Set Designers: Creating Homes for Our Favorite Characters

October 19, 2026March 10, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are continuing to our series, “Behind the Scenes.” Today we are learning a bit about the career of a set designer. When we think of our favorite sitcoms from the past, many of us remember their houses as places we visited and know well. Think about The Brady Bunch and their seventies kitchen or Frasier’s apartment full of elegant things and then Martin’s old chair right in the middle of it.

Set designers have similar jobs as costumers except that they are dressing and accessorizing the places where the characters live, work, and do life. They research specific time periods to get historical details right; they create detailed sketches, 3D models, and blueprints for home design and furniture placement; and they work hard to ensure that every home looks like the character who inhabits it. In addition, they oversee construction, painting and installation of sets, and manage the budget. They study architectural styles, the science of color, and develop an awareness of how rooms and homes flow both for movement of actors and allowing equipment like cameras to be set up.

I thought it was hard to find information about costumers and makeup artists, but set designers are no easier to learn about. Let’s meet a few of them.

📷artdepartmental.com Rob and Laura Petrie’s living room

Ken Swartz was born in Oregon in 1913. He began his career in the 1940s working as a set decorator and he remained in film for a couple of decades, but television is where he made his mark. He took his film experience to the small screen working on many popular shows including The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Danny Thomas Show, The Joey Bishop Show, and I Spy in the sixties. In the seventies he worked on The Rookies. I have talked about Sheldon Leonard many times over the years and what a professional he was and his high-quality standards. Swartz’s shows in the sixties were all Leonard shows, so he must have been very good at his job to keep getting hired show after show.

Swartz died in Los Angeles in 1973, putting an end to his career at age 60. The cause of his death was never disclosed. While his career was much shorter than we would have liked, he designed many iconic homes for some of our favorite characters like Rob and Laura Petrie’s suburban home; Aunt Bee, Andy, and Opie’s southern house; and the beauty and grandeur of the I Spy sets.

Audrey Blasdel-Goddard was born in California in 1930. After receiving a Master’s degree from UC Berkeley in 1954, she worked as a social worker for three years. During that time, she transitioned to work as a script supervisor for eight years before deciding she wanted to become a set decorator. From 1965-1988, she designed movie and television sets.

Blasdel-Goddard became a producer at Columbia TV from 1976-1982; however, from 1975 until 1991, she also worked at Columbia heading the TV Property Department. She was the first woman to head a major studio property department. Later in 1991 she moved to Sony Pictures for the final seventeen years of her career at which time she retired.

Audrey had an amazingly successful career in television and film, but it was not easy for her to get established. She spent two years working on the television show Sky King learning to be a set decorator. While working as a script supervisor during the day, she attended art school and interior design classes at night.

When she felt qualified, she applied for acceptance into the Union and was told by a business agent, Ed LeRoy, “We haven’t taken a woman into this union, except seamstresses, since it was called the IA.” When she shared her experiences with Universal Property Head John McCarthy and art director Frank Arrigo, they hired her for decorating jobs on shows like The Munsters. After the required thirty days on the job, she submitted her application and dues for membership. After four months of waiting, the Union called the studio and told them to fire her because they hadn’t received an application or payment. Luckily, she kept her receipt from her money order, and after producing it, her paperwork was suddenly “found.” A year and a half after starting her job as a set decorator, she finally got into the Union.

When Audrey worked at Sony, she was asked to run a prop house, so she built the inventory from scratch. She was also a partner in the Hollywood Central prop house.

📷davidcassidy.com Partridge Family Kitchen

📷davidcassicy.com Partridge Family Garage

In addition to The Munsters, her television work includes Pistols ‘n Petticoats, The Partridge Family, Police Woman, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Crazy Like a Fox, TJ Hooker, and Designing Women.

Blasdel-Goddard is now enjoying retirement, spending lots of time with her family, attending book clubs, doing charity work, and traveling.

I appreciated learning more about these hard-working professionals who help create the shows and characters we fall in love with during our lives. Special thanks to Audrey Blasdel-Goddard for persevering in a hard-to-overcome men’s world in set designing and property supervision. Any of their lives would make an exciting movie. Fun Fact: If you are reading this and thinking about some of your favorite television homes, check out Mark Bennett’s book, TV Sets: Fantasy Blueprints of Classic TV Homes.

The Life of a Makeup Artist: All Made Up and Somewhere To Go

October 12, 2026March 10, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Welcome to our blog theme for the month, “Behind the Scenes.” We are going behind the camera to check out careers of those people working behind the camera to bring our favorite characters to life. Last week we learned a bit about costumer designers, and today we are heading to the makeup counter.

So, what do makeup artists do? Obviously, they apply cosmetic products to enhance the appearance of the stars, but they do so much more. Artists also fit prosthetics and create the effects of blood, wounds, burns, and general aging; adjust colors and textures to work with high-definition cameras and bright lights; assure consistency for multiple-day filming; manage sweating; and sometimes choose and fit wigs for characters. Let’s look at a few of the best in the field to learn more about their life and careers.

William Tuttle

William Tuttle was the first makeup artist to win an Academy Award. He created many innovative techniques and trained generations of makeup artists.

