Empty Nest: These Birds Kept Flying Home

November 13, 2023November 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are looking at sitcoms dealing with careers in our “Work It Out” series. Today I also am learning a lot about a show that I thought was okay but had a big following and was quite popular for seven seasons: Empty Nest.

This show was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, the same team that produced Benson which we learned about last week. It was a spin-off of The Golden Girls which also was produced by the group. However, it is a stretch to connect the original episode and this series. In 1987 George (Paul Dooley) and Renee (Rita Moreno) were a couple who lived next to the Girls. They were suffering from Empty Nest Syndrome after their daughter (Jane Hamick) left for college and their son (Geoffrey Lewis) lived on his own. They had a neighbor Oliver (David Leisure).

Rita did not think the show was very well written. She said Susan Harris was ill at the time. The Corliss house and neighbor was about the only thing that was included in the new show.

On Empty Nest, Dr. Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan) is a widowed pediatrician. His two adult daughters Barbara (Kristy McNichol) and Carol (Dinah Manoff) move back in with him. Rounding out the cast was neighbor Charley (David Leisure) and Weston’s nurse Laverne (Park Overall). Carol is the oldest and had gone through a bad divorce. Barbara was the middle child and was a tough, undercover cop. Their youngest sister Emily was off at college and never seen in the first three seasons. When McNichol left the show early in the fifth season, Emily (Lisa Rieffel) moved back home but she left after that year, and for the final two seasons, only Carol remained at home, although McNichol did return for the finale. Charley bonded with Harry and considered him a surrogate father figure. Their dog Dreyfuss (Bear) also lived with the crew.

Bear’s father was a Golden Retriever mix and his mother was a St. Bernard. Bear’s entire family was in show business. His father was in Father Murphy and Summer Rental with John Candy. His brother was in both Steel Magnolias and The Bodyguard. His children continued the tradition taking roles in several movies including Homeward Bound II. Mulligan and Bear were close. Richard would greet him every morning and give him a treat.

The cast was well aware of each other before working together. McNichol had worked with Manoff who played her friend on Family earlier in the 80s. Mulligan had played Manoff’s father on Soap. Mulligan and McNichol worked together on The Love Boat. And, McNichol and Leisure were in the movie You Can’t Hurry Love in 1988.

The reason this show is considered in this month’s blog is that a lot of the show revolved around Harry’s medical practice. He worked at a hospital for the first five seasons with his nurse Laverne. The two are good friends. For the final two seasons, Harry retires and then decides to help out an inner city clinic run by Dr. Maxine Douglas (Marsha Warfield). When Laverne is fired by Harry’s replacement, he hires her at the clinic.

Some notable guest stars who showed up along the way included Don Adams, Diana Muldaur, Loni Anderson, Mayim Bialik, Angie Dickinson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Shirley Jones, Audrey Meadows, and Doris Roberts.

The theme song was “Life Goes On,” written by John Bettis and George Tipton; it was performed by Billy Vera.

Critics liked the show. In 1988, TV Guide said “it’s a simple premise, but it’s vintage Harris and like everything else she does, Empty Nest has been meticulously thought out and superbly cast. Each of the regulars is carefully drawn, consistently realized . . . as for Empty Nest, it’s warm and entertaining comedy . . if you like the humor in Golden Girls, you’ll enjoy Empty Nest. And even if you don’t like Golden Girls, sample Empty Nest anyway. Trust us.” In 1992, TV Guide still liked the show and said, “Harry Weston is delicious and Dreyfuss the dog is delightful. Empty Nest is home to an experienced ensemble that knows its way around a sitcom.”

Mulligan was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy in 1989, 1990, and 1991, winning in 1989. He was beat out by Ted Danson for Cheers in 1990 and Burt Reynolds for Evening Shade in 1991.

Most viewers loved the show the first four seasons, but after McNichol left and Harry retired, the quality seemed to wane. The show was in the top for seasons one through three. However, after that, it slowly declined, coming in #23 for season four, #45 for season five, #62 for season six, and #118 for season seven, so there was no surprise when it was canceled.

Grace Zabriskie appeared in the very first and very last episode of the series. In episode one, she was a woman who dated Harry, and in the finale, she played Laverne’s mother.

One of the typical plots that a lot of people mentioned as one of their favorites was episode 22 from season 1 where we watch Dr. Weston visit five different patients during one episode. At the end of the show, we realize that we have been following Billy from a newborn to 18 years of age, and we understand how much influence a family doctor can have on one patient.

Rue McClanahan talked about how Park Overall would spend her breaks roller skating in the parking lot. However, during season five, she broke her leg doing so and had to miss several episodes and spend several more with crutches in a cast.

I have read a few times in the past few years doing research that Bea Arthur could be very difficult to work with. She was not the favorite on The Golden Girls set and, apparently, she caused an issue on Empty Nest as well. She despised gum chewing and would make the crew spit out their gum. When she guest starred on Empty Nest, she saw Manoff chewing gum and told her to get rid of it. When Manoff declined, Arthur stormed off the set. Speaking of Manoff, she was able to direct seven episodes of the series during the last three seasons. She directed five other shows including an episode of Sabrina, the Teen-Aged Witch. She was also credited with writing two of the Empty Nest episodes.

I do remember watching the early seasons of this show and thinking it was a decent show. I did not remember that McNichol had to leave for mental health reasons, so I’m guessing I stopped watching it before she quit. However, being in the top ten for three years is, or at least was at the time, a good indication of quality and then you add in TV Guide liking the show and Mulligan’s nominations for Emmy awards, and it presents good evidence of a well-rounded show. I did read that Overall could be a bit difficult on the set, and one of those comments came directly from her.

Marty Pollio, guest starred in season six when things weren’t so great and still had good things to say about the cast. He said that “it was an honor to be doing scenes with Richard Mulligan, he was talented beyond belief, and a great guy too. I never realized what a good actress Dinah Manoff was until I watched her work on this particular episode . . . nice person as well. The set was pretty relaxed and friendly. . . I had a really good time on this one.” It would probably have been better for the quality of the show to be a four-season show than a seven-season show.

I agree with TV Guide. If you were a fan of Golden Girls, you definitely should check out the first three seasons of Empty Nest. And even if you are in that small group of people who did not like Golden Girls, you should watch a few episodes and see what you think. However, that is easier said than done. There is no official DVD set; however, there are bootlegs on several places. I also could not find any streaming channels showing it. YouTube does have at least the first episode. Perhaps with all the classic tv channels out there, this show will make a comeback.

Benson: Still Standing

November 6, 2023November 3, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

In this month’s series, “Work It Out” we are looking at some of our favorite sitcoms that revolve around work and careers. This week we are checking out one of my favorite characters on television. He started as a minor role in a controversial show, and went on to make a name for himself; the show is literally named for his character, Benson.

The series was created by Susan Harris, and produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions.

Benson (Robert Guillaume) worked for the Tate family on Soap and later went to help out Governor Eugene Gatling (James Noble), Jessica Tate’s cousin. Benson started in the governor’s household but was so competent that it didn’t take long to move him into the role of state budget director and then lieutenant governor.

