Eight Comedy Stereotypes that must die

[BD Sullivan]

Chilling indeed. I browsed through parts of her book at the library one day, but I was more disturbed by her off-camera trials than what she reported about the show.

Most of the book is what happened to her after she was off the show but she does go into some detail about the image that the producers wanted of Robert Young and how he did not live up to it with regard to the three children on the show and while the show was filming.

My intent was not to blast Young but rather to show that TV image can and usually is far different than the actual actor. In Young's case he was shown as a caring and compassionate father which is a role he did not fulfill with regard to his cast.

What?! How disillusioning. Robert Young wasn't really "fatherly" with his pretend kids on the set? Come on - next, your going to tell me he wasn't a real medical doctor, either. ???

Young did have issues with depression over the years and actually tried to kill himself in 1991: he had been drinking with his wife and went in the garage to take the pipe in his car, but the car battery was dead.

 

[landtuna]

What?! How disillusioning. Robert Young wasn't really "fatherly" with his pretend kids on the set?

I, personally, would expect any adult who had children (or younger adults) working under them to have some sense of responsibility should they notice something going awry. In the case of Lauren Chapin there were plenty of examples yet neither Young nor Jane Wyatt took any action. I understand they were all cast members and the "parents" were not legally responsible however I also was in a similar position in my management career and didn't hesitate to become involved if I saw things going wrong with the younger employees (my direct reports or not).

IMHO it is just part and parcel of being a human.

 

[rwells2265]

What?! How disillusioning.  Robert Young wasn't really "fatherly" with his pretend kids on the set? 

I, personally, would expect any adult who had children (or younger adults) working under them to have some sense of responsibility should they notice something going awry.  In the case of Lauren Chapin there were plenty of examples yet neither Young nor Jane Wyatt took any action.  I understand they were all cast members and the "parents" were not legally responsible however I also was in a similar position in my management career and didn't hesitate to become involved if I saw things going wrong with the younger employees (my direct reports or not).

IMHO it is just part and parcel of being a human.

Compare that to, say, Robert Reed.    All accounts I've read show that he hated his role as Mike Brady, but that feeling did not extend to the younger cast.  Reed was very much the 'loving father figure' toward his fictional children on "The Brady Bunch." 

I've read Chapin's book, and yes it's very disturbing -- but well worth finding. 

--Russell

 

[onairb]

Chilling indeed. I browsed through parts of her book at the library one day, but I was more disturbed by her off-camera trials than what she reported about the show.

Most of the book is what happened to her after she was off the show but she does go into some detail about the image that the producers wanted of Robert Young and how he did not live up to it with regard to the three children on the show and while the show was filming.

My intent was not to blast Young but rather to show that TV image can and usually is far different than the actual actor. In Young's case he was shown as a caring and compassionate father which is a role he did not fulfill with regard to his cast.

Sherry Jackson, who played the original daughter Terry on "Make Room for Daddy" has talked about how her time on the show progressively got worse during her five years there. She compared the blooper shows, where actors yuk it up when they mess up, to her program, where producer Sheldon Leonard would grab a mic and, in from of 300 people, sneer, “Do you think you can get it right this time?!” She also noted that Danny Thomas and the producers let her "brother" Rusty Hamer get away with murder on the set, and that Thomas one time griped because she blew a line just after she had fallen and injured her elbow. She also noted that Thomas was fooling around with Hamer's mother and hints at the notorious urban legend about Danny:

http://www.examiner.com/article/fro...by-my-memorable-afternoon-with-sherry-jackson

Before reading that article, I was under the impression that it was Rusty Hamer who had more of a hellish, Jay North-esque experience with the show.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Not exactly remembered as a comic, but Michael Landon caught some hell for not living up to the sterotypical "father" image he portrayed in his TV roles, especially Little House On The Prairie.

 

[dtuba]

Not all sitcoms are cast that way.

Of course not - I was referring to the comedies that portray the father or husband as a hapless compulsive idiot who has to be rescued from predicaments of his own making by his smarter and non-complusive wife and/or kids.

The wife is generally slim and pretty, while the husband is fat. Come to think of it, this stereotype could be said to go back to The Honeymooners. Though they dressed Audrey Meadows (Alice) in frumpy house-dresses, she was an attractive woman, and we all know Jackie Gleason was a "plus size" man.

Amen to this. Now we have Mike & Molly which stars the lovely Melissa McCarthy - but of course her TV spouse is also plus sized. Why can't we have a TV family where the woman is plus sized but the male lead is skinny for once?

 

[landtuna]

Why can't we have a TV family where the woman is plus sized but the male lead is skinny for once?

Not exactly TV but you're describing Lil Abner pretty well.

 

[formeraa]

Until WTBS I don't think there was ever any broadcast media done from a Southern perspective on any large scale for outsiders to even have any broader perspective than they got in their provincial little heads....

But it's not just the South. It's anything outside of the Northeast. I grew up on the West Coast. As far as I was concerned, you never heard about the West Coast unless there was a major earthquake.

Frankly, I'm not sure that anyone wanted to hear the "Southern" perspective outside the South, back in the day.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

What?! How disillusioning. Robert Young wasn't really "fatherly" with his pretend kids on the set?

... I also was in a similar position in my management career and didn't hesitate to become involved if I saw things going wrong with the younger employees (my direct reports or not). IMHO it is just part and parcel of being a human.

Now that's what I call taking the high road. I tip my hat to you, LT.