He was born in Florida in 1912. After dropping out of school early to support his mother and younger brother, he held a variety of jobs including forming his own band. In 1930, he moved to Los Angeles, enrolling in an art school and working as a page at Fox Studios. That younger brother, Thomas Tuttle, would also become a makeup artist working on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Joey Bishop Show, Gomer Pyle USMC, and That Girl among others.

Tuttle was hired at Twentieth Century Pictures to work under Jack Dawn. In 1934, Dawn took a job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Tuttle moved with him. Tuttle was still working under Dawn but began taking on more responsibilities. He supervised the makeup in many popular movies including The Wizard of Oz and Father of the Bride. Eventually, he became the head of the makeup department.

He received a special Oscar for his work on 7 Faces of Dr. Lao in 1965. In this film, Tuttle transformed Tony Randall into seven different characters including Dr. Lao; an aged, bearded Merlin the Magician; and a Medusa with a feminine appearance. Randall said “he shaved my head and eyebrows . . . gave me an unborn look. But professionally it was a masterstroke.” He went on to say that “all my preconceived notions on how I would play the characters vanished. As soon as Tuttle applied his makeup magic, I felt myself actually become these strange people.”

The Oscar category of makeup artist would not become an official category until 1982. That year Rick Baker won the first Oscar for makeup. He would go on to win another five and he credited Tuttle: “His work greatly influenced me.” He said as a young boy, he often tried to re-create the makeup techniques Tuttle used in The Twilight Zone.

Tuttle was the artist behind one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, “Eye of the Beholder.” When the episode begins, doctors and nurses are working with a bandaged patient who just wants to look like everyone else. After some time, the bandages are slowly peeled away. We see the beautiful face of Donna Douglas. As she picks up the mirror to look at her new face, she screams, cries and covers her face. Then the camera pulls away and we see all the people Tuttle did makeup on – doctors and nurses with deformed faces and pig snouts.

With 393 credits, most of Tuttle’s work was in the movies, but he contributed to television as well. From 1960-62 he provided all the makeup for National Velvet. He also spent time on Mr. Novak, My Favorite Martian, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as well as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Phyllis Diller Show, and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, among others.

Later in his career, Tuttle created his own line of makeup, Custom Color Cosmetics. Naimie Ojeil, owner of a beauty supply store in Hollywood said his brand was “the most popular makeup among Hollywood professionals for at least two decades.”

Tuttle would create molds of actors he worked on which allowed him to create their looks beforehand. He donated them to the University of Southern California where he taught from 1970-1995. Herbert Farmer, a USC archivist said Tuttle “was interested in passing on all he could to the students. He had a real following.”

Gene Hibbs

Gene Hibbs was born in Normal, Illinois in 1912.

I couldn’t find a lot of information about him. I did read several times that he was often hired because he had a unique talent for making older actresses look younger than they were with a technique he called “painting.”

His first television series was The Lone Ranger from 1954-1955. He worked on many television shows following that including with Ann Sothern on Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show, The Judy Garland Show, Here’s Lucy, and Green Acres.

He was working on Green Acres when Judy Garland passed away. She had stipulated in her will that Hibbs was supposed to do her makeup one last time. Her daughter Liza Minelli phoned Hibbs and he agreed to do that. When the network said no, Eva Gabor said she would not work unless he was allowed to leave for a few days. The producer pleaded with the network, but they held firm and said they would lose $30,000 of time and he could not leave the set.

Ben Lane

Ben Lane was born in 1912 in Chicago, Illinois, the same year as both Gene Hibbs and William Tuttle. Lane was one of the founding members of the Motion Picture Guild, but many of his 236 credits were spent in television.

Lane’s first television series was in 1957 for Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. His career would continue with many popular shows. Get ready to take a long breath because this sample is far from a comprehensive listing of his work. Ready? He was part of the cast for The Lone Ranger, Dennis the Menace, The Farmer’s Daughter, Hazel, Gidget, The Monkees, Bewitched, The Flying Nun, I Dream of Jeannie, Bridget Loves Bernie, The Partridge Family, Police Woman, and Fantasy Island.

In addition to keeping busy with his career, he was involved in several charities: City of Hope and Shriner’s circus. He became a nationwide clown advisor. He also was a consultant for the Los Angeles Police Department, the US Department of Justice, and the FBI for disguises.

Bud Westmore

📷abebooks.com Westmore working on the film The Lost Moment

Born in 1918 in New Orleans, Westmore and his brothers—Ern, Frank, Monte, Perc, and Wally–were all makeup artists in the entertainment business. At one time, there was a Westmore heading up almost every studio makeup department.

After school, Bud was an apprentice under Perc at Warner Brothers to learn hair design and makeup before taking a job at Twentieth Century Fox. He left to serve three years with the Coast Guard. When he returned to Hollywood, he worked for the Eagle Lion before he was hired as the head of the Universal Studios makeup department in 1947. The largest building on the Universal studio back lot is named for Bud.

His marriages and divorces also kept him busy. He was married to actress Martha Raye for four months in 1937. A few years later he married Rosemary Lane, another actress, and they were together for fourteen years. His divorce to Lane was on March 31, 1955, and on April 1, 1955, he married Jeanne Shores, a former Miss California in 1952. They would remain together until his death from a heart attack in 1973.

In 1957 Bud was asked to create makeup for a new doll that was coming on the market. In 1959 Barbie debuted. Bud had based her on a German doll Mattel found named Lili. He modified “the bee-stung lips, heavy eyelashes, and widow’s peak to give her an All-American Girl look” and he rooted her hair.

