Obit: Frank Aletter, 83, It's About Time, Bringing Up Buddy

[RicoGregg]

Was also the first husband of Lee Meriwether.....

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-frank-aletter15-2009may15,0,3083773.story

 

[bpatrick]

Frank Aletter had the misfortune of starring in three
of the biggest bombs in TV history. You've mentioned
two; the third was "The Cara Williams Show" in 1964-65.
Frank and Cara, who worked for the same company, had
to keep their marriage a secret because it was against
company policy for employees to marry each other. At
midseason, the company decided to let Frank go, because
no one could figure out Cara's filing system (yes, she was
CBS's "new Lucille Ball"). The show got on the air only
because Jim Aubrey bought the show without a pilot from
his mafioso buddy, Keefe Brasselle, and it was one of the
things that got Aubrey fired in 1965.

 

[Hal Erickson]

BRINGING UP BUDDY might have lasted longer than a single season, but for the fact that the two elderly leading ladies, Enid Markey and Doro Merande, despised each other, and their lack of rapport showed on screen.

IT'S ABOUT TIME would have been hopeless even with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the leads.
Just like CARA WILLIAMS, the format changed mid-season as the two time-travelling astronauts, originally marooned in the Stone Age, brought their caveman friends back (forward?) to the 20th century. Sherwood Schwartz didn't ALWAYS strike gold.

 

[Stanislav]

IT'S ABOUT TIME would have been hopeless even with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the leads.

I'd pay good money to see that... ;D

 

[oldiesfan6479]

IT'S ABOUT TIME would have been hopeless even with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the leads.

I'd pay good money to see that... ;D

I don't think Butch and Sundance would like being upstaged by a
prehistoric Gunther Toody running around going "oooh, oooh!"

 

[LKellerIII]

Mr. Aletter may have chosen clunkers for his few starring roles, but he was a good actor in high demand on television as a guest star in dramatic and comedy roles in the 60s through the 80s...both heroes and villains - one of those guys who kind of passed under the radar, but he worked often and probably made a very decent living.

 

[Stanislav]

Mr. Aletter may have chosen clunkers for his few starring roles, but he was a good actor in high demand on television as a guest star in dramatic and comedy roles in the 60s through the 80s...both heroes and villains - one of those guys who kind of passed under the radar, but he worked often and probably made a very decent living.

To me, it's the character actors that have the best TV gig. They never get wealthy, but they always have work.

 

[LKellerIII]

Mr. Aletter may have chosen clunkers for his few starring roles, but he was a good actor in high demand on television as a guest star in dramatic and comedy roles in the 60s through the 80s...both heroes and villains - one of those guys who kind of passed under the radar, but he worked often and probably made a very decent living.

To me, it's the character actors that have the best TV gig. They never get wealthy, but they always have work.

"They never get rich" compared to what? Our local paper's Sunday real estate supplement has a column called "Hot Properties," which lists homes that various celebrities are selling - mostly in Southern California. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the name of some semi-famous work-a-day actor like Aletter who is selling his/her 6,000 square foot Bel Air Spanish colonial for $4.5 million. Granted, a 6,000 sq ft home would probably fit in Aaron Spelling's foyer, but these actors are still very wealthy compared to median income. Residual payments (required since the late 1960s) for TV and commercials have a lot to do with this.

My father (an animated cartoonist by profession) told me in the early 70s that Bill Scott (voice of Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, etc) was making $20,000 a year in residuals - and the only acting work he did was in Jay Ward cartoons and Ward produced commercials. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $100,000 today. And that was probably only a fraction of his other income from writing and producing.

So it's not hard for working actors who get a half-dozen TV guest parts per year, plus a voice-over and commercial here and there, and throw in the occasional small movie part - to become millionaires in fairly short order.

 

[bpatrick]

Character actor Robert Webber once said he had no
desire to be a star. Character actors work when they
want and avoid a lot of the hassles associated with fans.
Plus, Webber said, he made enough money to build a house
at Malibu. Guess there's money in it, at that.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Did he do any acting in his later years? The last thing I remember ever seeing him in was a first or second season episode of "M*A*S*H". I think he played the guy Hawkeye and Trapper badgered into freeing his "moose", or Korean servant girl.

 

[LKellerIII]

Did he do any acting in his later years? The last thing I remember ever seeing him in was a first or second season episode of "M*A*S*H". I think he played the guy Hawkeye and Trapper badgered into freeing his "moose", or Korean servant girl.

He worked a few years after that. According to imdb, Frank last worked in the late 80s, guest starring on TV dramas.

He had two actor children - a son who has no credits after 1990, and a daughter named Lesley who continues to work steadily as a stunt-double, most recently for Mariel Hemingway, Lucy Lawless, and Emily Deschanel.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0018173/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0018176/

 

[BoscoGoldBear]

Lkeller, as a son of an animator, I'm amazed you didn't mention Aletter's most famous role among us toonheads: that of Professor Edwin Hayden in Hanna-Barbera's "Danger Island," directed by Richard Donner with the perpetual cry, "Uh oh, Chongo!" Yes, it was a live action part of "The Banana Splits," but we remember this better than the actual cartoons that aired with the Bananas!

 

[LKellerIII]

Lkeller, as a son of an animator, I'm amazed you didn't mention Aletter's most famous role among us toonheads: that of Professor Edwin Hayden in Hanna-Barbera's "Danger Island," directed by Richard Donner with the perpetual cry, "Uh oh, Chongo!" Yes, it was a live action part of "The Banana Splits," but we remember this better than the actual cartoons that aired with the Bananas!

Thanks, Steve - interesting info. Though I have heard of The Banana Splits, I have never personally seen it. The show apparently ran originally in 1968-69. I was 16 in 68, and no longer interesting in cartoons personally, though I got back into them later as an adult. My father never worked for H-B, though a number of his friends and co-workers did.