Jay North: No Longer a Menace

August 10, 2026August 18, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we continue our theme of “They Are a Menace,” today we get to know Jay North, who played Dennis on Dennis the Menace.

North was born in 1951 in Hollywood. His father was an alcoholic, and when he was four, his parents divorced. His mother worked for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. She arranged for Dennis to appear on his favorite program, Cartoon Express. A talent agent noticed him and asked his mother if she could represent him. In 1958 and 1959, he appeared in eight television series and three movies, including The Donna Reed Show and 77 Sunset Strip.

A nationwide search was being held in 1958 for the casting of Dennis the Menace for a new show. Hundreds of boys auditioned, and North was asked to come in to test with Herbert Anderson and Gloria Henry who would play his parents and Joseph Kearns, who would become George Wilson.

The show debuted in fall of 1959 on CBS on Sunday nights. North received about $500 an episode (equivalent today to about $4600). His aunt, who was his guardian on the set, often was abusive. North was not allowed to socialize with the other kids on the set and had to eat his lunch alone in his dressing room. By season three, North was earning $2500 per episode ($23,000 today). His aunt physically abused him when he messed up his lines. He kept this from his mother and coworkers.

Jay played Dennis for four seasons. During season three, Joseph Kearns passed away and he and his wife were written out of the show, with this brother and sister-in-law buying his house and moving next door to Dennis.

North was relieved when the series was cancelled. He was getting exhausted filming the show, doing commercials, and going to school on the set every day. He said in an interview with Filmfax that “between the pressures of the business and Joe’s dying, I became very serious, very morbid, and very withdrawn from the world. I was the antithesis of the little kid that I played on the television show.”

Jay was typecast as Dennis and had a hard time finding roles after the show was done. He took roles on several series, starring in another show, Maya which was canceled after a season. At that point he began providing voices for animation characters. He was married and divorced within a year in the mid-seventies.

Jay became disillusioned with the acting profession and joined the Navy. He was assigned to the USS Iwo Jima, stationed in Virginia in 1977. He received an honorable discharge in 1979.

He received a few roles when he returned, including some time on General Hospital. Luckily his mother had invested his money in real estate, so he was in a good financial situation. For several years he worked in the food industry.

When Paul Petersen, who had played Jeff Stone on The Donna Reed Show, phoned him to say a former childhood star, Rusty Hamer who was the son on The Danny Thomas Show, had committed suicide. North was given the name of a therapist Stan W. Ziegler who helped former childhood stars. Petersen started a new organization, A Minor Consideration, that North helped get running. This nonprofit, still around today, helps minors deal with the stress of show business.

📷extratv.com North with Jeannie Russell and Gloria Henry

North tried marriage again in 1991, but the couple separated after three months. In 1992, he met Cindy Hackney, a caterer. They were married a year later, and the couple moved to Cindy’s hometown of Lake Butler, Florida. He gained three daughters in the marriage. North made a break with Hollywood and worked as a correctional officer in Florida and helped troubled youth through the justice department.

He did keep a foot in the acting door appearing on talk shows, at memorabilia conventions, and he had a cameo on The Simpsons. In 1999, in an interview with E! he said that “I am so happy that I was able to have such a positive impact on people’s lives. I’m going to write my autobiography and then I’m just going to live a contented, happy life here in Lake Butler with the people I love, and kind of just vanish into the mists of time.”

North continued his friendship with Jeannie Russell who played Margaret on Dennis the Menace. She became a chiropractor, and he was one of her clients. He also was close to Gloria Henry after the show and always credited her as being his mentor.

Unfortunately, I could not find the book North wanted to write, but there is a book about his life and the inspiration he became to others. It’s by Richard Mayday and titled “Jay North: Beyond Dennis the Menace: The Life, Legacy, and Untold Struggles from Child Star to Advocate and Survivor of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Sadly, he passed away from colorectal cancer in 2025.The book was published the year North passed away, so I’m not sure if he contributed to the book or not.

North’s career started off out of his control, and once he was able to make his own decisions about his roles, he found himself typecast and unable to get the roles he wanted. However, he continued in the business, finding new ways to contribute with his talents. Luckily, his mother invested all his earnings. North said despite the large amounts of money he was making, she never lived off any of his proceeds. That enabled him to find happiness in Florida with a family he loved and a career that he found satisfaction in helping others. You can’t ask for a more rewarding life than that.

I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster: Building Comedy Into Every Episode

June 8, 2026June 8, 2026 / thewritelife61 / Leave a comment

June’s blog theme is Funny Duos. Last week we learned about the Governor and J.J., a show created by Leonard Stern. Today it’s another show created and produced by Stern, I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster.

This show debuted on ABC in September 1962 and was canceled after one season. It starred John Astin and Marty Ingels.

The plot is that two carpenters are best friends. Harry Dickens (Astin) is married to Kate (Emmaline Henry) while Arch Fenster (Ingels) is a swinging bachelor whose lifestyle is not okay with Kate. The two often clash with their boss, Mr. Bannister (one of my favorites, Frank DeVol). Rounding out the cast are coworkers Mel (Dave Ketchum), Bob (Henry Beckman), and Bentley (Noam Pitlik). We also meet a few of Fenster’s girls including Yvonne Craig, Ellen Burstyn, and Lee Meriwether.

Stern talked about casting for the show in his interview with the Television Academy. He had Ingels hired and then Stern and his wife saw Astin in a play at UCLA, and he was added to the cast. Stern said he needed a director who liked comedy and could bond with the actors well and was innovative because Stern didn’t like the three-camera shot. He hired Arthur Hiller who fit all three qualifications.