With more than 600 credits on both the big screen and the small screen, Bud’s first television project was Playhouse 90 in 1957. During the sixties he was involved in quite a few shows including The Jack Benny Program, McHale’s Navy, The Munsters, It Takes a Thief, Ironside, Marcus Welby MD, and The Virginian.

It was fun to learn a little bit about these make-up professionals and the shows they worked on to help create some of our favorite television land characters.

Costumers: Bringing Characters to Life

October 5, 2026March 8, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are going “Behind the Scenes” to learn more about the people who work to make television shows great off the screen. Today we get to learn about costume designers.

Costume designers visually define characters. They break down scripts, research time periods, manage budgets, and collaborate with directors and producers to ensure visual consistency. They also oversee fittings, tailor garments, and supervise the wardrobe department on the set.

Characters’ wardrobes have changed during the years. If you watch shows from the fifties to the early seventies, you will notice that the characters have a clothes inventory for the season. You will see characters wearing these clothes over and over during the year. Gracie Allen used to do her own shopping for the dresses she wore on the set.

Costumer designers can design and create clothing for a character, or they can purchase the wardrobes. Sometimes costumers work with big-name designers like Nolan Miller who design clothes for a television character. On That Girl, Ann Marie wore a lot of clothing designed by Marilyn Lewis. On Green Acres, Lisa Douglas’s negligees were purchased from Lucie Ann.

Starting in the late seventies and eighties, it became more common for characters to have new clothing for each episode. If you watch Dynasty or Charlie’s Angels, you probably never see an outfit a second time.

Costumer designers ensure historical accuracy by doing research into time periods and geographical locations. This is reflected in shows like Mad Men or That Seventies Show.

Designing for specific characters includes knowing their personality, creating color schemes that convey emotions, patterns that reflect a personal style, choosing shapes and forms that express a character’s message or social class. Think about a show like Golden Girls where each character has a very different look.

Additionally, designers must consider the set and background colors to make sure the characters are wearing complementary shades or sometimes wearing a clashing color to stand out.

Let’s meet a few television costume designers.

Harald Johnson

Harald Johnson’s work can be seen on The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Spy, and The Mod Squad. He was a member of the motion picture costumers for more than forty years.

In a 2023 online article by Matt Spaiser (https://www.bondsuits.com/the-stylish-beverly-hills-suits-of-the-dick-van-dyke-show/), he shares the following:

“As Rob Petrie, Van Dyke dressed in bespoke suits, which were known simply as ‘custom’ in America. Though the credits read, ‘Mr. Van Dyke’s Wardrobe furnished by “Botany” 500, Tailored by Daroff’, this was not the case literally. Van Dyke used a Beverly Hills tailor named Harry Cherry for his suits. Harry Cherry was the designer of the clothes and the shop proprietor with his name on the door, but he had cutters and tailors working for him.

The famous wardrobe credit was not entirely truthful. This is from the The Dick Van Dyke Show episode ‘My Neighbor’s Husband’s Other Life’.

Botany 500, an average-quality American clothier, paid for their name in the credits and, according to Vince Waldon’s book The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book, also paid for Van Dyke’s wardrobe. The credit is cleverly and deceptively worded to mean that Daroff tailored clothes for Botany 500, not for Van Dyke. Botany 500 ‘furnished’ Van Dyke’s suits, in the form of paying his tailor. Van Dyke also appeared in advertisements for Botany 500.

In Waldron’s book, the show’s head of costuming Harald Johnson is quoted, ‘Dick was very, very particular about his clothes … He never wore off-the-rack suits. The only things he ever wore that were not custom-made were sportswear items.’ Johnson also said that the deal with Botany 500 provided the show’s producers Sheldon Leonard and Carl Reiner with suits from the same tailor who dressed Van Dyke.

Botany 500 paid a large sum for the Harry Cherry suits, jackets, and trousers. In a series of advertisements in the Los Angeles Times in 1958 promoting a clearance sale of his ready-to-wear clothes—he was shifting to selling only custom clothes—his ready-to-wear suits originally cost from $125 to $225 and were made of ‘Italian and English imported fabrics in 100% cashmere, cashmere-silk and wool, Italian silks, mohairs, lightweight worsted, silk and mohair, etc.’ “

The clothes worn by Mary Tyler Moore and Rose Marie were provided by various suppliers, most of them based in Los Angeles. In Vince Waldron’s book, The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book, Harald Johnson “negotiated deals with a variety of California-based women’s clothing designers, most of whom were only too happy to loan samples of their latest fashion lines to the show’s female stars in exchange for the exposure and – of course – a prominent plug in the show’s closing credits.”

Mary refused to wear the typical and unrealistic clothing other housewives were wearing on television. In a 2021 online article https://www.cnn.com/style/article/mary-tyler-moore-capri-pants), she was quoted, “I said, I’ve seen all the other actresses, and they’re always running the vacuum in these little flowered frocks with high heels on, and I don’t do that,” she recalled to NPR. “And I don’t know any of my friends who do that. So why don’t we try to make this real? And I’ll dress on the show the way I do in real life. … Within a few weeks, we were sneaking (pants) into a few other scenes in every episode.

