The Most Underrated Talent

[Mark Giardina]

The person that comes to mind is Desi Arnaz. While Lucy got the credit, and rightfully so, for being the main character on " I Love Lucy" it was Arnaz who pioneered television to what it is today.

He came up with the idea of a three camera set. He also made sure that Desilu controlled the rights to "I Love Lucy" thus ensured future royalties.

Arnaz was also the perfect straight man for the zany antics of Lucy. And, despite what some critics claim, I think the man had a nice singing voice.

When it came to business, Arnaz took Desilu and made it profitable. How many of you know that Desi and Lucy bought Paramount Pictures? Desiliu also produced such TV shows as "The Untouchables" and "Star Trek."

Not bad for someone who came to America from Cuba and cleaned birdcages because his family was broke. The tragedy is that Arnaz drank and smoked too much which helped lead to his death in the early 1980s.

 

[Ultimajock]

...I'm going with George Gobel. Immensely popular in early TV and Las Vegas, but -- aside from that 1969 "Tonight Show" where Bob Hope and Dean Martin did "unexpected" walk-ons and he was almost sent home because Carson's staff didn't think he was going to be up to that level of performance (but he stole the show with two classic lines after he did get out onto the set) -- virtually forgotten today. Lenny bruce once said that his favourite comedian was George Gobel, because, although Gobel wa an undeniably funny man, he wasn't anyone else's "favourite comedian"...

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I have a few candidates for this catagory:

John Banner -Sgt Schultz on Hogan's Heroes. Banner's famous line "I see nothing...nothing..." is a classic in TV history.

Gale Gordon- Straight man to Lucille Ball. Gordon appeared three of Lucy's shows after her split with Desi Arnaz. His portrayal of Mr. Mooney to Lucy's Mrs. Carmichael is comedy at its highest.

Christopher Lloyd - Played hippie/stoned cab driver Jim Ignatowski on the TV show "Taxi."
While Lloyd eventually went on to play in some hit movies like "Back to the Future" he was at his best as the foil to Danny DeVito's Louie De Palma.

 

[Tim L]

Gale Gordon perfected the exasperated boss/authority figure as far back as the 1940's in such radio programs as Fibber McGee and Molly (His bits with Fibber and Molly in which he gets tongue tied are classic!), Our Miss Brooks and Phil Harris/Alice Faye..

 

[LKellerIII]

I know were talking classic TV here, so most people are going way back in time....I agree with all of the above choices. But I'm going to say Fred Willard, who, of course, is still around. You can go back a quarter century to his bewildered Jerry Hubbard character on Fernwood 2Night and America 2Night, to the stiff father in law character he played on Everybody Loves Raymond...and the many small but funny parts he's played in movies, especially those written and produced by Christopher Guest.

Fred is a comic genius, as far as I'm concerned. He also plays serious parts well, on the rare occasions that he does them.

 

[bpatrick]

Do newspeople count? If so, I nominate Douglas Edwards.
Despite the fact that he anchored CBS's evening news for
fourteen years, and daytime newscasts for 26 more, he was
always regarded as simply a news reader; never mind that
he covered the recovery of France and Italy for CBS radio
after World War II, nor that his television report on the
sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956 is considered a classic...
and that CBS scored a scoop on that one. He also anchored
CBS's 1948 (and, I think, 1952 with Walter Cronkite) convention
and election coverage, and was willing to make the move from
radio to television when bigger names such as Edward R. Murrow
weren't.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Do newspeople count? If so, I nominate Douglas Edwards.
Despite the fact that he anchored CBS's evening news for
fourteen years, and daytime newscasts for 26 more, he was
always regarded as simply a news reader; never mind that
he covered the recovery of France and Italy for CBS radio
after World War II, nor that his television report on the
sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956 is considered a classic...
and that CBS scored a scoop on that one. He also anchored
CBS's 1948 (and, I think, 1952 with Walter Cronkite) convention
and election coverage, and was willing to make the move from
radio to television when bigger names such as Edward R. Murrow
weren't.
And totally got thrown under the bus in favor of Uncle Walter in 1962, kind of like Roger Mudd did for Crazy Dan in 1981. Edwards did anchor CBS' midday news brief for quite a few years after that.

 

[mleach]

Even though she had done radio and movies for years before TV, I would pick Joan Davis !!!!

True she and Jim Backus really didn't like each other when they did "I Married Joan" and there is that rumor that has been around for years where Joan Davis was supposed to have blinded a woman in a beauty salon in Hawaii by throwing bleach in her eyes ( I heard it was the other way around ) but still "I Married Joan' is a lot like "I Love Lucy".

Yeah its dated but not THAT dated and even though many people think of Lucille Ball as the first woman to have her own production company, I think Joan Davis was first. The other day I was watching an episode of "I Married Joan" and I noticed at the end it said "Joan Davis Enterprises". However I'm not sure if that was the name of the production company or that Joan owned that show if its the latter I can see why so many shows fell into public domain.