The show, unusual for the time, was filmed in front of a live audience. The comedy combined witty comments with slapstick comedy.

ABC placed it on Friday nights between The Flintstones, which was created for adult viewing, and 77 Sunset Strip. This should have provided a built-in audience, even though it was competing against Sing Along with Mitch and Route 66. At the end of the first season, it beat the competition in the ratings but was still canceled. One of the problems measuring viewership at this time was that a person watching was a person watching whether they were 6, 26, 56, or 106, so it was hard to tell which shows appealed to adults.

Astin discussed the reviews for this show during one of his interviews and said that “some of the critics said it’s the kind of humor that makes you laugh out loud in the living room, and that’s an accomplishment. How often do we really laugh out loud in the living room when we’re watching a television show? We’re lucky if we smile.”

The idea for this show occurred when Stern had some work done at his home. On Christmas Eve 1961, the builders were in a hurry to finish work and get home to celebrate with their families. They were finishing a new fireplace with a built-in brick chimney. Unfortunately, one of the crew forgot to remove the ladder when they were finished in the chimney and they bricked up the hearth before realizing they had now lost their ladder. Stern thought the misadventures of a couple of construction workers might make a great sitcom.

In an interview with the Television Academy, Stern said he asked musician Irving Szathmary for a theme that evoked a Laurel and Hardy feeling. (Szathmary was also the composer behind the unforgettable Get Smart theme.) It must have worked because Stan Laurel said he thought this series was “one of the funniest and most highly imaginative comedies to have its thirty minutes of fame on television.”

One of the running gags on the show was just like the cobbler’s children have no shoes, Dickens’ house was always in a state of upheaval with paint samples on the wall and cabinet doors not working properly; it was in constant renovation. We see this immediately in the pilot as Fenster stops by to pick up Dickens and sees Kate trying to work with the various kitchen issues under construction.

The pilot was a typical plot line for not only this show but most early sixties sitcoms. Dickens is up for a promotion to foreman and is afraid he won’t get the job. In the past, whenever Dickens is waiting for something special, he gets nervous and always ruins the opportunity. When the boss shows up at the project, he doesn’t seem to know Harry Dickens’ name, so the two friends decide to put it into his subconscious by whispering it here and there when they walk by him. That evening Fenster brings his girlfriend over. Harry doesn’t want to spend the evening with them, but once he meets the girlfriend, he falls all over himself being nice to her. Lorna mentions to Fenster that he should try for the foreman job himself.

The next morning, Fenster comes to get Dickens, and Harry is rude to him because he thinks he wants the foreman job. At the end of the day, Bannister calls Dickens into the office to give him the promotion and tells him that Fenster must be fired because he overheard a lot of bad things about him when the crew was talking. When Dickens talks to the other guys, they said that they never complained about Fenster, although they did repeat some of the funny things Dickens said about Fenster. Fenster tells Bannister that he just got fired by Dickens and then Dickens comes in to say it’s been a misunderstanding and Fenster should not be fired and would make a better foreman than Dickens. Bannister said he’ll let them know what decision has been made the next morning.

That night Fenster shows up with a different girlfriend who just happens to be Bannister’s daughter. There was a great mixture of slapstick and witty banter during the episode. Something did feel a bit off with the characters. I think the characters should have reversed roles; Aston seems more the playboy type, and Ingels seems more the married man for typical sixties sitcoms.

Astin would go on to star in The Addams Family while Henry would marry Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie. Unfortunately, with only 32 episodes, the show didn’t qualify for syndication. The first sixteen episodes are included on a DVD set released in 2012 if you want to check out the show. You can also find some of them online in different sites.

Like The Governor and J.J., this series also made it to Dell Comics; if you’re a collector of comic books about old television series, you can take a look.

I had heard a lot about this show but never watched it till now. It was different and funnier than I thought it would be.

77 Sunset Strip: A Bit Kookie

July 21, 2025June 9, 2025 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we continue with our “Favorite Crime Solvers of the Past,” we turn to 77 Sunset Strip. Even if you never watched the show, you might be familiar with the theme song where they snapped and kept repeating “77 Sunset Strip.”

Created by Roy Huggins, the show debuted on ABC in 1958 and ran until spring of 1964. This was the third appearance by Detective Stuart Bailey. In 1946, Huggins’ novel, The Double Take, was published. In 1948, Bailey stepped into the big screen, starring in I Love Trouble played by Franchot Tone. A decade later he showed up on television played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Bailey, a former WWII secret agent and foreign languages professor, works with former government agent Jeff Spencer (Roger Smith). Their office is at 77 Sunset Strip, Suites 101 and 102. Suite 103 is occupied by Suzanne Fabry (Jacqueline Beer), a French switchboard operator who handles phones for several clients including Bailey and Spencer. Occasionally she helps them solve a crime.

Other characters come and go from the offices including Roscoe (Louis Quinn), who gives out horse-racing tips when he’s not at the track; he often is an operative for the duo.

Gerald “Kookie” Kookson (Ed Byrnes) is a bit of a kook. He loves rock and roll, is witty, appreciates looking good, and works as a valet at the club next door. But he wants to be a private detective and makes full partner during the show. Kookie provides some comedy with his slang like “ginchiest” for coolest or “piling up Zs” for sleeping. During season 2, Byrnes asked for more money with his character expanding his role, but the answer was a firm no, so he left the show. Warner Brothers eventually settled with him, and he returned in May of that year.

Other occasional visitors include Lt. Roy Gilmore (Byron Keith) and the Frank Ortega Trio (played by themselves), a jazz band, who perform next door. They recorded for Warner Brothers who was also behind the television show.