Vincent Dee

Born in Pennsylvania in 1915, Vincent Dee passed away in 2006. With almost 100 credits, he was a prolific designer. According to BackstageAudition.com, his “contributions as a costume supervisor are nothing short of extraordinary. His passion for storytelling, coupled with his unparalleled skill in costume design, has brought characters to life in a way that captivates audiences worldwide. Dee’s legacy as a master of his craft will undoubtedly continue to inspire future generations of costumer designers and enthusiasts alike.”

Dee began as a costumer designer on television from 1954 to 1978. He was part of the cast for many popular series including Tales of West Fargo, Bachelor Father, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Leave It to Beaver, Wagon Train, McHale’s Navy, The Munsters, and The Virginian.

Bachelor Father is one of my favorites and the characters’ wardrobes are spot on. Bentley Gregg is clad in the tailored suits a wealthy attorney would wear. His teen niece Kelly wears typical high school fashion with a polished, upscale vibe. And Peter switches his clothing from white shirt when working at the house to more casual, informal clothing when he’s out and about.

Then you have Leave It to Beaver. June is often made fun of for her flowing dresses and pearls. Barbara Billingsley often told the story about why she wore pearls. She had a large hollow in her neck which became more obvious on screen, so the pearls covered up that stark look. Ward, the businessman is usually in suits or casual attire for golfing. Beaver and Wally wear the typical clothing for boys their age: jeans, flannel shirts, sweaters. The Cleavers are the poster family for a wholesome, clean-cut, conservative family of that time.

The Munsters were a satire of the typical sixties’ family. However, Eddie Munster dressed nothing like Beaver. He wore the same outfit in every show: a velvet suit with short pants and a shite collar with a jacket and gray knee socks. Poor Fred wore heavy looking clothing as a mortician. He was given build-up shoes to expand his 5”6” frame to 7’. His clothing weighed about 50 pounds so there were fans and lemonade and water for him between takes. Lily gives a nod to The Bride of Frankenstein from 1935 with her black and white hair and long, flowing gown.

An interesting story about Dee concerned Edith Head, an amazing designer who often found herself involved in scandals and unethical behavior toward other designers. In a 7-29-2024 online article (https://www.okcmoa.com/edith-heads-controversies) by Kristen Pignuolo, we learn that Head was responsible for promoting The Sting and making sure the actors were happy with their costumes. However, she did no design work for the film. That fell to Peter Saldutti and Vincent Dee who worked with Paul Newman and Robert Redford and Andrea Weaver who was the women’s costumer. The Sting won Best Costume Design. Head received the Oscar and during her acceptance speech failed to even mention Saldutti, Dee, or Weaver.

I think the world of costuming is fascinating. You have all the creative license, scandal, and intrigue of any television plot. I wish we knew more about these hard-working, creative individuals who made our characters so real for us.

McNultey v McNutley: Still Professing Comedy

September 1, 2025July 16, 2025 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Thanks for joining me this month in our blog series, “It’s Their Show.” As it became obvious that television wasn’t going away and movie stars were only hurting themselves shunning the industry, several celebrities decided to make the jump and star in their own show on the small screen. Ray Milland was one of the first stars to tackle the task. Milland had been known for many great movies including The Lost Weekend, for which he won an Oscar, and Dial M for Murder.

His show was originally titled “Meet Mr. McNutley,” but it became The Ray Milland Show. This is one of those shows that fans remember fondly as very funny and well written.

The show debuted in 1953 and ran for two seasons, two very different seasons. In the first season, McNutley is an English professor at Lynn Haven College for Women. Although all the students find him attractive his wife (Phyllis Avery) understood that this was not affecting her marriage. Rounding out the cast were their neighbors Pete and Ruth Thompson (Gordon Jones and Jacqueline DeWit) and the college dean (Minerva Urecal) who was not swooning over McNutley.

When the show returned for its second season, his name is now Mr. McNulty and he is a drama professor, moving from New England to Comstock University in California, a coed college. Dean Dodsworth (Lloyd Corrigan) and his wife (Madge Blake) take the place of their neighbors in this version.

The first season, CBS put the show on Thursday nights where it was up against Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life, a top ten program. Although many things changed from season one to season two, what stayed the same was that the show was still up against You Bet Your Life and Groucho’s show was still in the top ten. Ray’s show was cancelled at the end of the second season.

The producers of the show were Joe Connolly and Bob Mosher. The partnership would have some minor success in the early sixties after this show went off the air (Bringing Up Buddy, Ichabod and Me, Calvin and the Colonel) before hitting it big as the writers and producers for Leave It to Beaver and The Munsters. They were also behind The New Leave It to Beaver Show in 1997.

📷idahoseniorindependent.com “The Christmas Story”

I watched the Christmas episode from the second season for this blog. Peg gets involved with the local orphanage and agrees to host a child for Christmas. She is a difficult child and makes life and the holidays very unpleasant for the couple. However, as viewers, we are in on a scene where Susie (Beverly Washburn) reveals why she is so mean. She decides to become the perfect child so the couple will take her to the orphanage Christmas party, but her goal is to expose Santa as a fake to the other kids, and the show ends with an unexpected twist. It was a heart-warming story, and the humor was a bit subdued, but I enjoyed the episode. I was impressed by Washburn’s portrayal of a bad, good little girl. By the way, Washburn is still acting; she’s probably best remembered for her role in Old Yeller.

