• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Supporting Actors Who Really Made A Difference On TV

mleach said:
Very surprised nobody has mentioned Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Gale Gordon and Lucie Arnaz from the many of Lucy shows over the years.
Click to expand...

Gale Gordon was mentioned on here. Who could forget "Mr. Mooney"?

Vance and Frawley were the best "second bananas" on TV despite the fact that in real life they couldn't stand each other. Frawley's last appearance was as a horse stableman on The Lucy Show.

As for Lucie Arnaz, personally I don't think she contributed that much. Didn't CBS give Lucie her own program which was dropped after just a few episodes?

Some people may not remember that Desi Jr. was fired by Lucille Ball because his drug and alcohol abuse conflicted with his appearance on his Mother's show.
 
Schallert even turned up on one of the last two original episodes of 'According to Jim' the other week.
Click to expand...

Other than that, I understand he's doing quite well...

He should also be noted for his greatest (uncredited) starring role, as the voice of Milton The Toaster in the old Pop-Tarts commercials.
 
>>Vance and Frawley were the best "second bananas" on TV despite the fact that in real life they couldn't stand each other. Frawley's last appearance was as a horse stableman on The Lucy Show.>>

Actually that translated pretty well the way they insulted each other on the show.
 
Mark_Giardina said:
Some people may not remember that Desi Jr. was fired by Lucille Ball because his drug and alcohol abuse conflicted with his appearance on his Mother's show.
Click to expand...

I seem to remember hearing about Lucy firing her own son from Here's Lucy over drugs & alcohol, also at the time of Here's Lucy, Desi was involved in a very public sexual relationship with Patty Duke in which Lucy did not approve of. Actually there is debate to this day about who is the father of Patty's son actor Sean Astin. Many still believe that Sean's father was Desi Arnaz Jr. even though I believe a paternity test was done some years back that proved that Desi was NOT the father and no Maury Povich wasn't involved ;D

Ever get a chance check out the movie/TV magazines from the early 70s like Photoplay and TV-Radio Mirror and how they covered the Desi Jr-Patty Duke affair. Some of their coverage was actually quite funny. "..Desi and Patty were kicked out of a popular Hollywood restuarant last week because the owner felt the two love birds acted way too much like two jack rabbits in heat'. Sure Lucy LOVED those stories !! Maybe they made her smoke an extra cigarette. LOL
 
I always got a kick out of watching Bill Frawley and Vivian Vance insult each other. And you are most likely right; their personal dislike for each other helped fuel the on-air insults.

As for the Desi Jr/Patty Duke affair; I read that that John Astin claimed to be the father of Sean Astin, but that was proven false years later. I'm not sure who Sean's real father is.

One other person I think should be mentioned as a great supporting actor.

The late Frank Sutton played Sgt. Carter in Gomer Pyle USMC. Sutton died of a sudden heart attack in 1974 at the age of 50.
 
Christopher Lloyd, Danny Devito - Taxi
Norman Fell, Audra Lindley - Three's Company
Peter Boyle, Doris Roberts - Everybody Loves Raymond
Marla Gibbs, Paul Benedict - The Jeffersons
Brice Beckham - Mr. Belvedere
Nancy McKeon - Facts of Life
Polly Holiday - Alice
Esther Rolle - Maude
Frank Bonner - WKRP
Estelle Getty - Golden Girls
John Inman - Are You Being Served
 
Paul Benedict - The Jeffersons
Click to expand...

We're so used to British actors like Hugh Laurie and Damien Lewis being able to pull off American accents...I didn't know Paul Benedict was American until he died a couple years ago! And as far as Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts are concerened, I don't think "Everybody Loves Raymond" would have been as good without them.
 
bpatrick said:
Let's go back to 1966-67 and Phyllis Diller's short-lived
"The Pruitts Of Southampton" (retitled "The Phyllis Diller
Show" in January 1967). Phyllis played Phyllis Pruitt,
widowed head of a once-wealthy Long Island family that
has blown its fortune. She makes a deal with the IRS:
they won't publicize it (fearing a financial panic--is that
what's happening now?) but she has to pay off her back
taxes, which apparently are considerable. So every week
she'd take on some new scheme to raise some money (ABC
was trying to make her into another Lucy, and Phyllis knew
her style of comedy was not the same).

Come January, Phyllis turned the Pruitt mansion into a
boardinghouse and here's where one of the great groups
of supporting actors comes in: John Astin, Marty Ingels,
Paul Lynde, Louis Nye, Richard Deacon, and Billy DeWolfe.
Except for Nye, who played one of Phyllis's relatives, the
rest were boarders, IIRC. It must have been a fun time on
that set! Maybe if the show had started that way it might
have made it; then again, Phyllis was one of those comedians
about whom it can be said that "a little goes a long way."
Click to expand...
Wasn't this a Filmways production? I would love to see this on DVD, cause I've only seen clips of this on Youtube so far. I guess it never went into syndication. If you look closely, the mansion is the same set used when the Clampetts went to their castle in England.