Just like "I Love Lucy" there were many classic "I Married Joan" shows too. The one scene of Joan getting into a fight with another woman at a hat shop is just as funny as anything that appeared on I Love Lucy. Plus one of the few shows where Bing Crosby made a cameo was "I Married Joan".

I believe over 90 episodes of "I Married Joan" were made but I think what killed it from being in the same league as "I Love Lucy" was the fact that so many cast members of the show had died so early on. Even BEFORE Jim Backus started doing Gilligan's Island in 1964 (I know the pilot was shot in 63 ), both Joan Davis and her daughter Beverely Wills and most of the women who played Joan's friends on the show...were already dead !!!

 

[bpatrick]

Joan owned the show; she once said they would
be her legacy to her daughter (who died two years
after Joan) and grandchildren. And from all I've
read, she was a no-nonsense business type who
knew exactly what she was doing at all times.

 

[mleach]

Joan owned the show; she once said they would
be her legacy to her daughter (who died two years
after Joan) and grandchildren. And from all I've
read, she was a no-nonsense business type who
knew exactly what she was doing at all times.

Sadly Joan's grandchildren ( and her mother ) all died in the same 1963 fire that took the life of her daughter Beverley Wills. Joan Davis died in 1961 and I believe they were the only family she had left. When the rest of her family died a few years later, wonder if "I Married Joan" went into public domain at that point?

 

[landtuna]

There are plenty of 'second fiddles' that never got the adulation befitting their talent but I'm going to go with Harry Morgan.

I first saw him in the old 50's sitcom "December Bride". He went on to do hundreds of movie and TV appearances, the most famous of which was probably his Sherman Potter character on M*A*S*H. He could do comedy flawlessly but he also portrayed bad guys, cowboys, and was even Jack Web's detective sidekick on the second "Dragnet" series.

 

[stdjsb25]

When it came to business, Arnaz took Desilu and made it profitable. How many of you know that Desi and Lucy bought Paramount Pictures? Desiliu also produced such TV shows as "The Untouchables" and "Star Trek."

Lucy and Desi never bought Paramount. Charles Bludhorn's Gulf + Western bought Paramount in 1966, followed by Desilu in 1967. Desi was long out of Desilu by that time. The two studio lots were consolidated into one big Paramount lot, and Desilu was absorbed into Paramount as Paramount Television.

 

[Ultimajock]

When it came to business, Arnaz took Desilu and made it profitable. How many of you know that Desi and Lucy bought Paramount Pictures? Desiliu also produced such TV shows as "The Untouchables" and "Star Trek."

Lucy and Desi never bought Paramount. Charles Bludhorn's Gulf + Western bought Paramount in 1966, followed by Desilu in 1967. Desi was long out of Desilu by that time. The two studio lots were consolidated into one big Paramount lot, and Desilu was absorbed into Paramount as Paramount Television.

...what Lucy and Desi did buy was the old RKO Hollywood and Culver City lots. Interestingly, though it was best known in later years for producing TV shows as Desilu or Paramount TV, the globe sculpture atop the corner of the Gower Street lot remained but the transmitting tower on top was removed...

 

[Braves2005]

Joan owned the show; she once said they would
be her legacy to her daughter (who died two years
after Joan) and grandchildren. And from all I've
read, she was a no-nonsense business type who
knew exactly what she was doing at all times.

Sadly Joan's grandchildren ( and her mother ) all died in the same 1963 fire that took the life of her daughter Beverley Wills. Joan Davis died in 1961 and I believe they were the only family she had left. When the rest of her family died a few years later, wonder if "I Married Joan" went into public domain at that point?

I Married Joan was rerun on CBN back in the early and mid 1980's as part of their classic show lineup with shows like Bachelor Father, Patty Duke, The Farmer's Daughter, Love That Bob!, Best Of Groucho, Dobie Gillis, and others.

For a time in the late 1950's and early 1960's, the show was syndicated under the title of "The Joan Davis Show" because several TV Guides from that era confirm this.

 

[Mark Giardina]

When it came to business, Arnaz took Desilu and made it profitable. How many of you know that Desi and Lucy bought Paramount Pictures? Desiliu also produced such TV shows as "The Untouchables" and "Star Trek."

Lucy and Desi never bought Paramount. Charles Bludhorn's Gulf + Western bought Paramount in 1966, followed by Desilu in 1967. Desi was long out of Desilu by that time. The two studio lots were consolidated into one big Paramount lot, and Desilu was absorbed into Paramount as Paramount Television.

...what Lucy and Desi did buy was the old RKO Hollywood and Culver City lots. Interestingly, though it was best known in later years for producing TV shows as Desilu or Paramount TV, the globe sculpture atop the corner of the Gower Street lot remained but the transmitting tower on top was removed...

My mistake, sorry.