Milland would attempt another television series in 1959, and that show also ran for two seasons. As Markham, he portrayed a former attorney turned private detective who solved crimes around the world.

It’s too bad that the network never gave this show a chance to move to a spot in the schedule where it didn’t have so much competition. I thought it was more sophisticated than some of the sitcoms during the fifties. I’m guessing that it might have been a big hit.

Blondie: Some Shows Are Better Being Forgotten

May 5, 2025April 26, 2025 / thewritelife61 / Leave a comment

This month we are taking a look at some classic sitcoms that many people don’t remember anymore.

Blondie is one of those shows. It was based on the Chic Young comic strip and debuted on NBC in 1957, lasting one year. The series was resurrected in 1968 and the reboot also lasted a season.

Blondie had become very popular with fans. Beginning in 1938, 28 movies were made starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. Blondie also showed up on the radio from 1939 to 1950. Many products had been based on the characters including comic books, coloring books, lunch boxes, and board games.

The 1957 series starred half the movie duo. Lake took on his role of Dagwood Bumstead, but Pamela Britton was offered the role of Blondie Bumstead. Their kids, Cookie and Alexander, were played by Ann Barnes and Stuffy Singer. Florenz Ames was boss J.C. Dithers with Elvia Allmana as his wife Cora. Rounding out the cast was Harold Peary as neighbor Herb Woodley.

A decade later Will Hutchins and Patricia Harty play Dagwood and Blondie, Jim and Henny Backus play the Dithers, and Pamelyn Ferdin and Peter Robbins are their kids. The only advantage this series had over the original was color.

The comic strip, movies, radio show and both sitcoms all encompassed the familiar Bumstead elements: Dagwood being physically and socially awkward; their dog Daisy, and Dagwood’s love of napping and huge sandwiches.

The reboot was produced by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, the faces behind Leave It to Beaver and The Munsters. There was room in the schedule after the network cancelled He and She, a sitcom starring real life spouses Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin. The show is described on imdb.com as “Dick and Paula Hollister are a couple living in New York. Dick is a comic-book artist who has become famous for creating a superhero called Jetman, which has been turned into a TV show starring egocentric actor Oscar North.” During its one season of 26 episodes, the show received seven Emmy nominations, including a win for writing. It’s too bad that show was given the axe and Blondie moved in because the Prentiss-Benjamin show was much more creative and felt new, while Blondie felt extremely old.

No surprise, the ratings were not great. This is even worse when you see what the show was in competition with: The Ugliest Girl in Town, which would also be gone by 1969, and Daniel Boone. The one new 1968 show to return on CBS was Hawaii Five-0 which seems so much more sophisticated than Blondie; it’s hard to believe they both debuted the same year.

Perhaps the fans didn’t tune in because the critics panned the show before it aired. The Milwaukee Journal’s Wade Mosby said it was “a horrendously contrived piece of fluff that should have never been snatched from the comic pages.” Don Page of the Los Angeles Times called it “an unmitigated disaster,” and Cynthia Lowry of the Associated Press described it as “dismal.”

By November, rumors were that the show was already cancelled, and its last episode aired in January. The show probably relied too much on slapstick and unsophisticated humor; things that might have been fine in the 1930s but were passe by the 1960s. Sometimes a show is cancelled just because it’s a badly written and executed show. It seems Blondie fell into this category not once but twice.

Off the top of my head, I can only recall two comic strips becoming popular television shows: The Archies and The Addams Family. Because the Blondie characters were not very dimensional and got into the same situations over and over, they just never were able to translate into sustainable television characters. I think there’s a good reason that many people don’t remember this show and perhaps it’s better that way.

Noam Pitlik: What a Character

December 16, 2024March 16, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 6 Comments

This month we are right in the middle of one of my favorite blog series, What a Character. This week we are delving into the career of Noam Pitlik; in addition to his acting, he won an Emmy for his work as a director. Which show? Let’s find out.

Pitlik was born in Philadelphia in 1932. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Gratz College and later was a theater major at Temple University in 1954. Pitlik had a two-year stunt in the Army and earned a master’s degree in theater at New York University.

He began his acting career on WCAU in a western. In 1951, he was hired for the set design and construction crew for the Philadelphia Experimental Theater. He carried a bit of his hometown with him when he was part of the Summer Theater Guild in Indiana, Pennsylvania in the “Philadelphia Story.” He was hired for his Broadway debut in an off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera.”

In 1961 he moved to Los Angeles and received his first television roles, appearing on Cain’s Hundred and Dr. Kildare. Cain’s Hundred was not a show I remembered hearing much about. It was about a former underworld lawyer who works with the federal government to bring the top 100 criminals to justice. The show lasted one season. Pitlik had a variety of offers for shows throughout the sixties. Most of them were dramas and westerns, but we also see him on My Favorite Martian, The Munsters, Gidget, The Flying Nun, The Monkees, The Andy Griffith Show, The Doris Day Show, Get Smart, That Girl, and I Dream of Jeannie.

During the sixties, he married for the first time. His marriage with Jesse Blostein in 1967 would only last three years.

Pitlik also appeared in fourteen films and eight made-for-tv movies. The most memorable films are The Graduate, Fitzwilly, and The Fortune Cookie.

