Beloved stars who were real nasty you know whats

[STF]

I've heard that the boys in the industry like Harley Race, but I could see him being kind of an anti-social person.

 

[Ultimajock]

I've heard that the boys in the industry like Harley Race, but I could see him being kind of an anti-social person.

...I'm still trying to figure out how Handsome Harley ever qualified to be considered "beloved" ;-) ...

 

[donnyg]

I've heard that the boys in the industry like Harley Race, but I could see him being kind of an anti-social person.

...I'm still trying to figure out how Handsome Harley ever qualified to be considered "beloved" ;-) ...

I just finished watching Race VS. Ric Flair at Starrcade '83 for the NWA Title You can tell just by watching that Harley Race is an ass. Gene Kiniski the referee for that match should have decked him and given Flair a fast 3 count for the win ;D

 

[Newname]

George Lindsey (Goober) from the Andy Griffith Show. My husband had him on the air in Huntsville and he did not want to talk about his Goober days, Let's face it, that's all he is known for. He wanted to talk about what he was doing now. And callers would tell him how much they loved him as Goober and he would get pissed.

Was this before he had 'Goober' legally added to his full name?

 

[LKellerIII]

"My husband had him on the air in Huntsville and he did not want to talk about his Goober days, Let's face it, that's all he is known for. He wanted to talk about what he was doing now. And callers would tell him how much they loved him as Goober and he would get pissed."

I can kind of sympathize with Lindsay. Even though Goober was his only notable success, it must be hard to hear "Hey Goober" everywhere you go 45 years later. This reminded me of a radio interview I heard some San Francisco shock jocks do a few years ago with Ron Palillo (Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter). Ron was in town in some kind of minor play or something...and the jocks set out to purposely piss him off by asking nothing but questions about John Travolta and the Kotter days. Every time Ron would try to change the subject back to his play, or his post-Kotter years, the jocks would interrupt him, and go back to Travolta questions. They had obviously planned it out ahead of time and it worked - Palillo was in a frothing stuttering rage by the end of the interview.

Note: I am not saying your husband did that to Lindsay, New Name.

 

[Stanislav]

Kind of like Dustin Diamond a/k/a "Screech" who will forever be known from "Saved by the Bell" but, unfortunately, seems to have become a major a-hole in his middle age, and regularly gets razzed and heckled when he tries to do stand-up. (BTW, a friend of mine who is a writer did a bunch of freelance material for Diamond, who then stiffed my friend for the $1500 he was owed for the work. Took him 2 years and a lot of threats, both legal and physical, to eventually collect not quite half what he was owed. Nice guy, that Screech...)

 

[mleach]

"My husband had him on the air in Huntsville and he did not want to talk about his Goober days, Let's face it, that's all he is known for. He wanted to talk about what he was doing now. And callers would tell him how much they loved him as Goober and he would get pissed."

I can kind of sympathize with Lindsay. Even though Goober was his only notable success, it must be hard to hear "Hey Goober" everywhere you go 45 years later. This reminded me of a radio interview I heard some San Francisco shock jocks do a few years ago with Ron Palillo (Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter). Ron was in town in some kind of minor play or something...and the jocks set out to purposely piss him off by asking nothing but questions about John Travolta and the Kotter days. Every time Ron would try to change the subject back to his play, or his post-Kotter years, the jocks would interrupt him, and go back to Travolta questions. They had obviously planned it out ahead of time and it worked - Palillo was in a frothing stuttering rage by the end of the interview.

Note: I am not saying your husband did that to Lindsay, New Name.

A few years back ( 2004 ), my wife and I attended a fundraiser for our local fire company. The guest of honor at the dinner was Goerge Goober Linsday. We never did meet him personally but we were in the audience when he did his Q&A show. Some of the things I remember..

Goober did bring up the then-very poor health of his friend and former co-star Don Knotts. Knotts died not long afterward.

Goober believed the tearing down of Opryland Park in Nashville was a big mistake. I am sure most people would agree with that, even those who made the decision to tear it down in the first place.

And the shocker...One day Ernest Borgnine was thinking about killing himself. However just before he planned on doing it, the phone rings. It was Goober !! The two started joking and such on the phone and Borgnine went from a depressed mood to a happy one. Goober claimed he didn't know that Borgnine was planning on killing himself until the call. That is until one day ( sometime long after this happened ) Borgnine made some remark like "...thanks for saving my life !!"..and brought up that call.