Any time that you have a show about politics, there is room for sarcasm and humor, and this show featured both. Benson has an enjoyable, sarcastic wit. By that I mean, most characters would come off arrogantly with so much sarcasm, but Benson is so sophisticated and wise that he just gets away with it. And to be honest, he typically is only sarcastic when the character or the action calls for it.

One of the people who often gets his sarcasm is the cook Gretchen (Inga Swenson). Clayton Endicott III (Rene Auberjonois) also gets his fair share. In season three, Denise Stevens (Didi Conn) is Benson’s press secretary. Rounding out the cast is the governor’s daughter Katie (Missy Gold), who is about ten, and only gets respect from Benson.

Jerry Seinfeld had a short-lived role on Benson, and this was his first acting job. He played Frankie, a delivery boy, but apparently, he had some differences with the cast or crew and was let go.

The show was nominated for seventeen Emmy nominations. Robert Guillaume was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 1980 and every year from 1982-1985, winning in 1985. He lost to Richard Mulligan for Soap in 1980, to Alan Alda for M*A*S*H in 1982, Judd Hirsch for Taxi in 1983, and John Ritter for Three’s Company in 1984. Swenson was nominated for supporting actress in 1980, 1982 and 1985. Auberjonois was also nominated for supporting actor in 1984.

Guillaume said that for him, the show was always about that fact that a black man was standing on his own two feet and after he had to deal with anyone, he was still standing. But most people put it in a box, deciding that it was about a black man who was the smartest man in the room and he was very militant. He said that Benson looked at people’s ability, not their skin color but that was not what viewers took away from the show.

Robert Guillaume would not have been thought the most likely person to star in a sitcom for most of his career. He was born in St. Louis in 1927 and raised by his grandmother. He loved music and idolized several singers including Paul Robeson. He joined the army from 1945-47. While attending St. Louis University and Washington University where he majored in music, he worked as a postal clerk and a streetcar driver.

When he was 30, he won a scholarship for a classical music three-month stint in Colorado. In 1959 he toured Europe with Quincy Jones, Clark Terry, and Harold Nicholas in “Free and Easy.” During the sixties and seventies, he worked in musical theater, in a variety of productions.

His first television appearance was on Julia in 1969. During the seventies, he only had a few television roles but they were all in very popular shows including Marcus Welby, MD; Sanford and Son; All in the Family; The Jeffersons; and Good Times. His role of Benson on Soap began in 1977.

Because Benson was thought of simply as a sitcom, Guillaume said the work he was most proud of was not Benson or Soap; his favorite role was when he was on Sports Night. This is a series that I will definitely be checking out for future blogs. Whether you get to know him on Soap or Benson, Benson is just a fun character to get to know.

Henry Winkler: Simply Amazing

October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Today we are learning about the career of Henry Winkler. Although he was typecast for many years following Happy Days, he managed to continue his career with a variety of roles.

His parents were German Jews who lived in Berlin during the occupation of Nazi Germany. His father knew they would not be safe there and left in 1939. Winkler described what happened in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR in 2019: “My father knew that it was time. He got a six-week visa from Germany to come and do work in New York but was expected to come right back. I have told this story–that he took his mother’s jewelry, bought a box of chocolate, melted the chocolate down, put the pieces of jewelry in the chocolate box, melted–poured the chocolate over the jewelry, put the box under his arm, so when he was stopped by the Nazis and they said, are you taking anything of value out of Germany, he said, no, you can open every bag; we’ve got nothing. And the jewelry that he encased in chocolate, he sold when he came out of Ellis Island into New York and was able to start a new life here, slowly but surely. I have the actual letters from the government each time my father requested to stay a little longer, and they would say yes. And I was born.”

Although his family did not keep kosher, Henry and his sister Beatrice were raised with the traditions of Conservative Judaism.

Winkler struggled with his studies but he was popular and very funny. His parents were frustrated by his inability to learn. Apparently, his father spoke eleven languages and could easily do math in his head. Henry’s self-esteem began to suffer during these years. Because his grades weren’t better, he was banned from most theater productions, which was what he was most interested in. He was able to appear in “Billy Budd” in eighth grade and in “Of Thee I Sing” in high school.

When Winkler gave a talk at the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, he tried to describe what it had been like for him in school: “You want so badly to be able to do it and you can’t. And no matter how hard you try, it’s not working . . . I would study my words. I would know them cold. I would know them backwards and forwards. I would go to class. I would pray that I had retained them. Then I would get the test and spend a lot of time thinking about where the hell those words went. I knew them. They must have fallen out of my head. Did I lose them on the street? Did I lose them in the stairwell? Did I lose them walking through the classroom doorway? I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to spell the words that I knew a block and a half away in my apartment the night before.”

Henry Winkler Talks About His Dyslexia in CBS Interview | Understood - For learning and thinking differences — Photo: understood.org

After high school, he attended Emerson College to study theater. He applied to 28 colleges but his grades kept him from being accepted at 26 of them. He majored in theater and minored in child psychology. During his time there he was a member of the Alph Pi Theta fraternity. He had a role in “Peer Gynt” as Peer Gynt. Although he also struggled with college courses, he stayed the course for four years and graduated in 1967. He was admitted to the Yale School of Drama in 1967. He appeared in a number of productions there. He received his MFA in 1970. Twenty-six years later he spoke at Graduation Day at Yale.

He began doing commercials in New York after graduation and starred in The Lords of Flatbush and Crazy Joe, two independent films. He appeared one day on Broadway; the show opened and closed on the same day. He also performed with an improv group, Off the Wall in New York.

Bomber Happy Days Fonzie Jacket - Jackets Creator — Photo: usajacket.com

In 1973 he moved to California. His first role there was on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Although he paid his dues in New York, he was hired as Arthur Fonzarelli on Happy Days his second week in Hollywood. He would portray the Fonz for a decade. The part was originally written a minor role on the show. Winkler did not want to portray the character as a stereotyped role which is probably why he became so popular. He was allowed to wear a black leather jacket only on his motorcycle the first year. Winkler never drove the cycle because the first time he tried, he crashed. His motorcycle on the show was the same one Steve McQueen used in the last scene of The Great Escape in 1963.

During his time on the show, he was diagnosed with dyslexia, explaining his tough time at school.

During the middle of season two, his character became a regular cast member. Many fans attribute to his performance in the episode “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas.” By season three, he was considered one of the leads in the show.

Both Ron Howard who played Richie and Winkler told writer Stephanie Nolasco of Fox News how they felt about each other and their time on Happy Days. Winkler had a hard time dealing with his sudden fame, and Howard was able to provide some grounding for him. Winkler described this time, “It’s unnatural—the human condition does not prepare you for stardom. That’s just the way it is. So, you have to hold on to yourself and then you’ve got friends like Ron who doesn’t take it all seriously. I learned from him; he was my teacher. And Garry Marshall never took bad behavior from anybody. He was a father figure. He was very funny and very idiosyncratic, and then he was very strict.”