The seventies were his most prolific decade of acting. He appeared in 26 different series, often in 2-5 different episodes. You’ll see Pitlik in reruns in a variety of genres including Hogan’s Heroes, Room 222, Bewitched, Love American Style, All in the Family, The FBI, Cannon, Mannix, The Partridge Family, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple, and Barney Miller. His last acting appearance was in Becker in 1998.

The seventies were also when he tried the role of husband again, marrying Linda Hirsch in 1974; this marriage also lasted three years.

He began directing in the seventies and obtained 39 directing credits throughout the next two decades.

In an interview with Temple University for the Alumni Review in 1979, Pitlik said that the switch in his career was not “a case of my needing to change functions for economic reasons. I used to figure out what I made a day as an actor, and it was obscene. I changed for emotional reasons. I had become very frustrated by the kinds of things I was doing in acting, and I was looking for a change in my life that would be more challenging. I enjoyed acting, but I never seemed to get enough to do.” His first episode as director was on The New Dick Van Dyke Show. He directed 12 episodes for The Practice and 11 for Taxi.

However, Barney Miller was where he perfected his skill as director for 102 of its 171 episodes. In 1979, he won an Emmy as Director for the show. He beat out Paul Bogart for All in the Family, Alan Alda and Charles Dubin for M*A*S*H, and Jay Sandrich for Soap. He also received a Peabody Award and a Directors Guild of America Award for his work on Barney Miller. He lost the Emmy in 1981 to James Burrows for Taxi. His co-nominees included Jerry Paris for Happy Days, Linda Day for Archie Bunker’s Place, Burt Metcalfe and Alan Alda for M*A*S*H, and Rod Daniel for WKRP in Cincinnati.

In the Temple interview, Pitlik said that his “main responsibility is to create an atmosphere in which each of the people involved in the production can conform to their best work. Although a director oversees all aspects of the production, there are many people involved, and he’s dependent on all of them. There’s no more collaborative business than the television business. Each person contributes to the success or failure of a show whether he or she is a writer, actor, cameraman, or whatever.”

In 1995 he began directing episodes of The Home Court and did so for 14 of the 20 episodes. I must admit I do not remember this show at all. The synopsis was Sydney Solomon was a family court judge who had to deal with the toughest prosecuting attorneys and repeat offenders. However, her biggest challenges came when dealing with her kids, four boys aged 11-19.

Pitlik had better luck with his third marriage to Susan Whittaker which lasted from 1986 until his death in 1999. Whittaker was a television producer. Noam passed away from lung cancer at age 66.

Like Jerry Paris, Pitlik had a very successful acting career before finding his passion behind the camera. If you are responsible for directing a series, Barney Miller is a great accomplishment. It was fun to learn more about his career both in front of and behind the camera.

Frank Gorshin: Batman’s Most Puzzling Villain

March 18, 2024March 18, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month, our theme is Bam! Pow! Batman Villains. We have learned a bit about the careers of the Joker and Cat Woman, and today we are spending some time with the Riddler, portrayed by Frank Gorshin.

Gorshin started out as an impressionist and comedian before transitioning into acting.

Frank was born in Pittsburgh in 1933 into a blue-collar, middle-class family. His mom was a seamstress, and his father was a railroad worker. His paternal grandparents arrived in the US from Slovenia and his mother was born in Slovenia, coming to the Pittsburgh area as a young girl; his parents were very involved in the Slovenian community, both singing with the Preseren, a Slovenian singing society.

When he was 15, Gorshin got a part-time job as an usher at the Sheridan Square Theatre. He studied the mannerisms of the actors he watched in those movies and developed an impressionist act. Some of his favorite actors to mimic included James Cagney, Cary Grant, Al Jolson, and Edward Robinson. After entering a talent contest in 1951, he won a week-long engagement at the Carousel nightclub in New York.

Sadly, Gorshin’s older brother was hit by a car two days before and died. His parents convinced him to keep his performance schedule and sent him to New York.

After high school, Gorshin enrolled at the Carnegie Tech School of Drama (now Carnegie Mellon University).

At age 20, Frank was drafted into the US Army and sent to Germany. He was an entertainer in Special Services for a year and a half. When Gorshin left the Army, he began his acting career, appearing in four movies and on television in Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

I can’t imagine the horror Gorshin’s parents felt when getting a call in 1957 that their son had fallen asleep while driving from Pittsburgh to Hollywood, a 39-hour trip for a screen test. With their other son passing away from a car crash six years earlier, now they had to deal with the fact that their other son was in a coma with a fractured skull. Luckily, he made a full recovery.

Another big event occurring in 1957 was his marriage to Christina Randazzo. They had a son and separated later in life, but they never did divorce as far as I could tell.

Until his death, Gorshin would appear in more than sixty big-screen films. During the fifties, he only appeared in a handful of television series, but that would change in the 1960s. Some of the most memorable shows included The Defenders, The Munsters, Star Trek, and The High Chapparal. With his comedy act, he visited The Ed Sullivan Show four times. The first time he did his impressionist act on the series, he would be scheduled with this new band called The Beatles.

The sixties also found him on Batman, his reason for being in this month’s blog series. He said that he developed a fiendish laugh at Hollywood parties. “I listened to myself laugh and discovered that the funniest jokes brought out the high-pitched giggle that I use on the show. With further study, I came to realize that it wasn’t so much how I laughed as what I laughed at that created the sense of the menace.”