The show had a fun, witty edge to it making it interesting to watch the interactions of the characters in addition to the crime solving. Bailey and Spencer were updated versions of forties’ noir detectives. Some of the shows had very different plots, something like the shows Moonlighting would feature a few decades later. “The Silent Caper” had no dialogue and, in another one, Bailey finds himself in a ghost town and he’s the only main character in the episode. During the last season in “The Target,” roles were played by crew members who were usually behind the camera including director William Conrad, associate producer James Lydon, and writer Tony Barrett.

Guest stars were plentiful and included Robert Conrad, Dyan Cannon, Cloris Leachman, Shirley MacLaine, Elizabeth Montgomery, Mary Tyler Moore, Roger Moore, William Shatner, Marlo Thomas, Robert Vaughn, and Adam West.

Mack David and Jerry Livingston wrote the famous theme which became a top 10 hit on the Billboard chart. The duo worked on several other Warner Brothers crime shows including Surfside Six, Bourbon Street Beat, and Hawaiian Eye, all based on the 77 Sunset Strip formula and exotic location.

By 1963, ratings were declining and the show revamped. If you read my blog often, you realize this is one of my pet peeves. If they want to change the casts, I understand that. However, in this one, like so often, Bailey is suddenly working alone and there is no mention made of any of the other characters, just as if they never existed. They did this on Happy Days, The Doris Day Show, and several other popular series.

In addition to booting the cast, Jack Webb was brought in as executive producer and William Conrad as director. And if the name William Conrad sounds familiar, yes, it is the same person as the man who starred on Cannon. During the fifties and sixties, Conrad racked up 32 directing credits.

Bailey is now a solo investigator. The title didn’t change, but the old office is no longer there nor the club nor the theme song. A new one written by Bob Thompson was used, and the show took on a darker, more serious nature. Bailey gets a secretary named Hannah who we rarely see.

The show was on Fridays for its entire run, just switching time slots now and then. By season two it was in the top ten. In seasons three through five, it got its biggest competition from Route 66, which it beat in the ratings. The final season, the show got moved to a later slot, going up against The Alfred Hitchcock Hour but, neither of them were in the top thirty.

Big surprise, viewers weren’t fans of the changes or the more serious tone of the show, and they drifted away. The show was cancelled in February. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. moved over to the FBI. Roy Huggins had a hugely successful career. He would write for and create more top shows including Run for Your Life, Maverick, Alias Smith and Jones, The Rockford Files, and The Fugitive. Viewers at least got the satisfaction of knowing that making such drastic changes to the show caused the end of that story. Stream a few of the early seasons on Philo, Roku, or Pluto TV and let me know what you think.

Cheyenne: Introducing Jim Baumgartner

June 2, 2025June 1, 2025 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

In June, we are advising “Go West Young Man” as we peek back at a few of our favorite westerns. First up is Cheyenne. Cheyenne debuted in 1955; it was the first hour-long Western. It would remain on the air for eight years, producing 108 episodes.

Clint Walker starred as Cheyenne Bodie, a cowboy who explores the wild west after the Civil War. Early in the show, we learn that Bodie’s parents were killed by an unknown Native American tribe. A Cheyenne tribe found him and raised him till he was 12 when they sent him to live with a White family.

Because Cheyenne is traveling, guest stars change from week to week. The series was part of Warner Brothers Presents which alternated a weekly show with Cheyenne, Casablanca, and Kings Row.

For the first four seasons, the show was on Tuesday nights; then it moved to Mondays for the final four years. It was in the top thirty, and often the top twenty, for most of its television life, despite being up against The Phil Silvers Show; Richard Diamond, Private Detective; Dragnet; and the game shows To Tell the Truth and I’ve Got a Secret. Because Warner Brothers was used to making movies, the television show was produced with a movie feel to it.

In 1958, Walker went on strike. His contract stipulated that he had to give Warner Brothers 50% of his personal appearance fees, and he could only record music with the Warner Brothers label. He wanted 100% of his fees and to be able to record wherever he chose. I never learned what they settled on, but Walker returned to the show.

During his travels, Cheyenne often advocates for justice in the places he visits, sometimes working as a sheriff or deputy. Another theme of the show is the distrust of Native Americans. Cheyenne is sympathetic to their plight and is loyal to the Cheyenne tribe that raised him. Many of the plots were taken directly from Warner Brothers movies of the past and reworked a bit.

The theme song was composed by William Lava and Stanley Davis Jones. They both worked on The Mickey Mouse Club with Jones composing for the Spin and Marty shorts. Lava also provided music for Zorro, The Twilight Zone, and 77 Sunset Strip.

During Clint Walker’s interview with the Television Academy, he talked about his time on the show. He said he became aware of how many people liked the show when they sent him out to functions, and he started to realize how many fans he had in each town and then thinking of all the towns in the United States. He received a lot of fan mail from people who liked the values of the show. Some young men told him they no longer had fathers or uncles, and he was their role model.

I also heard a fun story about casting during this show. Richard Bare explained during his interview that he was in a bar one night and a friend introduced him to an actor. The next day a meeting was called where Jack Warner informed them that he wanted some new faces introduced during the show. Bare remembered the young actor he met at the bar the night before but couldn’t remember his name. He called the bar and was told that the actor’s name was Jim Baumgartner, so he asked them to tell him to come to the studio when he showed up again. Finally, Baumgartner called Bare the day before they began shooting. He came in and did an audition. The crew was going on location the next day, so they had to decide immediately if he was part of the show. When Jack Warner saw the clips, he said to give that kid a seven-year contract, and that’s how James Garner started working in westerns.

