Dick Schaal: What a Character

December 2, 2024March 16, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Today we began our “What a Character” blog series. Typically, when we discuss character actors, we are looking at actors who were busy in the forties, fifties, and sixties, but in the past sixty years, there have been a lot of great character actors as well. Today we are looking at the career of Richard Schaal.

Schaal was born in Chicago in 1928. His dad was a machinist, and his mom was a telephone operator. After he graduated, he ran a construction company before joining the Second City comedy troupe in 1959, not long after it began.

In 1950 he married Lois Treacy. I could not find a divorce date, but it was some time before 1964. They had a daughter Wendy who is also an actress.

Eventually he made his way to California. He had seventeen film credits on his resume; most of them were not too memorable, but he was in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming and Slaughterhouse Five.

Television is where he made most of his acting appearances. He began his TV career in 1964 in East Side/West Side. This was a show I had not heard of before. Apparently, it was on for one year and starred George C. Scott as a social worker trying to help his clients in the mix of cultures that makes up New York City.

Schaal would find a few more roles in the sixties on several shows including The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl, and I Dream of Jeannie.

In the sixties, Schaal met Valerie Harper and they married in 1964.

During the seventies, he collected roles on many sitcoms including The Doris Day Show, The Partridge Family, Love American Style, The Bob Newhart Show, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, he played Howard Arnell, Paul Arnell, Chuckles the Clown, and Dino. Not surprisingly, he made appearances on Rhoda and Phyllis.

In 1970, Schaal and Harper wrote a script for Love American Style for “Love and the Visitor” which aired on season two, episode 5 where a bridegroom ends up in the wrong girl’s bedroom. Harper said they were part of the Writers Guild, but their hearts were in acting and once she got the part of Rhoda, the writing stopped.

Harper discussed Schaal during an interview with the Television Academy. She describes him as her former husband and good friend. She said she and Schaal hosted a talk show with Skitch Henderson for about a year in the mid-sixties. They did interviews and sketches. She said after that they decided to move to Los Angeles.

📷imdb.com The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming

The seventies were also a busy time for Schaal who continued to find roles on television. You can see him on dramas such as Nero Wolfe and Hardcastle and McCormick. He also was on sitcoms including Harper Valley PTA and Just Our Luck. He had a recurring role during this decade on Trapper John MD from 1981-85. The show was a sequel of M*A*S*H and portrayed Trapper later in life. Schaal played Dr. David Sandler. He also accepted a role on It’s a Living in 1980. His daughter Wendy was part of the cast. She has a very successful career and has appeared in many popular series. From 2005-2023, she was one of the voices in American Dad.

In 1980 he tried marriage a third time with Tasha Brittain. They would divorce in 1989.

Schaal retired in 1990 and passed away in 2014 in Los Angeles. No cause of death was provided. He did have spinal surgery in the late 90s and was in a wheelchair after that.

Sadly, I could not find a lot of information about Schaal or his personal life. He had a successful career, but it’s too bad there wasn’t more improvisational work at the time. It sounds like he was very gifted in that area. He didn’t have as much luck in love, but at least, according to Valerie Harper, he was a great guy and they remained good friends. He was one of those character actors who added so much to the television industry, especially in the sixties and seventies.

Welcome to Fantasy Island

June 10, 2024June 17, 2024 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

This month our theme is Casting Celebrities. We are looking at a few shows that relied on a cast of famous stars for their weekly episodes. The world of island drama with Mr. Roarke and Tattoo was on television from 1977 to 1984 on Fantasy Island. Ricardo Montalban was Mr. Roarke and Herve Villechaize was his assistant Tattoo.

Instead of a vacation cruise, guests paid to travel to the island for their fantasy of choice.

Before airing as a regular series, the plot was developed for two made-for-tv movies in 1977 and 1978. The show was put on the fall schedule in 1978. All we knew about the island is that it was a mysterious place located somewhere near Devil’s Island in the Atlantic Ocean. (Most descriptions locate it in the Pacific Ocean but the show references being near Devil’s Island which is in the Atlantic.)

Even if you did not watch the show, you probably quoted Tattoo’s weekly comment, “De plane! De plane!” which is what he shouted when he rang the bell to indicate that the guests arrived. In 1981 Wendy Schaal joined the cast as Roarke’s assistant Julie, and we later learned she was his goddaughter. Villechaize was replaced in the fifth season by Lawrence (Christopher Hewett from Mr. Belvedere) who took on the role of an English butler type of character. Apparently Villechaize caused problems for the producers. He continually propositioned women and quarrelled with the staff. When he demanded the same salary as Montalban, he was fired.

Once the guests departed the plane, Roarke gathered them around and explained to his assistant what the nature of their fantasy was. He then lifted his glass and said, “My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island.”

The writers were a bit secretive about Roarke’s age. Some episodes mention he was friends with Helen of Troy and Cleopatra; others discuss the fact that he knew mermaids, ghosts, genies and even the devil (played by Roddy McDowall).

