She was somewhere in the middle.

Sadly, no.

R48 "fat catchers" ahahaha I love Clitoris Leachman.

What did she say about Betty White that was so bad?

She said Betty's carpet didn't match the drapes.

Clitoris, this is Joan.

Seriously R90, I want to know what she said about my sweet little Betty!!

No, it wasn’t a good show

[quote] "Henry Jones — always a welcome, droll presence."

I go back and forth on this one, R4. I also must only take him in small doses. I think every character in this show one of those kinds of people. Which is part of why it didn't last beyond season two. But I've seen every episode (thank you Youtube uploader)!

It beats sitting in silence counting ceiling tiles

[quote]I've always thought Betty White would have been better as Rae's replacement of FOL, and Leachman would have made a very interesting cast member as 'Rose' on The Golden Girls.

Disagree. Betty was Rose. As Rue said, she had those little orphan Annie comic strip eyes that would go perfectly blank. It was the never the St Olaf stories that made the character for me, it was the throwaway lines that Betty had a brilliant way with.

I thought Cloris was perfect on FOL. The character was a fish out of water dealing with college age girls and adopting a young kid. But Mackenzie Astin and her had great chemistry, and I found her stories about her husband not as over the top as Rose's St Olaf stories.

R28, R54, thanks for the reminder about Barbara Colby. She was so great in Murder by the Book (Columbo). Didn't know about her sad demise.

What was weird was that although Phyllis was insufferable on MTM, on her own show, she suddenly became the butt of every joke. Deserved or not, that becomes tiresome. I did think the show improved when they moved from the photography studio because the loss of Colby was too great for the show to overcome.

[quote] It was the never the St Olaf stories that made the character for me, it was the throwaway lines that Betty had a brilliant way with

1000 percent. Bea (and Estelle) said funny things, Betty “said things funny.” Which I actually think is much harder to do.

Cloris would've suffocated The Golden Girls. Rue was the show's method actress - two of them would've been way too much. And if Bea came to loathe Betty, she would've absolutely hated Cloris.

R12 = Bea Arthur from the grave.

[quote] And if Bea came to loathe Betty, she would've absolutely hated Cloris.

R100 I would have paid good money to hear a backstage fight between Bea and Cloris.

Phyllis may not have been a great show, but there are lines from it that I still remember today. Many of them by Mother Dexter. But one I remember was in a scene with Phyllis and Bess where Phyllis has been trying to run Bess' life again. Phyllis finally says something like, "But Bess you have to understand, I'm a mother!"

To which Bess replies, in a way that makes very clear what she means: "You certainly are."

[quote] It beats sitting in silence counting ceiling tiles.

But enough about your sex life with Lars, Phyllis.

R103, on the Gong Show, Jaye P. Morgan told a priest who did a musical act, "I'm sorry Father, I thought you were a mother."

Who didn't Joan Collins fuck?

Leachman had good comedic chops. The show seemed to exist on her mannerisms and timing alone, because the scripts were meh.

They should have focused on a motley crew of office zanies rather than have her home all the time. Though I thought the crotchety grandmother was a hoot.

I liked Liz Torres. But her Wiki page shows she got fat.

Even if you ignore the blackface it's a very weird opening. It looks like a mistake like they cut from a late, late show commercial to the Phyllis credits. I think I get what they were going for but it's very poorly executed since it doesn't match with anything else in the credits. Even more strangely it appears they kept the same opening for both seasons with most of the clips coming from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Guess the network wasn't very invested in the success of the show - or were desperate to keep MTM in viewers' minds to try and sell it.

"Out of the Closet" episode was awful. At the end, he screams "I'm gay, I'm gay" to everyone...cringeworthy.

R60 - they originated the Shrimp line said to a little person.

The Cloris "fat-shaming" comments are legendary. It's a wonder she didn't get fired from 'The Fats of Life'. But by that time, the girls had slimmed down. I think she also fully realized she was joining a dying show; it would be interesting to know what her salary was for 'FoL', and also if she and Patty Duke had any dealings behind the scenes.

It seems to me they took what was a funny supporting character on MTM and made her the new Mary-like central character. She was now the straight woman surrounded by her own group of lunatics. However Cloris still managed to have some funny moments.

R49 Why would playing Meg Ryan's mom in some dreary 80s/90s romcom be an improvement over doing The Facts of Life? At minimum, she was probably getting $40 to 50k an episode to do TFOL...so she was probably grossing nearly a million bucks for a season of work. And, to play a supporting role in a studio flick she MIGHT get $75k but probably a lot less. Financially speaking, starring in a network show is going to be far more lucrative than co-starring in a film. Only A list leads can get those multi million dollar payouts for films.

As for creativity, what the fuck would be creative or prestigious about playing Meg Ryan (or anyone's) boring ass mom in some dumb studio movie?

R28/R54/R97 incidentally, Barbara Colby was married to the son of DL fave Ethel Merman.

Phyllis wasn't a very good show....it had a sloppy and boring premise. Lars dies and Phyllis is broke and moves in with her in-laws in San Francisco. Who cares?