There is no doubt Cheyenne was a popular show. It was interesting enough to keep viewers’ attention for an hour. The episodes seem to be well written. In an era when there were tons of westerns to watch, this one was in the top section of that list. The show still can be streamed on several places. If you want to live in the Old West for a bit, why not join Cheyenne and see what it was like.

Good Evening Alfred Hitchcock

October 14, 2024March 14, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

In October, we are tackling a blog series on Eerie Shows. It would be almost impossible to not include Alfred Hitchcock Presents which was on television for a decade.

The show premiered in 1955. Hitchcock had been directing films for more than three decades at that time. The series experienced several changes. It began as Alfred Hitchcock Presents on CBS but would switch both nights and networks during its run. In 1962 it became an hour-long show and was called The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Many fans recall the opening. There is a line-drawing of Hitchcock’s profile with the “Funeral March of a Marionette” playing in the background. Hitchcock appears at the edge of the screen and walks to the center where he fades into the caricature line drawing. Then he said, “Good evening.” The silhouette was one that Alfred drew. He began his entertainment career illustrating title cards for silent movies.

Hitchcock himself directed 17 of the episodes of the series. Two of those were nominated for Emmy awards: “The Case of Mr. Pelham” in 1955 with Tom Ewell and “Lamb to the Slaughter” in 1958 with Barbara Bel Geddes.

Hitchcock’s job during this series was to introduce the story and then to wrap it up at the end. Both the openings and closings were written by James B. Allardice. Allardice wrote for 38 different shows, many of them very popular series in the fifties and sixties. Norman Lloyd, who produced the show and appeared in five episodes, said Hitchcock respected Allardice so much that he never even changed a comma that he wrote.

The network demanded that if a character got away with murder during the show, then Hitchcock would let them know during the closing that he was eventually brought to justice; in the TV Guide, Hitch described this as “a necessary gesture to morality.” Lloyd gave an example of this in a Television Academy interview. In one episode, a woman kills her husband with a frozen lamb’s leg and gets away with it. At the end of the show, Alfred explains that she later remarried and tried the same trick again but when she took out the leg and hit her husband with it, it was not frozen enough, so he caught her in the act and turned her in.

The episodes were not your average thriller shows. They included drama, suspense, and humor. Audiences never knew just “who done it” till the end.

The show debuted on CBS on Sunday nights for five years, up against drama anthologies for two years and then competing with The Dinah Shore Show for three years. For the next two seasons it moved to NBC on Tuesday nights. It aired against The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis on CBS those years and against Wyatt Earp on ABC. For three months it went back to CBS on Thursdays before moving to Fridays on CBS the next season with The Price is Right and 77 Sunset Strip. The ninth year found it on CBS on Fridays with little competition and the final year it showed up on NBC’s schedule on Mondays against Ben Casey. I could never find the reason for cancelling the show. I’m assuming ratings began to decline but if anyone knows, I’d love to hear it.

NBC chose not to air a 1962 episode called “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” because the sponsor felt the ending was too gruesome. In the episode, a magician’s helper is supposed to help in a trick where he “sawed” a woman in half, but he doesn’t realize he truly saws her in half.

As you might guess, with a new story every week, many celebrities appeared on the show including Charles Bronson, Bette Davis, Bruce Dern, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Peter Falk, Joan Fontaine, Peter Lorre, Walter Matthau, Steve McQueen, Vera Miles, Claude Rains, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Thelma Ritter, George Segal, and Jessica Tandy.

In addition to the Hitchcock-directed episodes, the show received Emmy nominations for Best Series four times. In 1956 it was up for Best Action or Adventure Series, but it lost to Disneyland. The following year found the show in the Best Series – Half Hour or Less category, but it lost to The Phil Silvers Show. 1958 found it in the category of Best Dramatic Anthology Series. You would think that would be a no-brainer win for this show, but it lost to Playhouse 90. It had its fourth category nomination in 1959 as Best Dramatic Series – Less Than One Hour and lost to Alcoa Theatre. I guess the Emmy committee had a hard time determining categories for a few years.

In a different twist, NBC tried to air the show again in 1985. Hitchcock had passed away five years earlier from renal failure. A made-for-TV-movie combined new stories with colorized segments from the original show. It lasted a year before NBC canceled it. USA picked it up for three more seasons.

The original show can still be seen on a few different networks including MeTV.

With Hitchcock’s popularity in 1955, it’s no wonder that this show was a successful series for a decade. The episodes were well written, and they had a wonderful cast of actors. Many people probably tuned in just to see Hitchcock, and his personality was larger than life, even if his behavior was a bit despicable at times. One of Alfred’s quotes about the show was that “television has brought murder back into the home – where it belongs.”

Vic Tayback: Cooking Up Some Fun

April 22, 2024March 29, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

This month we are celebrating some of our favorite Supportive Men, actors who usually are not the star of a show but add the special flavor only they can to some of our favorite shows.

Before we move on to our topic today, can I just say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who have joined me on this journey through classic television. Today is my 400th blog and it has been so much fun. Next week will be 401, but for today we are looking at the career of Vic Tayback.

Most of us probably know him best as Mel on Alice; he played Mel Sharples in both the original movie, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, as well as the television show that was on for nine years.

Tayback was born in Brooklyn in 1930. His parents settled there after leaving Aleppo, Syria. During his teenage years, the family moved to California where he attended Burbank High School. He loved sports and played on a variety of teams, his favorite being football.

After high school, he enrolled at Glendale Community College. He also spent some time with the US Navy.

With his love of sports, he decided to attend the Frederick A. Speare School of Radio and TV Broadcasting to be a sports broadcaster. While there he was required to perform in a production of “Stalag 17” for one of his classes. He wasn’t thrilled about doing so, but he realized that he loved making people laugh and decided to switch his career to acting. While trying to break into the industry, he paid his dues driving a cab and working as a bank teller.