Most of the time, the guests’ fantasies did not work out quite the way they had planned. Roarke tried to use this as a life lesson. However, Roarke did make it clear that he had no way of interfering in a fantasy once it began, and the guests had to finish out the story.

According to the first television movie, guests paid $50,000 to live out their fantasy which would be about $175,000 today. Somehow a few people who were not well off won trips or Roarke accepted much less money, even $10, from one young girl.

The plots of these fantasies varied quite a bit. Sometimes, someone was reunited with an old love. Sometimes they tracked down someone who had hurt, or even killed, a family member. Some had a tinge or more of supernatural elements.

The executive producer was Aaron Spelling. Spelling related a story that he and Leonard Goldberg were pitching some series ideas to ABC’s Brandon Stoddard. When he rejected all their ideas, a frustrated Spelling said, “What do you want? An island that people can go to for all their sexual fantasies will be realized?” Stoddard surprised them by saying yes.

The show was aired Saturday nights after The Love Boat for its entire run another Spelling show, which we’ll talk about next week.

Despite the exotic location, most of the series was filmed in Burbank, California.

The theme song behind the show was composed by Laurence Rosenthal.

The part of Roarke was first offered to Orson Wells, but Spelling put the kibosh on that because he knew Wells could be temperamental.

Like Love American Style, rather than each episode having a title, each individual fantasy story had its own title, which made for a lot of confusion.

Unfortunately, the show doesn’t hold up as well today as Love American Style or The Love Boat. It screams 1980s with the fashions and content echoing other shows of the era like Dynasty. Often lines were insensitive to specific people groups and cultural standards.

If I had to rate the four shows we are learning about this month, I have to admit that Fantasy Island would be the last one I would opt for. But if you have never seen the show, you should check out at least a couple episodes.

Trick or Treat???

October 30, 2017 / thewritelife61 / 3 Comments

Tomorrow night is Halloween, and many of you will see ghosts flitting around your neighborhood asking for candy. If you want to watch ghosts flitting around your television screen, I have some shows for you to consider. To save you some time, I’ll let you know which ones are boo-ring and which are hauntingly good.

Topper (1953)

This show was based on several stories by Thorne Smith and a movie starring Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, and Roland Young from 1937. When Cosmo Topper (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife Henrietta (Lee Patrick) move into their house, Topper becomes aware of three more residents, George and Marian Kerby (real husband and wife Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffries) and a St. Bernard named Neil who tried to save them in a skiing accident during an avalanche. One of the ongoing jokes in the show is that Neil is always drinking alcohol left around the house after getting hooked on the brandy he carried around his neck. The complication is that they are all ghosts, and only Topper can see and hear them.

Most of the humor comes from their interaction with other people like salesmen or society snobs. Scripts were full of word play and clever dialogue. They would intervene in activities Topper was involved with like his weekly bridge game. Once he wrote a check for $5 which they changed to $5000. Topper was a bit cheap even though he was VP of the National Security Bank. The ghosts were full of mischief, and we liked them for their fun “spirit.” Being dead, they were fearless.

One of the typical plots happened when Henrietta was in the hospital. Marion wants to celebrate her birthday with their old friends. She sends invitations to them from Topper. Topper has no idea people are coming. The women all make a fuss over him being alone with his wife in the hospital and the party is a bit wild compared to the ones Topper and Henrietta usually host. Of course, Henrietta gets out of the hospital early and arrives with the party in full swing.

Wires, ectoplasm, and the stopping and starting of cameras were used to bring the ghosts to life.

One fact I found surprising was that eleven of the first year’s episodes were written by composer Stephen Sondheim and George Oppenheimer.

The show began in 1953 with R.J. Reynolds as the sponsor for its Camel cigarettes. The cast was required to smoke in every episode. In 1955 it was picked up by Standard Brands and moved to ABC. The next year General Foods sponsored it on NBC where it was cancelled in 1957 after a total of 78 episodes. The show hasn’t aged well because the special effects seem unsophisticated and obvious today. Even so, I would list this as a treat.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1968)

Carolyn Muir (Hope Lange), a widow, decides to move to Schooner Bay where she can focus on her writing career and raising her family, which consists of Jonathan (Harlen Carraher), Candy (Kellie Flanagan), and a dog Scruffy. She rents the house from Claymore Gregg (Charles Nelson Reilly). The house, Gull Cottage, functioned as another character in the show. Below on the left is how it appeared in the show; on the right is the show today. The house was actually in Santa Barbara, California nowhere near the water. We also get to know Noorie Coolidge (Dabbs Greer) who owns the local lobster restaurant.

Carolyn plans to bring in a housekeeper Martha (Reta Shaw), but she doesn’t plan on another household guest, Captain Gregg (Edward Mulhare) (Claymore’s uncle), who lived in the house in the 1800s. Captain Gregg falls in love with Carolyn; he also develops a special relationship with the kids.