The problem when you spin off fabulous SUPPORTING characters from hit shows, is the fact those characters were designed to be great characters in support of the lead character; that doesn't mean they work as principal characters on their own. Rhoda wasn't as much fun on her own show but at least she had strong support to help her. Phyllis was crippled by the fact that the character of Phyllis was hilarious but only because she was so awful and it's hard to watch that for a half hour every week. It takes the right characters/material to pull that off...the Brits have done it several times over the years (Fawlty Towers/AbFab/The Office) but British shows generally have 6 to 8 episode seasons and rarely last more than 3 or 4 seasons/series. The US tried to versions of Fawlty and AbFab but could never make it work. The Office worked but that's because they toned down the "awfulness" of the British version. If they had tried to force Ricky Gervaise to do the US version, it would have been cancelled after 4 episodes.

I think they made Phyllis less awful. Everyone else insulted her and while that was funny as a reverse it changed the character.

Exactly...they softened the character to make her more likable but it also made her less interesting. On MTM, Phyllis was selfish, bitchy, and hilarious. For her show, they dumbed her down to still being selfish but rather pathetically so and not very bitchy.

The same thing happened with Mama when they transitioned from The Carol Burnett Show to Mama's Family. Mama was mean, bitter, cunty and hilarious on the Burnett show and sappy, wacky, and cheesy on Mama's Family. Except in this case, people enjoyed the blander version and the show ran for several years despite the fact none of the episodes are as good as the sketches on the Burnett show.

R118 actually, Mama was softened twice.

Firstly, for the NBC sitcom. She was still pretty mean in Seasons 1 and 2.

When the show was revived two years later in syndication, they softened her up a bit more, which probably was a good idea, since it ran an additional four seasons of 95 episodes.

[quote] "I liked Liz Torres. But her Wiki page shows she got fat."

I came to know her first on "The John Larroquette Show" in the 90s. It was after that, that I found her early work, R108.

Colby set up her own murder but joke’s on her. The person she was trying to frame was never suspected.

White was instrumental in Phyllis’s early cancellation (the network was going to retool and give it at least another season until White saw vulnerability and mobilized) and that’s why Clitoris hated White. It’s not clear what Clitoris did to get White to the point where she was doing life ruination shit to Clitoris. It was a mystery to Clit until the day she died.

Liz Torres is an unsung talent who never got her due.

Joan Collins reacting to Charlotte Rae calling her a slut on Entertainment Tonight is an important memory for me. The queen who got Collins to drive in, get in wig and makeup, and sit on set in front of a monitor to watch a half-demented Rae call her a slut is in heaven right now.

[quote] On MTM, Phyllis was selfish, bitchy, and hilarious.

Except for the bitchy queens on DL, that would grow tiresome pretty quickly

Barbara Colby was the former daughter in law of Ethel Merman.

Apparently, they maintained a close relationship after the divorce from Ethel’s son Robert.

I remember Ethel releasing a statement after Barbara’s murder.

[quote]Colby set up her own murder but joke’s on her. The person she was trying to frame was never suspected.

Is this a joke?

She and her friend were shot by two random black men.

R124, how do the circumstances conflict with what I wrote? Because it was two men, she couldn’t have hired them? You’re not making a point.

Her wiki is very interesting on this topic. All but comes out and points the finger where Colby in the direction Colby intended.

R124 I think that whole post is a joke. Like White had remotely any pull to get another show cancelled? And yet her very own show she couldn’t get to even last a full season? Haha.

R123 -what did Ethel? She was swell. She was great. Barbara had the whole world on her plate. Starting here. Starting now. Honey, Barbara is pushing up daisies.

R122 Exactly. On MTM, Phyllis had maybe 3 to 5 minutes of fun cuntiness on most of the episodes she did and then maybe 2 or 3 episodes a season where she had a bigger role. That was just the right amount of Phyllis.

In the Little People episode the fiancé barely speaks. Scott Colomby. Later did Porky's.

[quote]Garn Stephens, who played Phyllis’ co-worker in OP’s clip died just last month.

I saw the original production of "A Little Night Music" when it was trying out in Boston, its last stop before opening on Broadway. Garn Stephens was playing Petra, the maid, who sings "The Miller's Son." When she got to the section of the song with the rapid-fire lyrics ("It's a wink and a wiggle and a giggle in the grass . . . "), I couldn't understand a single word she sang. Apparently, neither could anyone else. I turned to my friend and said, "She's going to be replaced before this opens in New Yorl." And so she was.

[quote]Colby set up her own murder but joke’s on her. The person she was trying to frame was never suspected.

People will make up conspiracies about the strangest things.

Colby had been married to Ethel Merman's son, who was suspected of the murder by the police, so he hired his own private investigator who discovered a bunch of people along that street had been shot that night, and the cops were so clueless they hadn't realized there was a connection. Colby's friend survived long enough to identify two guys in a van as being the shooters, and a van of similar description was seen driving off after other shootings and robberies in the same area.

By the time the police talked to the PI, it was probably too late for them to get the kind of evidence they needed for an arrest. They brought several people in for questioning but that was as far as it went. I think something like five other people were shot that night, and some of them also died.

A Cloris Encounter of the First Kind: When I first got to LA in 84 I worked as a runner for a production company. One evening my boss had a backers reading of a script Cloris was attached to at his Case-Study-ish home, way in the Hollywood Hills. I was there to help out with the refreshments. Cloris was a bit late, and came into the house like a hurricane - she was a BIG presence.

The house had a series of wide, deck-like steps leading down from the front door to the street. Cloris and I happened to be walking out together. It was dark. I thought, what the fuck, and turned to her saying "Stay close to de candles." Frau Blucher replied "De stairvaaaaaaay CAN be treacherous."

I think this is the DL commercial people were talking about upthread (or is it 'downthread'?).