Winkler also discussed his friendship with Howard. “I think people gravitate to the Fonzie/Richie relationship because Ron and I are ten years apart. He was 19 and I was 27. We had a connection that you cannot describe in real life, and it was similar off-camera. He gave me my first mitt; I’d never played baseball before. He’s my brother.”

Howard echoed the sentiments. “We were fast friends from the beginning. It continues all these years later. It was exciting for me to work with Henry because he was really a trained actor who attended Yale Drama School; just a trained New York actor. And, I’d grown up sort of through the Hollywood television system, so for me to work with this guy who was so thoughtful, so creative, and yet so hilarious, was really an opportunity for me to learn and grow and we just clicked, you know.”

The sudden fame for Fonzie might have damaged the friendship Winkler had with Ron Howard, but they were both professionals and never had their egos inflated. They honestly discussed what was happening and while Howard had a harder transition with the show, he understood that Fonz had become a national icon. Even now decades after the show ended, people recognize his “Ayyy” and “correctamundo” catch phrases and his thumb’s up gesture.

After the show was canceled, his leather jacket was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution for the National Museum of American History. A bronze statue of the Fonz was erected in Milwaukee in 2008 along the Milwaukee Riverwalk.

Fonzie was adored by many kids, especially kids who needed some extra help or attention. Marshall was asked if the show could do something to help kids realize how important reading was. In one of the episodes, The Fonz went to the library and checked out a book, saying “Everybody is allowed to read.” That week, library card registrations increased by 500%. In another situation, one day a call came to Paramount Studios. It was from a teenage boy who was contemplating suicide. He wanted to talk to Fonzie. Winkler picked up the call and gave the boy hope, convincing him not to take his life.

Tom Bosley and Marion Ross Photo: ebay.com

He received 50,000 letters a week. He also received $50,000 an episode. Winkler described The Fonz as his alter ego; he said that Fonz was everything he had always wanted to be: in charge, confident, and adored by others. Winkler credits Marion Ross and Tom Bosley, Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham on Happy Days, with being his acting mentors. He loved them for what they taught him and for being great people. When Bosley died, Winkler said “Tom was a family member, both on and off the sound stage. We acted together, traveled together, and played charades together. He was a loving husband, a doting father, and a fantastic grandfather.”

During his years on Happy Days, Winkler was able to tackle several other roles in the off season. He was a Vietnam War vet with PTDS in Heroes for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He was in Carl Reiner’s The One and Only and in Ron Howard’s Night Shift.

Stacey Weitzman + Henry Winkler: Inside the Fonz's Real Life Love Story — Henry and Stacey Photo: wideopencountry.com

He also tackled the role of husband, when he married Stacey in 1978. After two years of dating, they married in the same synagogue where Winkler had his bar mitzvah. Together they raised three children, and they have been involved with a variety of children’s charities including the Children’s Action Network, the Annual Cerebal Palsy Telethon, the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the Toys for Tots, the National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped, and Special Olympics.

Even with these roles and several other television appearances under his belt, when Happy Days ended, Winkler was typecast and could not get quality roles. Winkler went the route of producer and director. He was one of the developers of MacGyver and produced and directed Sabrina the Teenage Witch. He worked on two movies: Memories of Me with Billy Crystal and Cop and a Half with Burt Reynolds. He also had appearances in Scream in 1996 and The Waterboy in 1998 and on television in The Practice in 1997 and Arrested Development in 2003.

In 2003, he added writer to his resume, creating a new series of children’s books, Hank Zipzer about a dyslexic boy, with co-author Lin Oliver. The BBC televised the series, and Winkler appeared as Mr. Rock in the show. Winkler and Oliver went on to create Here’s Hank, the Ghost Buddy series and the Alien Superstar series. Queen Elizabeth appointed him Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2011, and he was named one of the United Kingdom’s Top Ten Literary Heroes in 2013. In 2019, he was awarded the Bill Rosendahl Public Service Award for Contributions to the Public Good for his book series. In 2016, the award was renamed after Bill Rosendahl, a progressive political leader, Los Angeles’ first openly gay City Council member, an educator, a Vietnam veteran, an award-winning host of thousands of public affairs programs, and president of the Los Angeles Press Club.

In 2016 he joined the ranks of actors participating in reality shows on Better Late Than Never. During season two, Winkler traveled to Berlin and shared his family’s story. This was a quirky 12-episode reality show. NBC described it as: “This hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy/reality show follows cultural icons Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman on their greatest adventure yet. Deciding it’s Better Late Than Never, these four national treasures embark on the journey of a lifetime, traveling across Asia on their own with no schedule and no itinerary. The only “help” will come from Jeff Dye, a young, strong, tech-savvy comedian with an agenda of his own – who isn’t above leading the men off track. Each stop is packed with hilarious cultural experiences, heartwarming spectacles and unexpected twists as our legends take on this unforgettable adventure.”

Better Late Than Never art features Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman | EW.com — Photo: entertainmentweekly.com

In 2018, Winkler starred in the show Barry and won his first Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy. The plot features a hit man from the Midwest who moves to Los Angeles and becomes fascinated with the city’s theater life.

The show was on HBO for two seasons and Bill Hader, one of the creators and star of the show, wanted Henry for the part of acting teacher Gene Cousineau. Winkler mentioned he was 27 when he got the regular role on Happy Days and 72 when he got the role on Barry. Stage 19 of Paramount was where Barry was filmed; it was also the same sound stage used for Happy Days. Hader wrote Cousineau as a dark, cold character and while he could humiliate his students, Winkler brought some warmth to the character as well.

Winkler is a loyal Democrat and has campaigned for, and financially supported, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barack Obama.

Happy Days': Henry Winkler Revealed How He and John Ritter Met — With Friend John Ritter Photo: outsider.com

In addition to being lifelong friends with Ron Howard, Winkler was a close friend of John Ritter. They met at an ABC party in 1978 and became close friends. Winkler was actually on the set of John’s show when he collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital shortly before his death.

I do like to add some personal stories to my blogs when possible. I found a fun article in New York Magazine that looked at what famous people like to buy. One of the pieces was about Henry Winkler from October 2021. So, what did the famous Mr. Winkler purchase?:

Penn Ultra-Blue racquetballs to play with his dog Sadie. ($4); A Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Camera ($650); Landmark Theatre Gift Cards ($5); Katz’s Pastrami and Rye food boxes ($155), a reminder of his youth; Munster Cheese from The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills ($15); Winston Boron fly fishing rod ($825); Knudsen’s heavy whipping cream ($4); Gotham Coffee Roasters Brooklyn Blend Coffee ($18) which needs the above cream, no half ‘n half for Henry; and Lavley I’d Rather Be Fly Fishing socks ($12), because no one likes the socks where the elastic stops working after two wash cycles. A bit of fun trivia about an icon’s shopping list.

Perhaps one of the best stories that displays the importance of Henry Winkler comes from journalist Anderson Cooper. Cooper is also dyslexic and said that one of the books that influenced his life was The Fonz: The Henry Winkler Story. He keeps it in his office at CNN. He also mentioned that in meeting Winkler in person as an adult, he realized what a kind and gracious person he is. That is something I read over and over; everyone described Winkler as kind, level-headed, grounded, unbelievably nice, and many other similar sentiments.