📷embarrassingtreasures.com Family Affair

The first of Tayback’s astounding 151 acting credits occurred in 1958 in a little-remembered series, Buckskin. This western was set in Annie O’Connell’s boarding house in Buckskin, Montana in 1880 and the stories were told by ten-year-old Jody. Vic continued to receive a few other appearances on television in the late fifties, as well as two films.

In the sixties, Tayback’s career took off. He would show up on 32 television episodes and 9 big-screen films, including With Six You Get Eggroll with Doris Day and Brian Keith. His tv roles were in comedies such as F-Troop, I Dream of Jeannie, Family Affair, Get Smart, The Monkees, and That Girl. He also could be seen in a variety of dramas that included 77 Sunset Strip, Dr. Kildare, Rawhide, Cimarron Strip, Star Trek, and Mission Impossible.

📷newyorkdailynews.com The Cheap Detective

The sixties also found Vic in the role of groom. In 1963, Tayback married Sheila Barnard, and they remained married until his death.

During the seventies, his appearances escalated to more than forty television series and ten movies. Some of his television shows included Bonanza, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bewitched, Columbo, Mannix, Ironside, Mod Squad, The Partridge Family, All in the Family, Barney Miller, Cannon, Medical Center, Family, and Hawaii Five-0. His movies included a few genres running from Disney’s The Shaggy DA to Papillon (Papillon was the story of a French convict who befriends a fellow criminal in South America in the 1930s, and he plans an escape).

It was during the mid-seventies that he was offered the role of Mel Sharples. In 1974 the movie was released, and the television show aired in 1976. The show was very popular with viewers. Vic said he and Mel were somewhat similar characters. While people still quote Flo on the show with her “Kiss my grits,” Tayback had his own tagline on the show, “Stow it.”

If you didn’t see the show, it featured a greasy-spoon diner in Phoenix, Arizona. Alice moves there after the death of her husband with her son Tommy. She becomes a waitress at Mel’s along with sassy Flo and shy, gullible Vera. Despite the bad food, they have a lot of regulars who come in for a meal. If you want to visit the restaurant, the building it was based on is at 1747 NW Grand Ave in Phoenix and was called Pat’s Family Restaurant. (It was also featured in American Graffiti.) It is now called Mel’s Diner. According to Trip Advisor, it is ranked #448 out of 1795 restaurants in Phoenix.

The role of Mel won Tayback Golden Globe awards in both 1979 and 1980. In 1978 he was nominated for an Emmy as Supporting Actor in a Comedy. While he did not win, he was in some amazing company. That year, fellow nominees included Harry Morgan and Gary Burghoff for M*A*S*H, Tom Bosley in Happy Days, and Rob Reiner from All in the Family, who took home the win that year.

The series aired on Saturday nights and the first year was in the top thirty. In 1977, its second season, it was moved to Sunday nights, following All in the Family where it rose into the top ten. In 1979, All in the Family left the airwaves, and Alice then followed One Day at a Time. Seasons three-five, it continued to be in the top thirty. In 1981, the show was moved to Monday nights up against M*A*S*H where it fell out of the top 30. However, season seven found it back on Sundays following The Jeffersons where it rose back into the top thirty. However, it took another dive in ratings the next year and then was cancelled. I think it probably stayed on the air a year or two beyond when it should have. However, interestingly enough, the year it was cancelled, CBS introduced 15 new shows. I’m not sure most people have ever heard of any of them; they were all gone by 1986 with the exception of The Twilight Zone (reboot) and West 57^th, which was a news show aimed at younger audiences.

Vic was also an avid horse-racing fan and owned quite a few thoroughbreds. On Alice, Mel was also a track fan, and sometimes the writers asked Mel for names of horses they could use, and he often gave them names of his horses.

On the show, Vic was often made fun of for his bad cooking. In a 1985 interview he said, “If I walked into a restaurant, the other diners would look around and say, ‘I hope you’re not cooking.’” Heinz then offered him the role of spokesperson for their Heniz 57 sauce and his line in the commercials, was “I used to be a lousy cook.” He was also remembered for an Aqua Velva commercial he did with Pete Rose.

Unfortunately, Tayback was a heavy smoker which caused heart trouble for him. While doing Alice, he had a triple-bypass surgery. While he did try to quit numerous times, he just could never kick the habit. In 1990, he died from a heart attack at age 60.

While we were cheated of several decades of performances from Vic with his early death, he did leave an amazing legacy in the Company of Angels theater in Los Angeles. According to its website, “In 1959, a group of actors, including Tayback, Leonard Nimoy, Richard Chamberlin, and Vic Morrow founded the theater to provide a space for actors and other theater artists to work on their craft free of commercial constraints.”

Thank you, Vic Tayback, for deciding to make people laugh in your career and investing in the future of acting so those memories continue in the future.

Cesar Romero: Batman’s Most Joy-Filled Villain

March 25, 2024February 17, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are winding up our series: Bam! Pow! Batman Villains. Today it’s all about The Joker: Cesar Romero.

Romero was born in New York City in 1907. His father was an import/export merchant, and his mother was a concert singer. He grew up in Bradley Beach, New Jersey. His father lost most of his money during the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

Romero teamed up with dancer Lisbeth Higgins and they formed a professional dance partnership, appearing in nightclubs and theaters throughout New York City including the Ambassador Roof and the Montmartre Café. Although he had no professional training, he was often compared to Fred Astaire. He also was cast in several off-Broadway productions including “Stella Brady” and “Dinner at Eight.”