Would love to hear more information on this. Did it air on ABC?
 
radioman148 said:
KeithE4 said:
onairb said:
Sitka was almost a Stooge himself, in the early '70s; Larry Fine had suffered a stroke, and Moe and Curly Joe wanted to carry on by doing a TV pilot with Emil. However, Sitka, and soon afterward Moe, had health concerns of their own, and the project never got anywhere.
Click to expand...

They were set to do a movie called Blazing Stewardesses. Sitka was to play the middle-stooge role using the name "Harry." He wasn't going to impersonate Larry Fine, but do a different type of character. Publicity photos were made and one is on Sitka's Wikipedia page.

Trouble was, right after Fine died in early 1975, Moe Howard was diagnosed with cancer, and died a few months later at age 78. Since it was impossible to replace Moe, the act died with him. The movie was made, but starred the Ritz Brothers (Jimmy & Harry - Al had died in 1965) instead of the Three Stooges.

Emil Sitka died in 1998 at age 83. His famous line, "Hold hands, you lovebirds," is on his gravestone.
Click to expand...

Moe was on the Mike Douglas show just a few months before he died. Although a bit frail he had no trouble demonstrating the art of face slapping and eye poking.
Click to expand...
This is on Youtube and worth watching. An earlier appearance with Howard is on there too complete with a pie throwing demonstration. Take notes, there will be a quiz later! It's nice seeing a man of his age at the time having a ball!
 
bpatrick said:
Since I mentioned Don Porter, two other middle-aged
male actors that I always enjoyed come to mind:
William Schallert (best remembered as Patty Duke's
dad on her 1963-66 sitcom) and Edward Andrews (the
counterpart of Captain Binghamton on the otherwise-
female "McHale's Navy" wannabe, "Broadside," in 1964-65).
Click to expand...
William Schallert is still acting. Just saw him in one of the final episodes of "According to Jim". Jim bought a necklace that had been stolen from the body of a woman prior to her burial. Everytime is wife wore the necklace, he would envision the dead woman (who I believe was Ellen Dow aka "Rappin Granny from the "Wedding Singer"). Schallert played the living husband who would not take back the necklace.
 
Schneider - One Day at a Time
Danny - Partridge Family
Lenny & Squiggy - Laverne & Shirley
Iola - Mama's Family
Rerun - What's Happening
Coach - Cheers
Mrs. Poole - The Hogan Family
Derek - Silver Spoons
Grady - Sanford & Son
Kenny/Bud - The Cosby Show
 
71dude said:
Schneider - One Day at a Time
Danny - Partridge Family
Lenny & Squiggy - Laverne & Shirley
Iola - Mama's Family
Rerun - What's Happening
Coach - Cheers
Mrs. Poole - The Hogan Family
Derek - Silver Spoons
Grady - Sanford & Son
Kenny/Bud - The Cosby Show
Click to expand...

couple of others...Frank Sutton- "Gomer's" Sgt & Joe Flynn from 'Mchale's Navy"...
 
cspotrun said:
71dude said:
Schneider - One Day at a Time
Danny - Partridge Family
Lenny & Squiggy - Laverne & Shirley
Iola - Mama's Family
Rerun - What's Happening
Coach - Cheers
Mrs. Poole - The Hogan Family
Derek - Silver Spoons
Grady - Sanford & Son
Kenny/Bud - The Cosby Show
Click to expand...

couple of others...Frank Sutton- "Gomer's" Sgt & Joe Flynn from 'Mchale's Navy"...
Click to expand...

Good point on Frank Sutton. He never got the credit he deserved.
 
Aunt Esther - Sanford and Son
Arthur and Vivian - Maude
The Ropers - Three's Company
Grady - Sanford and Son
Julio - Sanford and Son
Rollo - Sanford and Son
Sue Ann Nivens - Mary Tyler Moore
Mel Cooley - Dick Van Dyke
Howard - Bob Newhart
Carol - Bob Newhart
Mr. Furley - Three's Company
Lenny and Squiggy - Laverne and Shirley
Eddie Haskell - Leave It To Beaver
Larry - Leave It To Beaver
Georgette - Mary Tyler Moore
Larry, Darryl and Darryl - Newhart
Roger Healey - I Dream Of Jeannie
 
LaWanda Page ("Aunt Esther") was a stand-up comic. Her act was very dirty for those times, though probably not so much today. I assume that Redd Foxx knew LaWanda from the African American stand-up circuit, and that's how she got the Aunt Esther job.

I recently heard some of her material. It was fall on the floor pee your pants funny.
 
I assume that Redd Foxx knew LaWanda from the African American stand-up circuit, and that's how she got the Aunt Esther job.
Click to expand...

She also did a fire eating act, and was billed as "The Bronze Goddess Of Fire". I think a number of the supporting players on "Sanford & Son" were from the chitlin' circuit, and Redd was pretty loyal to them.
 
Lkeller said:
LaWanda Page ("Aunt Esther") was a stand-up comic. Her act was very dirty for those times, though probably not so much today. I assume that Redd Foxx knew LaWanda from the African American stand-up circuit, and that's how she got the Aunt Esther job.

I recently heard some of her material. It was fall on the floor pee your pants funny.
Click to expand...

Page and Foxx knew each other from their days in St. Louis, and he did convince her to do stand-up. Previous to her stand-up work, she was a nightclub performer.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom