TV Performers You Like Regardless of Their Politics

[Cincinnati Kid]

Bing Crosby: The guy could do everything but dance. He was cool before cool was cool. With all his money I suppose he couldn't help hating taxes but in return for his money he gave us tape recording, frozen OJ and the Road Pictures.

Have you heard that due to Bing Crosby, we now have a complete copy of the 1960 World Series?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/sports/baseball/24crosby.html?_r=1&hp

At least Game Seven - and the copy is said to be in black & white.

 

[quadraphonic]

...Merv Griffin. Hopeless reactionary, but he knew enough to keep it at home when interviewing liberal activist entertainers...

He kept it at home mainly because he had plenty of closet skeletons of his own. Supposedly, an entire graveyard's worth. Some secrets apparently died with the man.

Some secrets will apparently die with all of us.

 

[mleach]

...Merv Griffin. Hopeless reactionary, but he knew enough to keep it at home when interviewing liberal activist entertainers...

He kept it at home mainly because he had plenty of closet skeletons of his own. Supposedly, an entire graveyard's worth. Some secrets apparently died with the man.

Some secrets will apparently die with all of us.

The story I had heard for a number of years whas that Merv forced those within his in inner circle ( family, business assoicates, friends..) to sign an affidavit stating that after his death nobody is allowed to say a thing to the press, in books, online and whatnot about Merv's private side. This is similar to the "story" about Richard Carpenter going into A&M Records days ( hours ) after his sister's Karen's death forcing people to sign a paper stating that they will not discuss to the public the "personal relationship" between Karen & Richard, actually someone at A&M I seem to recall confirmed this to the website findadeath several years back.

Of course by doing such actions such as forcing people to sign wavers or whatever so they "..will not tell", all that does is add a LOT more fuel to the fire so today one still hears rumors about Merv Griffin's fondness for young men or possible incest between Karen and Richard Carpenter. Making people to sign affidavits prior or shortly after one's death doesn't help.

 

[Bob1370]

"Too many left-leaners in show-biz have a habit of running their pie-holes incessantly, but not putting their money and time where their mouths are and actually running for something. This is why I respect Al Franken even though I don't agree with him very often - at least he walked the walk."

Al Franken may well have been known to everyone as a snarky comedian before he entered political life, but IRL, off the air, he was and is one of the most thoughtful and well-informed people you'd meet. I had a chance to interview him just as his second book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right,was on the best-seller lists, and while it was certainly a polemic it was also one of the most heavily researched books I'd run across in many years. Franken himself proved to be more than up to speed on all the issues of the day, better prepared than a lot of people who were in office and most of those seeking office. My impression of him at the time was that, agree or disagree with his philosophy, he was more ready than most for a seat in Congress...and I asked him point-blank on the air live if he was thinking about running. He said, quite honestly, that the thought had crossed his mind more than once. Five years later, there he was interviewing Sonia Sotomayor at her Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court, and asking cogent questions...

 

[MattParker]

Al Franken's "Lateline" IMHO is one of the best (and most underappreciated) sitcoms ever. NBC abused it by bouncing it around and on and off the schedule. Brilliant satire. If you've never seen it (which is most everybody), it is available on DVD. I highly recommend it - regardless of your politics or what you think about anything else Al Franken has done.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Didn't Reagan start out as a Democrat, a liberal one at that (by his own admission), back when he was president of the Screen Actor's Guild?

Like all children of the Depression, Reagan grew up a Democrat and remained one during his tenure as
SAG President. I believe he switched to Republican shortly before Barry Goldwater decided to run for
President (famously saying that "the party left me")

Both correct, but also in need of context. Let's not forget that 1956's liberal would be a conservative by today's standards. An honest study of President Kennedy's policies would reveal an administration that would be somewhere right of center today - even though he was center-left back in 1961.

Likewise, many influential Democrats of the 70s like Scoop Jackson were ideologically quite similar to John McCain, if not even a little more hawkish. One wonders what Sen. Moynihan would think of today's Democratic Party. So, what President Reagan said about the Democratic party really is true....because his ideology didn't track to the left along with them.

Harder to say the same about the Republican party because they were run by the country club set back in the 50s and 60s and weren't all that conservative socially. They've probably stayed about the same as the dems have veered left. To be fair, society in general has tracked leftward as well.

Anyhow (back to TV), Reagan had a point. Charlton Heston did too - he was a major-league Democrat back in the 50s and early 60s but ended up as a rather conservative Republican by 1980. If Sinatra were alive today, he'd certainly be more aligned with the R's than the D's. He was already headed that way in his later years.

You are correct. The paradigm has shifted quite a bit over time. JFK would sound like a pretty mainstream Republican today.
My grandfather had given me a book on the collected wit and wisdom of Adelai Stevenson, two-time Democratic challenger to President Eisenhower. He was considered quite liberal in his day. I am struck by how much of the book today reads like things you'd expect to hear from most Republicans.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Patricia Heaton

I just love the way that she's complained that sometimes she can't get work because of her conservative politics, but it's her precious right wing that has the history of blacklisting performers.

A TV writer friend of mine predicted that sooner or later, she's going to cause problems, that it's only a matter of time.

On the set of the failed sitcom, Back To You, in which she co-starred with Kelsey Grammer, it was reportedly World War 3 between her and Grammer.

Well, whatever the cause of the tensions between she and Grammer, I doubt it was politics, as they both lean right.
(maybe they were just doing their best to give an accurate portrayal of a Pittsburgh TV newsroom?? )

Personally I thought that very tension was the source of some of the genius on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Both Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts were dyed in the wool liberals. Some of that tension with Heaton was
no doubt genuine.