Henry Winkler Shares Insights at Vital Ayyy-ging Conference | News | San Diego County News Center — Photo: sandiegocountynews.com

Henry Winkler would be amazing just based on what he did with the character of The Fonz. He would be amazing just based on what he has done for his children’s charity work. He would be amazing just based on how seriously he takes his roles as husband and father. He would be amazing just based on his directing and producing work. He would be amazing just based on his later roles on Arrested Development and Barry. He would be amazing just based on his friendships with coworkers including Ron Howard, Marion Ross, Tom Bosley, Adam Sandler, and John Ritter. He would be amazing just based on his book series as an author. And he would be amazing just based on the work he has done to help others understand dyslexia. Put them all together and add the fact that no one can talk about him without describing what a genuine and kind person he is, and he is well, just simply amazing. Thank you, Henry Winkler, for all the ways you have amazed us over the decades.

James Garner: Moving Forward

October 23, 2023December 2, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Today we are winding up our blog series about some of our favorite actors. We finish today with one of my favorites who had a dual big-screen and small-screen career, James Garner.

Garner was born in Norman, Oklahoma as James Scott Bumgarner in 1928. His mother died when he was 4, and his father ran a small store and the family lived above it. When James was 7 the store burned down and his father left the boys and gave them to relatives to raise. Later he moved to Los Angeles and became a carpet layer. James’ first stepmom was very abusive, and they finally had a fight when he hit her and she took off. His second stepmother was a total opposite of the first. He called her Mama Grace and said she was a real mother to him.

At 16 James dropped out of high school to join the Merchant Marines. He liked his shipmates but could never get over his chronic seasickness. In 1945 Garner moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in high school. He was a popular student and played both football and basketball, but he was a terrible student. He moved back to Norman the next year to try high school there again. He dropped out before graduating.

He then joined the California Army National Guard where he served his first seven months in Los Angeles. Then he went to Korea for 14 months as a rifleman in the 5^th Regimental Combat Team. He was wounded twice and received two Purple Hearts. He also received his diploma from high school.

After he left the military, he had a variety of odd jobs including laying carpet with his father, pumping gas, installing telephones, chauffeur, dishwasher, janitor, lifeguard, grocery clerk, salesman, oil field worker, and modeling men’s clothing. His entry into the entertainment business is a bit different than most people’s. He was supposed to read lines to lead actors for Broadway production, “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” in 1954. He was also given a minor, non-speaking role. As he was on the stage, he began to learn about the art of acting.

In 1955 he received a bit part on Cheyenne on television. He was also in Warner Brothers Presents. These small parts led to several offers to act in commercials and a larger offer from Warner Brothers to sign a contract for $200 a week. Garner began his big-screen career with Toward the Unknown in 1956. His film career included 46 additional movies with his last being The Notebook.

It was also 1956, when he married his wife Lois Fleishman Clarke; they would remain married until his death, and the couple had two daughters. They had a very short courtship. They met at the Beverly Hills Courthouse at a political rally for Adlai Stevenson and were a married couple two weeks later.

The couple bought a house in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood where their neighbors were Steve McQueen, O.J. Simpson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, and Mark Harmon. They were still living there when James passed away.

His successful movie career did not halt his television career. From 1957 to 1962, Garner starred as Bret Maverick on Maverick. Garner developed the type of role he would be known for as the calm, good-natured, likable, smart guy who gets out of trouble using his wit and street smarts. The show was not canceled by the network; unfortunately, Garner and the producers had a dispute over money, and he decided not to come back for the next season.

In August of 1963, Garner was one of several stars who accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. in his March on Washington. He later also recalled sitting in the third row while listening to King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

In 1964 he made what he called his favorite film, The Americanization of Emily with Julie Andrews. He played the personal attendant of a Navy admiral and he said it contained the most impassioned speech of his career.

During the sixties and seventies, he continued making movies and showing up in a few places on television, shows like Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In, The Tonight Show, and several tv movies, one about Bret Maverick.

In 1974 he accepted his second role as star of a television series on The Rockford Files. He played Jim Rockford until 1980. Again, the network did not cancel the show which was still very popular but Garner had been having back pain and did not feel that he should continue the weekly series. He probably made the right choice because he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer during 1979; he would have quintuple heart bypass surgery in 1988; and both knees replaced in 2000.

In 1977 Garner began making commercials for Polaroid with Mariette Hartley. They were so convincing of being a married couple, that Hartley had a shirt made that said “I am not James Garner’s wife!” The couple filmed more than 300 commercials together.

After John Ritter passed away in 2003, Garner joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules as Cate’s father Joe and was on the show for the final three seasons.

Garner worked with several charities and foundations during his career. In 2003, he gave $500,000 to the James Garner Chair in the School of Drama for the University of Oklahoma to fund the first-endowed position at that school. He also volunteered with Save the Children.

In 2011, Garner wrote an autobiography called The Garner Files: A Memoir, cowritten with Jon Winokur.

Some of Garner’s hobbies included spending time with his family and political activism. However, his biggest passion was sports. He was a big fan of the Oakland Raiders and could often be seen on the sidelines with the team. He loved golfing. He was inducted into the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978. He owned the American International Racing team in the late sixties and he drove the pace cars for the Indianapolis 500 in 1975, 1977, and 1986.

He was also honored by his hometown of Norman, Oklahoma. He has a street named after him there and in 2006, a ten-foot bronze statue as Bret Maverick was erected there.

He was also loved by his coworkers. In 1973, John Wayne named Garner the best American actor in an interview. He was also close friends with Tom Selleck, Sally Field, and Clint Eastwood. When he passed away in 2014 from a heart attack, Sally Field said “My heart just broke. There are few people on this planet I have adored as much as Jimmy Garner. I cherish every moment I spent with him and relive them over and over in my head. He was a diamond.” He was nominated for 15 Emmy awards during his television career, winning in 1977 as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for The Rockford Files.

He didn’t do a lot of comedy but I think he was a funny guy. When he was asked if he would ever consider a nude scene, he said “No, I don’t do horror films.”

James always said he was not concerned with fame; he just wanted to make a good living at something he enjoyed. That comes across as something he truly believed in, not just talking the talk. He lived in the same house and was married to the same woman for most of his life. He did work he was proud of and was very successful in both film and television. He loved sports and his career allowed him to participate in more of those activities that he loved. He was also a generous man, giving to causes that he thought were important.

Although not the most important films in his portfolio, I always think of him acting with Doris Day in The Thrill of it All and Move Over Darling. I enjoyed learning about his life and respect him as a person. He never complained about the terrible childhood he had or used it to make excuses when he did make a poor choice; he said you have to just keep moving forward and he moved forward in an honorable way. Thanks for sharing your life with us and letting us travel forward with you, James Garner.

John Astin: The Math Adds Up for Him to Be an Actor

October 16, 2023November 28, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

This month we are learning about some of our favorite sitcom stars. Today we are discovering the career of John Astin, better known as Gomez Addams.