Later Romero would refer to himself as the Latin from Manhattan and he provided for his family members who followed him to Hollywood. He played the stereotypical Latin lover during the thirties and forties, including The Devil is a Woman with Marlene Dietrich in 1935. However, he also made westerns and did a bit of dancing during these decades on the big screen.

His friendship with Frank Sinatra brought him roles in Around the World in 80 Days, Pepe, Marriage on the Rocks, and Oceans’ 11.

In 1942, Cesar enlisted in the US Coast Guard, serving in the Pacific Theater of Operations. After his military career ended, Romero returned to his acting career.

His television career began in 1948 in the show, Variety. During the fifties he was primarily appearing on dramas, but he did show up on Private Secretary with Ann Sothern and continued his western roles on Wagon Train, Zorro, and Death Valley Days.

The sixties kept him extremely busy on television. He kept people laughing on Pete and Gladys, The Ann Sothern Show, Get Smart, and Here’s Lucy. He rode the range on Stagecoach West, Bonanza, Rawhide, and Daniel Boone. He stayed dramatic on shows including 77 Sunset Strip, Dr. Kildare, and Ben Casey.

However, the show he was best known for in the sixties, is the show that made him part of my blog series this month, Batman. He had to endure a long time in the make-up chair. He refused to shave his mustache for the role, so white face makeup was smeared all over his face until it was hidden.

Romero admitted that this role reinvigorated his career. When he was offered the role of the Joker, he was 59 years old. Romero said the role was “the kind of part where you can do everything you’ve been told not to do as an actor. You can be as hammy as you want.”

He discussed how surprised he was when William Dozier called him about the show. He said Dozier told him that “the important characters were all villains. They had done the first two with the Riddler and the Penguin with Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith, and now they were ready to do the third, and the villain was the Joker. He said, ‘I would like you to play the part.’ So, I said I would like to read the script and know what it is all about. He said, ‘Come on over to the studio, and I will show you the film of the first episode.’ Of course, it was great. I said, ‘Let me read this Joker part, and if it is as good as the first one, hell yes, I will do it.’ So I read the script, and I thought it was a gas, and I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’”

No serious villain, the Joker was cheerful and extroverted. He oozed goofiness and always appeared to be having a great time carrying out his nefarious activities. Dressed in his famous purple costume, he had his own automobile that could rival the Batmobile.

While most of the villains saw Batman and Robin as roadblocks in their evil schemes and problems to take care of, the Joker found great joy in taking down the superheroes. In one episode he says “Oh, but I must, I must! Why, outwitting Batman is my sole delight, my heaven on earth, my very paradise!”

You couldn’t miss him if you watched almost any television in the 1970s and 1980s. He appeared on a ton of shows, just a few of which included Bewitched, Nanny and the Professor, Love American Style, The Love Boat, Night Gallery, Mod Squad, Ironside, Medical Center, Charlie’s Angels, and Hart to Hart.

From 1985-88, he was a regular on Falcon Crest. Earl Hamner Jr., the creator of The Waltons, created this show featuring the Gioberti family, owners of Falcon Crest Winery. Romero played the love interest of matriarch Angela Channing, played by Jane Wyman.

He finished his career in the 1990s. He was in his eighties when he appeared on The Golden Girls, and Murder She Wrote, his last television role.

Romero also played a role in politics. As a registered Republican, he was very involved in many campaigns. He worked for Nixon-Lodge in 1960 and later supported Lodge in his run for President. When Lodge did not get the results that he hoped for, Romero turned his support to Barry Goldwater for the general election. He also worked for his friend George Murphy in his run in the California senate race. He later helped Ronald Reagan in his gubernatorial runs in California as well as his presidential campaigns.

It was reported in many articles that Romero had 30 tuxedos and more than 500 suits. That is not surprising because he had a clothing line, Cesar Romero Ltd. He was also a model and spokesperson for Petrocelli suits in the sixties.

Romero stopped acting in 1990. He remained busy though with several ventures including hosting classic movie programs on television. In 1994, Romero died from complications of a blood clot on New Year’s Day. He was being treated for bronchitis and pneumonia.

I enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Cesar Romero, but, I have to admit, that I don’t feel like I know him much better than I did before. He seemed to have been stereotyped as a Latin lover and then again as the Joker. I would like to go back and watch some of his appearances on westerns. It was hard to find much information about Romero beyond his career and political interests.

I know The Joker was not his most challenging role, but he will always have a place in America’s heart for the work he did on Batman as will these fun super villains we got to know this month.

Robert Conrad: Go West Young Man

October 24, 2022October 22, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

We are in the midst of getting up close and personal with some of our favorite television stars. Up today is Robert Conrad. Conrad was born Conrad Robert Falk in 1935 in Chicago. His parents were practically kids themselves when he was born at 17 and 15. His mother, Alice Hartman, was later the first publicity director for Mercury Records when she went by the name Jackie Smith. After divorcing Robert’s father, she later married Eddie Hubbard, a Chicago radio personality in 1948. They gave Robert one sibling before divorcing in 1958.

Conrad grew up in Chicago. He dropped out of school at age 15 to work for Consolidated Freightways and later was a milk truck driver for Bowman Dairy.

He studied theater arts at Northwestern University and then decided to pursue an acting career. He also studied singing with Dick Marx.

When he was 25 he met actor Nick Adams while visiting James Dean’s gravesite in Indiana. Adams had been a friend of James, and he talked Robert into moving to California for his acting career. (Adams died from an overdose in 1968.)

Adams was able to secure Bob a small part in the movie Juvenile Jungle which enabled him to join the Screen Actors Guild. Conrad continued to receive movie offers throughout his career, with his last role being in 2002 in Dead Above Ground.