The show was based on a book by R.A. Dick from 1945 and a movie starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison from 1947. The special effects were impressive for the 1960s. When Gregg and came and went, the actors all had to freeze. Strings and wires were everywhere to help with the other magic parts of the film.

In an interview with Flanagan about her time on the show, she said every show took a week to produce. She enjoyed her experiences with the series saying that the cast had great actors, “Hope Lange was extremely sweet and kind; Reta was a delight, and Charles Nelson Reilly was hilarious” and it was a happy set to work on.

The show debuted on NBC where it played the first year. The critics liked it, and Hope Lange received two Emmys for lead actress in a comedy. However, the first year it was up against My Three Sons and Lawrence Welk. The show moved to ABC for a second season but lost its ratings battle to Family Affair. Definitely a treat.

The Ghost Busters (1975)

Basically, this was a slap-stick comedy reprising the roles of Corporal Agarn and Sergeant O’Rourke from F-Troop as paranormal detectives. Larry Storch is Eddie Spencer, Forest Tucker is Kong, and Bob Burns is their assistant and chauffeur Tracy, who just happens to be a gorilla. The team battles ghosts of legendary fiends like Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, The Mummy, and The Werewolf.

An unseen boss, Zero, would give them their assignment and then the tape would explode. Their headquarters was a run-down office and they had to use a pay phone nearby. Every week they were taken to the same castle to defeat a new foe. They always used their Dematerializer to send the specters back to the “great beyond.” Somehow, they convinced Jim Backus to guest star in one of the episodes.

Burns was hired because the producers decided it would be cheaper to hire an actor who already had a gorilla suit. Burns is best known for Bob’s Basement, where he displays his Hollywood science fiction and horror collectibles. Seen on Saturday mornings, the show produced by Filmation only lasted for 15 episodes. Definitely a trick.

Jennifer Slept Here (1983)

The premise of this show is that famous actress Jennifer Farrell (Ann Jillian) was chasing down an ice cream truck in 1963 when it backed up and accidentally ran her over. George Elliot (Brandon Maggart) was the lawyer who handled her affairs after she died. He decided to buy her home for his wife (Georgia Engel).

What the parents don’t realize is that Jennifer still lives here, and only their son Joey (John Navin Jr.) can see and communicate with her. The show was sexy because Jennifer was a Marilyn Monroe type and silly because she acted like a second mother to Joey. The series was told mainly from a 13-year-old’s point of view.

The show had decent ratings but went up against The Dukes of Hazard and Webster, so it was cancelled after 13 episodes, one for each year of Joey’s life. I’d classify this one as a trick.

Nearly Departed (1989)

When the Dooleys (Stuart Pankin and Wendy Schaal) purchase a new home, Grant and Claire Pritchard (Eric Idle and Caroline McWilliams) area already living there since they had been the previous owners. However, they are no longer alive. With a bit of a different twist, only Grandpa (Henderson Forsythe) can see and hear them. The Dooleys have a son Derek (Jay Lambert), and the ghosts would try to help him with problems like bullies to repay the Dooleys for giving them a place to live, even though they didn’t know they were doing so.

The critics were all over the place on this one. Joan Hanauer, a UPI feature writer, wrote “Nearly Departed is a fast, pleasant sitcom, and the Pritchards make you believe one thing you can take with you is your sense of humor.” Howard Rosenberg from the LA Times, wrote “ ‘Nearly Departed’ is a zero. A mishmash of ‘Topper’ and ‘Beetlejuice,’ the NBC comedy is worse than bad in its premier at 8:30 . . . making such worthy comic actors as Monty Python’s Eric Idle and Stuart Pankin look worse than bad in the process.”

I guess most viewers agreed with Rosenberg because the show was gone after only six episodes. I have to give this one a trick.

The Haunted Hathaways (2013)

This show is a 21^st century Brady Brunch without the best part: Alice. A single mom Michelle Hathaway (Ginifer King) and her two girls, gymnast Taylor (Amber Montana) and Frankie (Breanna Yde) make the move from New York to New Orleans and open a bakery, Pie Squared.

However, when they move into their new house, they find three ghosts who had taken up residence: Ray Preston (Chico Benymon), a saxophone player, and his sons, well-mannered Miles (Curtis Harris) and rude and sarcastic Louie (Benjamin “Lil P-Nut” Flores Jr.). The two families learn to work together using ghostly powers and human intellect to solve problems together. This show lasted two seasons on Nickelodeon. I would not call this a trick or a treat; it’s like the house that gives out apples, not bad but don’t go out of your way to check it out.

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I would recommend picking up The Ghost and Mrs. Muir or Topper DVDs to watch as you give goodies to the little goblins ringing your doorbell. Better yet, get the original movies. It’s always a treat to watch Cary Grant and Rex Harrison. While you are sitting around a bonfire this month, you can also read the original books and decide which version you like best. Happy Halloween.