Astin was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1930. His father was the director of what is today the National Institute of Standards and Technology. After high school, he enrolled at Washington and Jefferson College to major in mathematics, and he later transferred to Johns Hopkins, where he graduated in 1952 with a degree in drama.

One of his first roles was husband when he married Suzanne Hahn in 1956. The couple divorced in 1972.

John made his Broadway debut as an understudy in Shaw’s “Major Barbara.

He was also getting movie offers with The Pusher his first role in 1960 and West Side Story in 1961 was his second film. He would go on to appear on the big screen on and off during his career. He was in two of my favorite Doris Day movies: That Touch of Mink and Move Over Darling.

His first television appearance in 120 different series began in 1957 for Studio One. The sixties found him quite busy on the small screen with roles in a variety of genres including The Donna Reed Show, Maverick, The Twilight Zone, Hazel, Dennis the Menace, Star Trek, Batman, The Wild Wild West, and Bonanza.

It was also in the sixties that he received his first starring sitcom role as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family. The show, like The Munsters, began in 1964 and ended in 1966.

Astin had been a fan of Charles Addams’ work in The New Yorker before being asked to star in the show. He said that he was the first actor of the cast chosen and got to pick his own name, since the cartoon characters did not have names. He said that he had to argue with the network a bit. He said they wanted him to shave his head to resemble the cartoon, but he put his foot down. He was not being vain; he just thought viewers would not accept Morticia falling for him if he looked older and bald.

He had a few challenges filming his role. Not everyone has to do take after take upside down, and he said he did that sort of thing a lot.

Astin was able to sit in on the auditions for Morticia and the network was having a hard time finding the right person. He was thrilled when he heard they were going to offer the part to Carolyn Jones. The only problem is that she wanted top billing and he already received that in his contract. In order to get the right Morticia, he willingly gave it up and she got that designation. John said he and Carolyn “liked each other and both had a sense of humor.” He said they became friends for life and he still misses her, especially her laugh. “Carolyn had a great laugh. Just working with her when she laughed, it was a wonderful thing.”

When The Addams Family was canceled, he took a role in a show that I enjoyed, The Phyllis Diller Show a/k/a The Pruitts of South Hampton. In this series, the Pruitts find out they owe the IRS a ton of money, but the IRS does not want to have the public find out because they are afraid that the family won’t be able to pay back the money they owe. The IRS works with them to keep their mansion and a few “necessities.” Phyllis as Phyllis Pruitt schemes to make money the IRS is not aware of. Her brother-in-law played by Astin is usually eager to help her. This show had an amazing cast with other members being Richard Deacon, Reginald Gardiner, Marty Ingels, Charles Lane, Billy De Wolfe, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Hope Summers. However, the series only lasted one year.

Astin did not slow down in the seventies where we saw him on The Odd Couple, Love American Style, The Doris Day Show, The Partridge Family, McMillan and Wife, Marcus Welby MD, and Welcome Back Kotter.

As the decade started, he married Patty Duke; they were married thirteen years.

During the eighties and nineties, you would have seen Astin in Simon and Simon, The Love Boat, St. Elsewhere, Webster, Murder She Wrote, and Becker.

In the eighties, he again was part of the cast of several series. In 1986 he accepted the role of Ed LaSalle on Mary. In this short-lived show, Mary Tyler Moore is a divorced woman who is forced to write for The Chicago Eagle, a seedy tabloid, after the fashion magazine she writes for goes out of business.

Astin made eleven appearances as Kenny on Night Court; Kenny was a former patient with mental health issues and turned out to be Harry’s biological father. It was during the eighties that he began a very successful voice career in animation which was still going strong in 2022.

They say the third time is the charm and that seems to be true in Astin’s case. He married his third wife, Valerie Ann Sandobal in 1989 and is living back in Baltimore.

In 2001 he began teaching at Johns Hopkins as well. He said that at that time, he “didn’t know one major university that has a known actor teaching every day.” His brother is also a professor; Alexander W. Astin at UCLA is considered one of the most influential scholars in the field of higher education research.

as Edgar Allan Poe Photo: centraljerseyarchives.com

At one point, John got his Masters in English literature. He became a huge fan of Edgar Alexander Poe and studied his works. He toured the country in a one-man show, “Edgar Allan Poe: Once Upon a Midnight.” Astin says “Poe had a mission to tell us what it’s all about. To answer some of the great questions of life. The themes Poe used were universal and timeless. As long as the English language exists at all, we will be able to appreciate what he did. It will not become dated.”

I had a lot of fun learning more about the career of John Astin. I had not heard about his Edgar Allan Poe tour; I also did not know that he was a drama professor. Now in his eighties, he certainly is keeping busy, not only continuing his career but helping new generations of actors with their careers. Thanks for entertaining us for decades and for ensuring that we will continue to be entertained into the future.

Ernest Borgnine: Loved By Many as Mermaid Man

October 9, 2023November 20, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are learning about the careers of some of our favorite classic television actors. This prolific actor has 211 acting credits. He began his small-screen career in 1950 and made his last television appearance in 2012. In between, he did made movies and appeared on Broadway. Today we are talking about the amazing career of Ernest Borgnine.

Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino in 1917 in Connecticut. Both his parents grew up in Italy. They separated when he was only two and then he and his mother returned to Italy. In 1923, his parents reconciled, changed their name to Borgnine, and moved back to Connecticut. While Ernest participated in a lot of sports in school, especially boxing, acting was not on his list of interests.

In 1935, Ernest joined the US Navy. He served on the USS Lamberton, a minesweeper. He returned home in 1941, but he re-enlisted in 1942 after Pearl Harbor was attacked. During WWII, he was aboard an antisubmarine warfare ship and returned home in 1945. He received several medals for his service.

Ernest moved back into his parents’ home and eventually took a job in a factory. One day his mother said, “You always like getting in front of people and making a fool of yourself, why don’t you give it a try?” His father was not as enthusiastic.

He enrolled in the Randall School of Drama in Hartford, Connecticut and then moved to the Barter Theater in Virginia. His first stage role was in “State of the Union” and his second was a small part in “The Glass Menagerie.”

In 1949, he had his Broadway debut as a nurse in “Harvey.”

Wagon Train Photo: televisionsnewfrontier.com

In 1950 he tried his hand at television, appearing in Rocky King, Detective. The following year he moved to Los Angeles and had his first big-screen role in China Corsair. Throughout the fifties, Ernest was kept busy in both mediums. He would appear in 25 movies, including From Here to Eternity and Marty. He won an Oscar for the role of Marty. He also accepted 11 roles in television shows, including The Danny Thomas Show, Wagon Train, and On the Waterfront.

In 1961, Borgnine accepted the role of Quinton McHale on McHale’s Navy. He would appear in 138 episodes of the series for four years. McHale had a gruff voice and a mischievous grin. The show, featuring Joe Flynn and Tim Conway along with a cast of characters, became an instant hit and went to the top thirty the first year. Borgnine was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in season two.