In 1952 he eloped with Joan Kenlay. They had five children.

During the late fifties, Warner Brothers signed Conrad to an acting contract. He also worked in their recording division, releasing several versions including LPS, EPs, 33 1/3, and 45 rpm records. In 1961, he made the Billboard charts with Bye Bye Baby which hit 113.

In 1959, he made his television debut on Bat Masterson. He would appear in nine different series in 1959.

Warner Brothers created a detective show, 77 Sunset Strip. Conrad appeared on the show as detective Tom Lopaka. After appearing on four episodes, he was offered his own series, Hawaiian Eye which was on the air for four years. Set in Hawaii, this series featured Conrad as Thomas Jefferson Lopaka and his partner Tracy Steele, a Korean war vet and former city police detective played by Anthony Eisley. Their office was located at a swanky hotel where they were also the house detectives. Connie Stevens completed the trio as a scatterbrained nightclub singer and photographer Cricket Blake.

After the show went off the air, Conrad continued with several movies and television appearances until he received word in 1965 that he had been cast as government agent James West on the Wild Wild West with Ross Martin as his partner Artemus Gordon. For five seasons, the two agents worked together to solve cases primarily in the western region of the United States, often reporting to President Ulysses S Grant for their assignments. Conrad made $5000 a week for this show; it doesn’t sound like a lot today, but it was quite an increase from the $300 he made a week on Hawaiian Eye. Robert performed almost all of his own stunts on the show and was inducted into the Stuntman’s Hall of Fame.

Later Conrad said he didn’t like that his character didn’t really act; it was just physical confrontation and stunts. He said he and stuntman Whitey Ford choreographed the fights. Although that made him unhappy, he enjoyed his time on the show because he loved working with Martin.

Conrad took on several television and movie roles for two years until he was offered another sitcom offer to star in The DA where he played LA District Attorney Paul Ryan. The show only lasted one season, but then he went directly into Assignment: Vienna where he played a rugged American spy Jake Webster. Unfortunately, this show only lasted eight episodes.

Photo: ebay.com Cast of Baa Baa Black Sheep

After this short-lived series, Conrad waited four years to try his hand at television again. From 1976-78, he took on the role of tough-guy ace pilot, Pappy Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep. Pappy led the US Marine Attack Squadron 214, a group of “black sheep” pilots who were not as committed to the Marines as they were having a good time. However, they were great at their job and desperately needed in World War II. Conrad directed three of the shows.

During the run of this show, Robert and Joan divorced after 25 years of marriage.

For the next fifteen years, Robert bounced back and forth between television appearances and movies. While he showed up on the big screen, television movies were where he earned most of his money between 1979-1995.

He would attempt to star in five additional series, none of which were very successful. In 1979, he was the star of The Duke about an ex-boxer Duke Ramsey who becomes a private investigator in Chicago. After only three episodes, the refs called the match. I’m guessing Conrad did his own boxing in this show because he was a semi-professional boxer and had an undefeated record of 4-0-1.

That same year he went on to star in A Man Called Sloane. Sloane is a freelance spy who often accepts assignments from a secret government agency. He must have had to go into hiding quickly because he was off the air after twelve episodes.

In 1983, Conrad married again. He and LaVelda Fann were married from 1983-2010.

In 1987 he joined High Mountain Rangers as Jesse Hawkes. Hawke led his family on adventures in the wilderness where he was employed in law enforcement and rescue. No one requested a baker’s dozen, so after twelve episodes, he was done again. The following year his series lasted half as long, six episodes only, when he played Jesse Hawkes once again, but on this version, he and his sons fight crime in San Francisco. Sticking with the same theme, in 1995 he became Griffin Campbell on High Sierra Search and Rescue, leading volunteers in a remote mountain town in dangerous rescue missions. Again, after six episodes, he was done.

While none of these shows could find an audience, there was some realism in the roles because Conrad was a deputy sheriff for eight years or so in Bear Valley, California where he lived.

For the last few years of his career, he took on various tv and movie roles. His last television role was in 2000 on Nash Bridges.

After 2000, he managed to stay busy with a variety of projects. He ran for President of the Screen Actors Guild in 2005. In 2006 he provided introductory material for the DVD set of The Wild Wild West. He began hosting a weekly national radio show called The PM Show with Robert Conrad on DRN Digital Talk Radio.

In 2020, Conrad died from heart failure. He was 84.

It would have been interesting to see what Conrad’s career would have looked like if he had received some different types of roles. He did test for the role of Anthony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie and was offered the role of Hannibal Smith on The A-Team but turned it down to pursue his own projects. I would have liked to see him in a comedy role.

Father of the Bride is Better on the Big Screen

December 14, 2020 / thewritelife61 / 5 Comments

We’re continuing our blog series, “The Movie Came First.” Today we get to learn more about Father of the Bride. Whether you gravitate to Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy in the original movie or Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Steve Martin in the remake, you might have enjoyed the television show which aired in 1961. All three versions feature a father whose daughter is getting married, as he deals with the emotional pain of losing her, the financial reparations, and the disorganized turmoil that goes into planning the wedding.

The movie starred Elizabeth Taylor as Kay Banks with Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett as her parents, Ellie and Stanley. Her fiancé Buckley Dunstan is portrayed by Don Taylor and his parents are Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as Doris and Herbert. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (William Holden won for Sunset Boulevard), Best Picture (All About Eve was the winner), and Best Writing, Screenplay (also Sunset Boulevard as winner).