He did not love the unitards that many of the comic book villains wore, so he asked for a green business suit and bowler hat, covered with question marks since he always left riddles for Batman and Robin to solve. He often said “Riddle me this, Batman” which became a catchphrase of the mid-sixties.

Gorshin said “When I was first approached to play the Riddler, I thought it was a joke. Then I discovered the show had a good script and agreed to do the role. Now I am in love with the character.”

Gorshin was the only villain to be nominated for an Emmy. He got the nod in 1966 for the episode “Hi Diddle Riddle.” He had some tough competition, going against Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes, Morey Amsterdam on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and winner Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show.

Gorshin was in ten episodes of the show, but after appearing numerous times, he was unavailable, and the producers replaced him with John Astin. I realized hindsight is 20/20 as they say, so the producers were never considering the effect the show would have on pop culture and the decades it would be a fan favorite, but that switch seems extreme. However, they did it with Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt as well, so maybe they figured if you have to replace a villain, let’s replace them with someone very different from the original. Gorshin, however, was not a fan of being replaced but did get over it enough to accept his tenth episode role in season three and appeared as Riddler in the 1979 made-for-television movie Legends of the Superheroes.

Frank made his Broadway debut in 1969 in the musical biography, “Jimmy” which was about the controversial life of New York mayor Jimmy Walker.

Gorshin was very busy in the seventies and eighties. Among the twenty plus shows he appeared on were The Virginian, Martin and Rowan’s Laugh In, Ironside, Hawaii Five-0, Charlie’s Angels, and Murder She Wrote.

In the last three decades of his life, he spent more time making big-screen films. One thing I found surprising is that Gorshin appeared in three soap operas, all at different times in his career: General Hospital in 1963, The Edge of Night in 1982, and The Bold and the Beautiful in 1999.

In the early 2000s, Gorshin did a one-man Broadway show, portraying George Burns. He was reunited with his Batman cast in a made-for-tv movie, Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt. His last appearance was on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on “Grave Danger” on which he played himself. The episode was directed by Quentin Tarantino and was dedicated to Gorshin.

Unfortunately, Gorshin was a heavy smoker throughout his life. Adam West once said that “Frank could reduce a cigarette to ash with one draw” and his nightclub performances warned patrons they would be exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke if they attended. Not surprisingly, he died from lung cancer, complicated by emphysema and pneumonia.

I enjoyed getting to know Frank Gorshin in this blog. While I was much more familiar with the careers of Burgess Meredith and Julie Newmar, Gorshin and Cesar Romero are actors I knew very little about. I hope you are also enjoying getting to know these fun “villains.”

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.

Marcus Welby, MD: Every Family’s Doctor

July 17, 2023July 1, 2023 / thewritelife61 / 5 Comments

This month we are “Examining Our Favorite Medical Series.” Beginning in 1969 and staying on the air for seven seasons, this show was a show that the entire family could agree to watch. In fact, on The Partridge Family, there is at least one episode where the Partridges are watching Marcus Welby, MD.

Marcus Welby (Robert Young) is a family doctor who truly likes and knows his patients. Sometimes he even made house calls. Dr. Steven Kiley (James Brolin) is his business partner and they both rely on Nurse/Office Manager Consuelo Lopez (Elena Verdugo).

Produced by David Victor and David J. O’Connell, the show aired on Thursday nights. Victor also produced episodes of Dr. Kildare as well as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, and Lucas Tanner, among others. O’Connell produced episodes from several series but he was kept busy in the Editorial Department for a slew of shows, including Tales of West Fargo, Bachelor Father, Leave It to Beaver, The Jack Benny Show, Wagon Train, McHale’s Navy, and The Munsters. (In the future, I will definitely look into a show about editors for a blog.)

Welby and Kiley were very different. Kiley rode a motorcycle to work while Welby drove a sedan. Welby was a widower; he started his career as a doctor in the US Navy during the war. He enjoyed sailing on the ocean. Welby often wanted to use more radical treatments than his younger partner who was more conservative in his patient care. A lot of ailments were tackled on the series including impotence, depression, brain damage, breast cancer, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, rape, and abortion.

The two doctors had a private practice with operating privileges at Lang Memorial Hospital. Both doctors had girlfriends, Myra (Anne Baxter) and Janet (Pamela Hensley). Welby’s daughter (Christine Belford) and grandson (Gavin Brendan) were often on the set as was Kathleen Faverty (Sharon Gless), an assistant program director.

In season two the show made it to number one for ABC. Both Young and Brolin won Emmys and the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Dramatic Series.

After seven seasons of medical storylines, the show’s viewership began to wane. Many of the medical series were running out of steam at that time. Once ratings continued on the decline, the show was canceled.

However, eight years later, The Return of Marcus Welby, MD aired. Young and Verdugo continued their roles although Brolin was no longer available. It must have done well, because a second movie was filmed in 1988–Marcus Welby, MD – A Holiday Affair. This would be the last acting role Young would accept.

I have many fond memories of watching this show when I was young with my family. Marcus Welby reminded me of our family doctors; he was kind, gentle, smart, and had a great bedside manner. And he made house calls! Don’t get me wrong, there are still many doctors with his characteristics and they kind of make house calls now over the computer but it’s not the same. Thanks, Dr. Welby, for caring for all of us for seven years.