Tim Conway and Ernest became life-long friends. Conway said the show was definitely male-oriented: “You know, we were all guys, it was about the war, and about men, so there weren’t many women working on the show, so we can spit, talk, swear, and everything.” Borgnine also talked about the show and said, “It’s not exactly the Navy I remember. I don’t think we could have won the war if we’d had one like this. But it’s a lot more laughs.”

Throughout the sixties and seventies, he continued accepting roles on the silver screen and on television. In 1984 he took on another regular role on Airwolf. Starring opposite Jan-Michael Vincent, he played Dominic Santini, a helicopter pilot.

A decade later, he tried it again with The Single Guy where he played Manny Cordoba for two seasons.

He won an Emmy for his role on ER as Paul Manning. Manning’s wife was critically ill , and she died in the final episode of the series.

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy Photo: twitter.com

In the 2000s, he finished his career as Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants. He was paired with Tim Conway as Barnacle Boy.

Borgnine released his autobiography, Ernie, in 2008.

While Ernie tried many forms of entertainment, he also tried many forms of marriage. He married Rhoda Kemins in 1949 whom he met in the Navy. They divorced in 1958 and he married Katy Jurado from 1959-63.

His shortest matrimony journey was with Ethel Merman; they were married for 42 days! Conway also had an opinion on this marriage. He said “Ernie is volatile, I mean, there’s no question about that; and Ethel was a very strong lady. So you put two bombs in a room, something is going to explode, and I guess it probably did.”

In 1965 Ernie married Donna Rancourt but they also divorced by 1972. His final marriage was to Tova Traesnaes; they were married in 1973 until his death from kidney failure in 2012.

I didn’t read a lot about his hobbies, probably because he was too busy working for 62 years, but he did love stamp collecting. He began as a boy and had an extensive collection of Russian and Cuban stamps that he collected during the Cold War. He even was involved with one or two national stamp-collecting groups.

It was so refreshing to read about Ernie. Despite his volatile temper, everyone seemed to have loved him. I did not read one negative thing about him except what Ethel Merman shared. Knowing what I know about Ethel, despite her great acting skills, I am amazed they lasted forty-two days.

It was a lot of fun to learn more about him; I always associated him with McHale’s Navy and Marty so it was interesting to learn more about his television career.

Eddie Albert: The John Muir of Hollywood

October 2, 2023November 20, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are looking at some of our favorite classic television actors. If you are a big fan of Oklahoma or Green Acres, you will be well acquainted with our star today, Eddie Albert. Let’s learn a bit more about his life and career.

Eddie was born Edward Albert Heimberger in 1906 in Illinois. When he was one, his family moved to Minneapolis. When he was six, he became a paper boy. He and his schoolmate, Harriet Lake, were in the drama club. Harriet would later change her name to Ann Sothern. After graduating in 1926, Albert enrolled at the University of Minnesota to major in business.

He began his career in earnest, but the stock market crash derailed his job search. He worked a variety of jobs including singer, trapeze artist, and insurance salesman.

In 1933 he moved to New York City and cohosted a radio show called “The Honeymooners-Grace and Eddie Show,” with costar Grace Bradt. He was on the show three years and then Warner Brothers offered him a contract.

Albert also had an early career on Broadway with lead roles in “Room Service” and “The Boys From Syracuse.” He also began working on television. In 1936, NBC hosted a play of his “The Love Nest” on their experimental television station W2XBS, now WNBC.

His first movie role occurred in 1938 in Brother Rat. He would make 25 additional films during the next decade and then another 50 big-screen movies before his career ended, with his last one being the Narrator in Death Valley Days in 1995.

During his odd-job era, Albert had toured Mexico as a clown and trapeze artist with the Escalante Brother Circus while working for the US Army intelligence, photographing German boats in Mexican harbors. In 1942, he enlisted in the US Coast Guard. In 1943, he resigned in order to accept an offer as a lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve. He rescued 47 marines under heavy enemy fire in 1943 and was awarded a Bronze Star.

After returning from the War, Albert married Mexican actress, Margo. Their son also became an actor and their daughter took on the role of Eddie’s business manager. His son had more than 130 credits, the first being in 1963. You probably saw him on many of your favorite shows. Unfortunately, he passed away from lung cancer only a year after his father died.

During the late forties to the early sixties, Albert returned to Broadway for roles in “Miss Liberty,” “The Seven-Year Itch,” and “The Music Man.”

Albert had a long and active television career. During the fifty years that he was working in the industry, he appeared in almost 100 different shows. His first appearance was in the Ford Theater Hour in 1948.

Throughout the fifties, Eddie showed up in many of the early drama series on television. The sixties found him, along with most other actors of that decade, showing up on a variety of westerns, including Laramie, Tales of West Fargo, The Virginian, and Wagon Train. He was offered roles in several dramas as well, including Dr. Kildare, The Outer Limits, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

In 1965 he received the starring role of Oliver Douglas in Green Acres. For six seasons, he extolled the virtues of farming over the big city rat race. While Oliver had a harder time fitting into Hooterville life, his elegant wife Lisa was accepted immediately. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I love this show. I am more impressed with it now, fifty years later. There is so much sophisticated humor and wit in the show and I love getting to know the quirky characters who live in the Hooterville community. As Oliver Douglas, Albert was also on The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction. The show was purged with the other rural comedies, even though the ratings were still quite high.

The seventies and eighties kept Albert busy on television and in films. He appeared on many shows including Columbo, McCloud, Here’s Lucy, Simon & Simon, Hotel, Murder She Wrote, and thirtysomething.

He opted to star in one more television series in Switch from 1975-78. He starred as ex-cop Frank McBride who started a detective agency with ex-con Pete Ryan (Robert Wagner).

Much of Eddie’s life was spent as an activist for social and environmental causes. He participated in the first Earth Day. He founded the Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation and was national chairman for the Boys Scouts of America’s conservation program. From 1985-1993, he was the spokesperson for the National Arbor Day Foundation. He was a trustee of the National Recreation and Park Association and became a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s advisory board.

In addition, he was involved with Meals for Millions and was a consultant for the World Hunger Conference. Meals for Millions was a project that created nutritional meals for three cents each! They were sent to 129 different countries and added up to more than 6.5 million pounds of food. He and Albert Schweitzer participated in a documentary about malnutrition in Africa, and he often campaigned against DDT. He was also a director for the U.S. Council on Refugees and promoted organic gardening. Albert was also the founder of City Children’s Farms, a program to get inner-city kids involved in gardening.

I’m not sure when he had any other time for leisure and recreation, but he loved jogging, swimming, golfing, traveling, sculpting, beekeeping, sailing, reading, making wine, gardening, and playing guitar.

He 1995, Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. His son temporarily retired from acting to care for his father. In 2005, Eddie passed away from pneumonia.

When Albert passed away, we lost much more than an actor, although we did lose a great actor. I was so impressed with how much he did for the economy. He told a great story about his former costar Eva Gabor. She loved her fashion. They were great friends and like any couple, married or not, they had their differences. She never understood his passion for wildlife conservation. She asked him, “Every time you hear about a sick fish, you make a speech, vy?” And he patiently explained that we needed to preserve nature and save wild animals. A few days later she showed up in a gown made of feathers. He told her she should not be wearing it, and she said it was so chic. Albert told her that she was a role model, and when other women saw her gown, they would want one and many birds would die just to supply the feathers. Lisa just laughed and seriously said, “But Eddie, feathers don’t come from birds.” So he asked her where they did come from and she said, “Dahlink, Pillows! Feathers come from pillows.” In addition to being a great actor and an amazing activist, he was also a good and patient friend.