Stanley narrates his feelings and perspectives throughout the film. For example, he talks about losing his daughter: “Who giveth this woman? This woman. But she’s not a woman. She’s still a child. And she’s leaving us. What’s it going to be like to come home and not find her? Not to hear her voice calling “Hi Pops” as I come in? I suddenly realized what I was doing. I was giving up Kay. Something inside me began to hurt.”

He also shares his thoughts on weddings: “I would like to say a few words about weddings. I’ve just been through one. Not my own. My daughter’s. Someday in the far future I may be able to remember it with tender indulgence, but not now. I always used to think that marriages were a simple affair. Boy meets girl. Fall in love. They get married. Have babies. Eventually the babies grow up and meet other babies. They fall in love. Get married. Have babies. And so on and on and on. Looked at that way, it’s not only simple, it’s downright monotonous. But I was wrong.”

In 1961 the movie was reworked for the small screen, produced by MGM Television. The characters remained the same. In the tv version, Leon Ames was Stanley, Ruth Warrick was Ellie, Myrna Fahey was Kay, Burt Metcalfe was Buckley, Ransom Sherman was Herbert, and Lurene Tuttle was Doris. We also see Ruby Dandridge cast as their housekeeper Delilah and Rickie Sorenson as Tommy, Kay’s little brother.

The first shows in season one featured an animated cupid holding a magic wand to start the show, but the season transitioned into a photo of the entire cast gathered on the Banks’ staircase.

The sponsors of the show were Campbell’s Soups and General Mills.

I was surprised to see that there were 24 writers but then in looking through the episodes, the majority of the shows mirrored the movie so closely it was more of rewriting than writing.

The show aired on Friday nights and its competition was The Dinah Shore Show and 77 Sunset Strip. I would have thought given the adult themes of 77 Sunset Strip, this show would be a popular family show to watch. However, the ratings must not have been very good, because it was cancelled after one season. Not many of the shows debuting this fall even lasted the season. In addition to Father of the Bride, the following shows were cancelled: The Bob Cummings Show, The Hathaways, Holiday Lodge, Ichabod and Me, Margie, Mrs. G Goes to College, Oh, Those Bells, One Happy Family, Room for One More, and Window on Main Street. The successful season debuts included Car 54 Where Are You?, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mr. Ed, Hazel, The Lucy Show, and The Joey Bishop Show.

YouTube has the opening credits, but I could not find anywhere to watch episodes of this show. I guess my recommendation would be to forget about the show and watch the 1950 or 1991 movie version. I’m not often a fan of reboots of movies, but I love the Steve Martin-Diane Keaton version of this movie, so both films are great choices. Better yet, watch them both and then choose your favorite.

Milton Frome: What a Character!

February 17, 2020June 5, 2021 / thewritelife61 / 12 Comments

As we continue looking at some of our well-known character actors, today we consider the career of Milton Frome. Frome was born in Philadelphia in 1909. He began acting in his mid-20s.

His first major movie role was in Ride ‘em Cowgirl in 1939. Frome would go on to appear in 55 movies (including The Nutty Professor, Bye Bye Birdie, and With Six You Get Eggroll), as well as five made-for-TV movies. He also had a thriving television career beginning with Chevrolet Tele-Theatre in 1950.

Appearing in 34 different shows during the fifties, he performed in a variety of genres including dramas, comedies and westerns.

Photo: jimnolt.com
The Adventures of Superman

During that decade you would have seen him on I Love Lucy, Lassie, The Adventures of Superman, Playhouse Theater, The Thin Man, and The Gale Storm Show. He also worked with many comic legends on television, including Milton Berle, Red Skelton, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

His career escalated in the sixties when he would accept roles in 48 programs. He showed up in dramas, including The Twilight Zone, 77 Sunset Strip, and Dr. Kildare. He also found his way into many westerns such as Bat Masterson, Death Valley Days, Gunslinger, Big Valley, Rawhide, and Wagon Train. However, he seemed to excel at comedies and during the 1950s you could have spied him in many sitcoms. He accepted parts in Bachelor Father, Pete and Gladys, The Jim Backus Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mister Ed, The Joey Bishop Show, I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian, The Donna Reed Show, Gomer Pyle USMC, Bewitched, The Monkees, The Patty Duke Show, Petticoat Junction, and The Andy Griffith Show.

Frome was never offered a permanent role in a series, but he did have a recurring role in The Beverly Hillbillies, appearing eight times as Lawrence Chapman, who managed Jed Clampet’s Mammoth Studios.

Photo: imdb.com
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

His television career slowed down a bit in the 1970s and became nonexistent by 1983, but he did make appearances in shows like Ironside, Columbo, Here’s Lucy, The Streets of San Francisco, Sanford and Son, and Trapper John MD. He also appeared in two Love American Style episodes in 1971 and 1973. In the 1973 episode, “Love and the Anniversary,” he played “The Man” and his son Michael played a bellhop.

Photo: sitcomsonline.coom
The Jerry Lewis Show

At some point, Frome married Marjorie Ann Widman, but I could not verify when they married. I also could not verify if Michael was their son, or his son from another relationship.*

Frome passed away in 1989 from congestive heart failure.

While it is now easy to analyze and detail an actor’s professional career, it was very tough to find any information about Frome’s personal life or his working relationships with other actors. It makes me sad that these hard-working actors who provided so much to our classic television-watching experiences are just not well known. Hopefully blogs like mine keep them in television viewers’ memories, and some day maybe I will have time to write a book about these unsung heroes of our pop culture history. Thanks for all you contributed to the golden age of television Milton Frome!

*In June of 2021, I heard from Jane Wallace Casey who provided some additional information for us: “I am Milton Frome’s niece. His first wife was Barbara Wallace with whom he had his son Michael.”