Gavin MacLeod: Murray Slaughter Takes Up Sailing

October 31, 2022July 31, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we wind up our up close and personal blog series, we are focusing on Gavin MacLeod. I have mentioned Gavin MacLeod’s name a lot in my blogs, but I have never devoted an entire to blog to him, so today is the day. Gavin had an impressive career; he starred in three sitcoms but those three garnered him almost 500 episodes. In addition, he took on more than a hundred guest roles on both the small and big screen.

MacLeod was born Allan George See in 1931 in New York. His mother worked for Reader’s Digest, and his father was an electrician. In 1952, MacLeod graduated from Ithaca College with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, studying acting.

He served in the US Air Force where he wrote, produced, and directed plays. After his service, he moved to New York City. While tackling acting auditions, he worked at Radio City Music Hall. While working as an usher there, he met Joan Rootvik, a Rockette. They married in 1955 and had four children. About this time, he took on the name Gavin MacLeod. MacLeod was a tribute to his acting coach at Ithaca, Beatrice MacLeod.

His movie career began with three movies in 1958. He would make 20 more before 2005, including Operation Petticoat and The Gene Krupa Story.

His television appearances began in 1957 on The Walter Winchell File. He would make another lucky 13 performances during the fifties including The Thin Man and Whirlybirds.

The sixties kept him busy. He took on comedy in The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, Gomer Pyle USMC, The Andy Griffith Show, My Favorite Martian, The Flying Nun, and several different characters on Hogan’s Heroes. Westerns called him for Rawhide, The Iron Horse, Death Valley Days, and The Big Valley. He landed dramas including The Man from UNCLE, Perry Mason, Ironside, Hawaii Five-0, and Ben Casey.

From 1962-1964 he starred as Happy in McHale’s Navy. The show continued until 1966, but Gavin left the show halfway through. He was dealing with alcoholism, and he received an offer to make the movie The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen. However, he remained close friends with Ernest Borgnine, the star of the show, until his death in 2012. (He quit drinking in 1974.)

Murray and Mary Photo: showbizcheatsheet.com

During the 1970s, he appeared on Love American Style, Charlie’s Angels, and Wonder Woman, but the character we loved best during that decade was Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. From 1970-1977, Murray sat next to Mary, helping her through the ups and downs of life. Gavin was originally auditioning for the role of Lou Grant, but ended up reading for Murray. He and Ted Baxter were enemies on the show, but he and Ted Knight were dear friends in real life. They had lived near each other before being cast in the show.

During the run of the show, Gavin and his first wife divorced, and he married his second wife Patti Steele. That marriage also ended in divorce in 1982. Patti became part of a Bible Study group after their divorce and became a Christian. Gavin reached out to her, also became a Christian, and they remarried in 1985.

Upon the ending of Mary’s show, he was immediately hired as Captain Stubing on The Love Boat. This time he was in charge of his coworkers. One of his best friends was Bernie Kopell who played Dr. Adam Bricker on the show. Gavin was on the seas for a decade. His best friend Telly Savalas (the lollipop-loving Kojak star) popped up on The Love Boat; the two were very close until Telly’s death in 1994.

When the show ended in 1987, he got a well-deserved break, but he still managed to find time to tour with Michael Learned in “Love Letters.”

Celebrating on Murder She Wrote Photo: imdb.com

He landed a variety of television show appearances in the 1990s and 2000s, including Murder She Wrote, King of Queens, JAG, and That 70s Show. His final appearance was in 2014 on The Comeback Kids; then he decided to retire. He also did several musicals after The Love Boat including “Gypsy,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” and “Gigi.”

MacLeod and his wife hosted a show on marriage on Trinity Broadcasting Network for 17 years. He also served as the honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades from 2006-2011 when Sugar Ray Leonard took over.

The Love Boat was a big part of his life. Instead of being bitter about being typecast, he embraced the role. He celebrated his 80^th birthday in 2011 aboard the Golden Princess with his family, celebrating with a 3D replica cake of The Pacific Princess, his boat on the show.

In 2013, MacLeod joined his former coworkers on The Talk for a cast reunion. Several members of the cast including Gavin took part in The Rose Bowl Parade in 2015.

The cast apparently was very close. Ted Lange who played bartender Isaac Washington mentioned the crew in an interview in 2017 with “The Wiseguyz Show,” saying “Oh yeah, sure, Gavin was wonderful. Gavin lives down here in Palm Springs and we’re still tight, all of us, Gavin and Bernie and Jill; we still see each other. Fred [who played Gopher] lives in a different state, we’re still close, we’re still good friends.”

In his spare time, Gavin enjoyed traveling, playing tennis, dancing, golfing, sailing, reading the Bible, and watching movies. Gavin passed away in May of 2021 at his home.

During the past decade, he released a memoir, This is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith & Life. He explained his goal for writing this book: “My life has taken one incredible turn after another,” writes MacLeod. “I’ve gotten to do what I wanted to do. I’ve been a captain! I’ve been given this incredible gift of life and now I want to use it to give back. That’s why I’m sharing my story here, the fun parts and even some not-so-fun parts, in the hopes that maybe someone will take a nice walk down memory lane with me – and maybe I’ll even give someone a little bit of hope.”

Good memories and a little bit of hope is all we can ask for; thanks, Gavin, for giving that to us.