Thunderbirds Are a Go

September 25, 2023September 5, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are learning about shows that are “Kinda Creepy” this month. Our first two shows, The Munsters and The Addams Family both began in 1964 and ended in 1966; guess when our show today started and ended? Yep, the same. None of this was planned. It just turned out that they all were on the air at the same time.

Today’s show is Thunderbirds. The show was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. It was a science fiction adventure series, using marionettes that were electronic puppets.

This series was the Andersons’ fourth supermarionation series. Supermarionation combines marionette puppetry with scale model special effects. It comes from “super,” “marionette,” and “animation.” The previous shows had been marketed to kids, and Gerry wanted this one to be for adults as well.

Thunderbirds is set in the 2060s and features the International Rescue, a life-saving organization employing a fleet of five vehicles named the Thunderbirds. The rescue missions are launched from a secret base in the Pacific Ocean. Leading the group is ex-astronaut and widower Jeff Tracy who oversees his five adult sons (Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon, and Alan) who are the pilots. The brothers were named after Mercury Seven astronauts (Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Virgil Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, and Alan Shepard).

The show debuted on the ITV network in 1965. The show was praised for its special effects; it was directed by Derek Meddings and musical score was composed by Barr Gray.

Thunderbird 1 is a blue and silver hypersonic rocket plane for fast response to danger zone reconnaissance. Thunderbird 2 is a green supersonic carrier that transports equipment. Thunderbird 3 is a red single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft. Thunderbird 4 is a yellow submersible, and Thunderbird 5 is a gray and gold space station that relays distress calls from around the world.

The family lives on Tracy Island in a luxurious villa. Jeff’s mother also lives there along with a scientist/engineer named Brains; Brains’ assistant Tin-Tin, who is Alan’s girlfriend; and Tin-Tin’s father Kyrano. London agent Lady Penelope Creighton Ward and her current butler, and ex safe-cracker, Parker are also part of the cast.

Hood is a master criminal based in the Malaysian jungle, Kyrano’s half brother. He often spies on the Thunderbirds and their machines.

A typical plot is Season 1, Episode 4, “Terror in New York City.” After Thunderbird 2 is heavily damaged in an attack, it leaves the team without a way to quickly transport Thunderbird 4 to New York City when a news crew is trapped underneath the collapsed Empire State Building.

The series was filmed between 1964 and 1966 after a few months of pre-production. Alan Pattillo became the official script editor to reduce the producing burden on Gerry.

After reviewing the pilot, financial backer Lew Grade liked the show so much that he asked for the episodes to be increased from 25 minutes to 50 minutes. The total budget for season one’s 26 episodes was 1 million pounds, equivalent to an incredible $23,226,980 today.

After the sixth episode in 1966, the show was canceled. Grade was unable to sell the series in the United States. All three major networks wanted to bid for the series, but Grade kept increasing his price, and finally NBC withdrew its offer, and ABC and CBS followed suit.

As you can imagine, the building of the puppets was quite an endeavor. The head puppet sculptors were Christine Glanville and Mary Turner who were also lead puppeteers. They built the 13 members of the main cast in about six months at a cost of what today would be $6000 each. Each character was based on an actor. For example, Jeff Tracy was Lorne Greene, Scott was Sean Connery, Alan was Robert Reed, and Brains was Anthony Perkins. The characters need replaceable heads depending on whether they were smiling, frowning, etc. The finished puppets were about 22 inches tall.

They were made up of more than 30 different parts. The solenoid synchronized lip movements with pre-recorded dialogue. Pre-recorded voices were played back during filming; each marionette’s head contained filters, which converted the dialogue into pulses, which then traveled to the solenoids in the lips. Triggered by the pulses, the solenoids enabled the mouth to move in time. While I understand this was very cutting edge in the sixties, I think it was this action that make this an option for our “Kinda Creepy” blog series.

The “characters’ were sculpted from plasticine or clay. Then a silicone rubber mold was made, coated with fiberglass mixed with resin, and enhanced with bondapaste, a type of putty. Leather mouths, and then plastic eyes and incisor teeth were added.

Mohair wigs were designed and clothing of cotton, silk, and wool were made. Between the 1964 and 1966 dates, more than 700 costumes were stored. Because the marionettes had seven wires total and only one control wire per leg, movement was awkward looking and scenes were filmed from the waist up for action.

The special effects were pretty amazing for this time. Meddings added two additional units to film because a typical episode contained about 100 special effects.

Meddings and his assistant Mike Trim, designed vehicles and buildings. They used customized parts from model kits and kids’ toys. Lady Penelope and Parker, newer characters, had to fit inside the FAB 1 so a model was made that cost about $52,500 in today’s numbers.

During the sixties, the show was distributed in more than 30 countries including Holland, Canada, Australia, and Japan. It finally reached the United States in syndication in 1968 with modest success.

More than 3000 items were marketed for this show. One of the most recent was a Thunderbirds board game in 2015.

United Artists released two films, Thunderbirds Are Go in 1966 and Thunderbird 6 in 1968. Distributed by United Artists, both films were critical and commercial failures.

We watched this show on Saturday afternoons, I think. Because it was in syndication, it was on various times depending where you were located in the US. While I was able to watch a few clips for this blog, I did not get a chance to watch an entire show. I do remember that the show was very different but it was not anything that captured me; however, I think most of the technology probably was way over my head at the time. They are all available on prime video on Amazon if you want to check them out. If you do, I’d love to hear what you think about the show.

Land of the Giants: Dogs and Cats and Rats, Oh My!

September 18, 2023November 19, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month our blog series is “Kinda Creepy.” Today we are moving forward a couple of years into the late sixties with Land of the Giants.

This science-fiction show was aired on ABC from fall of 1968 to spring of 1970. It was created and produced by Irwin Allen. Five novels were released during this time, three by well-known author Murray Leinster.

The show was set in 1983 and features the crew and passengers who were on a suborbital transport ship, the Spindrift. The Spindrift is en-route from Los Angeles to London when it encounters a magnetic space storm. It goes through a time warp to an unknown planet where everything is 12 times bigger than on Earth. When the Spindrift lands, it crashes and becomes inoperable.

The crew and passengers include Captain Steve Burton (Gary Conway), First Officer Dan Erickson (Don Marshall), Flight Attendant Betty Hamilton (Heather Young), Passenger Valerie Scott (Deanna Lund), Wealthy Passenger Mark Wilson (Don Matheson), Orphan Passenger Barry Lockridge (Stefan Arngrim), Passenger and Bank Robber Alexander Fitzhugh (Kurt Kasznar), and Inspector Kobick (Kevin Hagen). Fun fact, Matheson and Lund were married in 1970 but divorced before the decade was over.