 

[dxnemo78]

George Lindsey (Goober) from the Andy Griffith Show. My husband had him on the air in Huntsville and he did not want to talk about his Goober days, Let's face it, that's all he is known for. He wanted to talk about what he was doing now. And callers would tell him how much they loved him as Goober and he would get pissed.

Kinda suspected as much aboout ol' George. I've heard him on the radio quite a few years back, acting much like that. Jim Nabors, on the other hand, is supposedly as nice a guy as you could meet, and not pissed at all about being known to everyone as Gomer

 

[ixnay]

Was George Goober Lindsay the only star to have a character name into which (s)he was typecast legally incorporated into his/her name? IIRC Soupy Sales' pseudonym eventually became his entire legal name.

ixnay

 

[Stanislav]

IIRC Soupy Sales' pseudonym eventually became his entire legal name.

Kudos to the first poster who can tell us Soupy's birth name WITHOUT Googling. (I know it, but I ain't tellin'...) ;D

 

[RicoGregg]

IIRC Soupy Sales' pseudonym eventually became his entire legal name.

Kudos to the first poster who can tell us Soupy's birth name WITHOUT Googling. (I know it, but I ain't tellin'...) ;D

Milton Hines, if memory serves me right. :-\

White Fang says "Oh-leh oh-leh oh-leh!"

 

[YEKIMI]

RICO GREGG"S QUOTE:As for the very debatable third point, ripoffs have happened in show biz throughout time. People today are accused of stealing material (Wayan Bros., anyone?). A woman I worked with in radio once came up with a great line about a celebrity's do-nothing husband during the morning show she did news on, and by late afternoon, the joke had made it's way clear across the country, and was used on Johnny Carson that night!

Same thing happened to me! I used to write jokes for a popular morning DJ back in the late 70's and he told one on air. Approx two weeks later I was watching the Tonight Show and heard Carson tell my joke almost word for word. To put it bluntly, I was pi$$ed off and called up the DJ and asked what the hell was going on. He had no idea what had happened but made some calls to NBC to find out. They denied it until he sent them a tape of his show from when he told the joke two weeks prior. Turns out a writer for the Tonight Show was in town and was listening and copied down the joke and used it as his own. They apologized to the DJ {I never got one!} and I heard two stories, one, that the writer was strongly warned about ever doing something like that again and, two, that they fired him. I did find out who it was a couple of years later but since he's gone to the great TV Rerun in the sky, I won't name him.

 

[STF]

I just finished watching Race VS. Ric Flair at Starrcade '83 for the NWA Title You can tell just by watching that Harley Race is an ass. Gene Kiniski the referee for that match should have decked him and given Flair a fast 3 count for the win ;D

That's a fun match.

 

[MACK184]

Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) wasn't too well-liked
by the cast and crew of "The Andy Griffith Show."
Everett Greenbaum, who co-wrote many of the
scripts with the late Jim Fritzell, tells how one year
at the show's Christmas party, she said (where he
could hear) that the show would be good if it had
better writers.

After her retirement, some friends bought her a
house in Siler City, NC (yes, it's a real town and
I ought to know: I live there). Within six months
no one wanted anything to do with her. Her
neighbors weren't welcome in her house, and she
lived a rather reclusive life, mostly watching public
television and tending to sixteen cats. Once, when
she was in the hospital, she ordered her door kept
closed and a "No Visitors" sign posted. She also
liked to tell anyone who would listen that she should
have moved back to her native New York.

Ms. Bavier died in 1989, about a year before I moved
here. I know Ron Howard came to the funeral,
and Andy may have sent flowers but he made no effort
to even attend the visitation at the funeral home, even
though he was filming "Matlock" in Wilmington, about
150 miles away. I don't know of anyone else connected
with "The Andy Griffith Show" (except possibly Jim Nabors)
who came to town to pay their respects.

I wouldn't classify Frances Bavier as being nasty, just eccentric. The irony is that without her appearance on the "Andy Griffth Show", its most likely Bavier would have never achieved the recognition she did as "Aunt Bee" and thus would have ended up living on a small pension at some Actor's Retirement Center until she passed away.

I believe it was either Ron Howard or Andy who very politely mentioned in an interview that Frances Bavier began to suffer from dementia later in her life, to the point where she would not see any of the former cast members who tried to visit her. As far as George Lindsey is concerned, and for that point many other performers, they get to the point that they are only "Goober" or "Horshack" or "Radar". People in general don't bother to take into account that they are really Manny, Moe or Jack, and that they have many other dimensions to themselves. While they may appreciate being remembered as a certain character, they most likely don't want it to define their lives. Think about Rick Nelson's song Garden Party.

 

[Stanislav]

IIRC Soupy Sales' pseudonym eventually became his entire legal name.

Kudos to the first poster who can tell us Soupy's birth name WITHOUT Googling. (I know it, but I ain't tellin'...) ;D

Milton Hines, if memory serves me right. :-\

Close, but no shaving-cream pie. He was born Milton Supman -- he first used "Soupy Hines" as a professional name before settling on "Soupy Sales."

 

[LKellerIII]

"As far as George Lindsey is concerned, and for that point many other performers, they get to the point that they are only "Goober" or "Horshack" or "Radar". People in general don't bother to take into account that they are really Manny, Moe or Jack, and that they have many other dimensions to themselves. While they may appreciate being remembered as a certain character, they most likely don't want it to define their lives. Think about Rick Nelson's song Garden Party."

Amen to that, Mack. In fact, in this particular case, when you call somebody a "goober," it's not a compliment...you are basically calling them a stupid hick. IWhich spawns a question:

...Did the Goober character on Andy Griffith give rise to the insult, or was it an insult prior to show? I believe I've heard the insult "Gomer" as well...same meaning. Given the gentle nature of the humor on the Andy Griffith show, I don't think they'd give a character a demeaning name. So I'll guess that prior to the show, "goober" was just slang for peanut.

 

[Stanislav]

As far as George Lindsey is concerned, and for that point many other performers, they get to the point that they are only "Goober" or "Horshack" or "Radar". People in general don't bother to take into account that they are really Manny, Moe or Jack, and that they have many other dimensions to themselves. While they may appreciate being remembered as a certain character, they most likely don't want it to define their lives.

No, but there's a big difference between on one hand accepting that they will always be known best as that character, being gracious about it when fans address them by their character name; and OTOH, getting defensive, standoffish, or even hostile when that happens. I understand that one actor that fits into the latter category is Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton on "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air") -- he is said to hate when fans constantly call him "Carlton" in his public appearances, to the point of sometimes responding petulantly and immaturely (ironically, much as his character probably would).

 

[dhett]

...Did the Goober character on Andy Griffith give rise to the insult, or was it an insult prior to show? I believe I've heard the insult "Gomer" as well...same meaning. Given the gentle nature of the humor on the Andy Griffith show, I don't think they'd give a character a demeaning name. So I'll guess that prior to the show, "goober" was just slang for peanut.

I think you answered your own question, given that both mean the same thing. Plus, I've often heard a person described as a "goober" with a mock-Southern accent.

 

[firepoint525]

Wasn't George Lindsay referred to as George "Goober" Lindsay when he was on Hee Haw? This was years after Andy Griffith went off the air, so if George himself continued to use the name professionally, I really don't see that he has a leg to stand on regarding these complaints!

 

[Stanislav]

...Did the Goober character on Andy Griffith give rise to the insult, or was it an insult prior to show? I believe I've heard the insult "Gomer" as well...same meaning. Given the gentle nature of the humor on the Andy Griffith show, I don't think they'd give a character a demeaning name. So I'll guess that prior to the show, "goober" was just slang for peanut.

"Goobers" or "goober peas" is traditional Southern slang for (usually boiled) peanuts. The word is believed to be of African origin and was likely brought into the vernacular by slaves. It is also a derisive term for an idiot, used both by non-Southerners to refer to those south of the Mason-Dixon in general, as well as among Southerners and "Hillbilly" types to refer to a particularly dimwitted individual. (I believe Granny uses the term now and then in "The Beverly Hillbillies.") That use perhaps originated with the idea of someone having a brain the size of a peanut, or just being a "nut" in general.

As for "Gomer," I doubt the name/word was in general circulation prior to "Gomer Pyle" hitting the air. It is occasionally used to derisively refer to a Marine of limited intelligence, but I'm not sure I've heard it often in real life. The funniest fictional use is in the movie "Splash" in the segment where the Marines are persuing the mermaid Madison through the streets of New York. They encounter a cab blocking the street, and one Marine orders its driver to move it, to which the cabbie responds, "Up yours, Gomer, I'm waitin' for a fare!" The "take" done by the Marine at this insult is priceless -- a few moments later, they cut back to that scene, and the Marines are nonchalantly rolling the guy's cab onto its roof to move it as the chagrined cabbie looks on morosely.