The Giant society resembles that of the United States in 1968. The survivors get around in drains leading from interior rooms to the pavement. The Giants realize they are there somewhere and have offered a reward for their capture. An authoritarian government seems to dominate part of the planet but other groups are at work to help the small Earth people survive. The Giants do have advanced technology including cybernetics, cloning, force fields, magnetic stunners, androids, and teleporters.

Not only do Earthlings have to survive being caught by the Giants, but they have to be wary of pets, especially cats and dogs. Occasionally someone is captured, and other members of the crew have to rescue them.

One article said that in 1969, “boys could be found sitting in front of the television captivated by the antics of red-haired, mini-skirted Valerie as she was menaced by cats, imprisoned in a dollhouse, cloned, prodded by scientists, carried off by an ape, and even used as a pawn on a giant chessboard.”

The show had a budget of $250,000 an episode. In 1968, it was the most expensive show produced on television. There were a lot of special effects. Gigantic mechanical props were built and used. For example, a slice of bread was made from a four-foot slab of rubber, and one episode had a nine-foot revolver. Some of the props were recycled from Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Batman. Actors had to do a lot of their own stunts like climbing up curbs and phone cords. The one-hour episodes were filmed in color.

The show aired on Sunday nights against Lassie, so I was surprised it achieved decent ratings so quickly. It stayed on Sunday nights for season two but was up against World of Disney which probably created a bit of a ratings decline. The other show, To Rome with Love, moved around a lot and was probably not much competition. The network decided to cancel the show before the third season, but since the writers were not aware that it was going to happen, no finale was written, and we never learned if the characters made it back to Earth or not. The financial cost was the reason the network cited for the cancellation.

Composer extraordinaire John Williams composed the theme for the show; he also composed the theme for Lost in Space.

I don’t really remember the merchandise for this show, but it included comic books, View Master reels, model kits, and a lunch box.

I do remember watching this show and I remember being scared when a large dog was growling at one of the Earthlings. It definitely earned the kinda creepy description. I think I was a bigger fan of The Borrower books. I always wondered if this was one of the inspirations behind Honey I Shrunk the Kids. From what I recall, the concept of the show was better than the reality of the show.

The Addams Family: And You Think Your Family is Strange

September 11, 2023September 11, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we continue with our “Kinda Creepy” blog series. Last week we talked about a show that debuted in fall of 1964 and was canceled in the spring of 1966, The Munsters. You can use the exact dates for our show today, The Addams Family.

ABC aired The Addams Family for two years, ending up with 64 episodes. Like The Munsters, this show was filmed in black and white. The Munsters was based on the typical suburban family while this series was created by David Levy and was based on Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons.

The first Addams Family cartoon was published in The New Yorker in 1938. The first illustration was titled “Vacuum Cleaner,” and it shows a salesman convincing “Morticia” to buy an appliance. The joke was that this was a house full of dirt and cobwebs, probably haunted. Addams was paid $85 for it. Addams did not intend for it to be a series, but New Yorker editor Harold Ross asked for more of them. Later, Gomez and the children were added. During the forties and fifties, 58 cartoons appeared in the publication.

In an interview before the show’s debut, Levy said that Addams was “a social commentator and a great wit.” It was produced by head writer Nat Perrin for Filmways, Inc. Perrin was a friend of Groucho Marx and had written for the Marx Brothers movies.

Like the Munsters family members, everyone in the Addams family is a bit off in some way. Wealthy former attorney Gomez Addams (John Astin) still is in love with his wife Morticia (Carolyn Jones) whom he often speaks to in French and refers to her as Cara Mia at times. Originally Carolyn turned down the offer to play Morticia because she was focusing on her movie career. She was persuaded to accept the role by her then-husband Aaron Spelling; the couple divorced not long after. Carolyn Jones had to endure sitting in the makeup chair for two hours every day. She worked with Nolan Miller to create a unique costume. Miller said that Morticia’s outfit was the most difficult one he had ever designed. The dress was very tight, especially around her feet. Gomez’s hobby is crashing model railroad trains. The prop department had to line Gomez’s pockets with asbestos because he put his lit cigars into his pockets.

The couple has two children: daughter Wednesday (Lisa Loring) and son Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax). They are polite children but Wednesday has a pet black widow spider and a headless doll named Marie Antoinette while Pugsley has a pet Octopus named Aristotle. Wednesday is named for the poem, which included “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.”

In addition, Uncles Fester (Jackie Coogan), Grandmama (Blossom Rock), and the butler Lurch (Ted Cassidy) all live in the house. Fester enjoys playing with dynamite, Grandmama is always experimenting with potions and has a crystal ball, and Lurch always replies to his summons with “You rang?” Coogan was rejected for Uncle Fester. He went back home, shaved his head, and did his own makeup and costuming. Then he went back and got the part. Ted Cassidy got a lot of fan mail from teenage girls who thought he was so cute.

Their house décor is rather dark including a Venus flytrap, an art piece where a human leg protrudes from a swordfish’s mouth, and a taxidermied two-headed tortoise. The interior of the house was inspired by the apartment in Manhattan where Charles Addams lived. It contained suits of armor, an antique crossbow collection, and other oddities.

Thing is a gloved hand which shows up in places around the house. Cousin Itt (Felix Silla), who is all hair except for a hat and sunglasses, visits from time to time as does Ophelia, Morticia’s sister. Gomez was supposed to marry Ophelia in an arranged marriage but when he saw Morticia, he could not go through with it. Ophelia is an expert in judo.

The family considers itself quite sophisticated and cultured and they don’t understand the general public’s reaction to their home and actions.

The theme was composed and sung by Vic Mizzy. He also snaps his fingers through the song. You could hear Ted Cassidy say “neat,” “sweet,” and “petite” during the lyrics. Mizzy would also write the memorable theme for Green Acres.

In the early seventies, there was a Saturday morning cartoon with the actors voicing their characters. In 1977, a reunion made-for-television film, Halloween with the New Addams Family, was filmed with all the original actors except Rock who was quite ill at the time.

Like so many shows of the sixties, a lot of memorabilia was released for this series. You can choose from trading cards, comic books, board games, lunch boxes, and a ton of action figures.

A major film, The Addams Family, was released in 1991 starring Raul Julia as Gomez, Angelica Huston as Morticia, and Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester. A sequel aired in 1993, Addams Family Values. In 1998 a reboot, The New Addams Family debuted on Fox and ran for two years just like the original. I honestly never saw either of the big-screen movies or any of the television reboots, so I cannot speak to whether they did the original show justice or not. The movie also spawned a popular pinball machine, which became the biggest-selling pinball machine of all time with more than 20,000 units sold since 1992.

Considering that both The Munsters and The Addams Family were only on the air for two years, and did not even rack up the typical number of shows needed for syndication, it is truly amazing that more than fifty years after the original shows aired, they are still very popular. I think like the Bewitched vs Jeannie debate, there are arguments for which family was more fun; my vote would have to go to The Addams Family, but if you have never watched either of the series, you should at least check a couple of episodes out. They probably would not work out so well to binge watch, because I think they would get boring quickly, but that is only one humble opinion.

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