I guess we had to wait over a generation to forget Bar’s ‘underachiever and proud of it’ joke to enjoy how smart Lisa is. I scored this at Old Navy while getting emergency fat-guy jeans for myself. Would’ve been nice if it were in my size but it’s perfect for the puppets!
Another stalwart of Mel Brooks’ comedies but also a heavy hitter when it came to drama since Cloris won an Oscar® for The Last Picture Show, a movie keep trying to see but put off. TCM’s 30 Days of Ocsars is coming up, maybe it will be listed.
I grew up Cloris thanks to my parents loving The Mary Tyler Moore Show which then spunoff with her character Phyllis getting her own show set in San Francisco. It didn’t last, I guess when Mary ended, there was little incentive to be invested in her character. I only remember how funny the theme song was because I wasn’t familiar with the expressions used in the song.
She was always great in Mel’s stuff. Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein…horse brays!; Nurse Diesel, the mastermind villain in High Anxiety and Madame DeFarge in History of the World Part 1. Before I was old enough to enough the toilet humor, I saw in Disney material: The North Avenue Irregulars, Charley and the Angel and The Muppet Movie. The weirdest thing I ever saw her in Foolin’ Around on HBO. It was this so-so RomCom vehicle for Gary Busey and an unknown Annette O’Toole but Cloris and Tony Randall stole the movie.
Lastly, Cloris was perfectly cast as the bitter, grudge-holding Russian (now Canadian) grandmother for Malcolm in the Middle. Her crappy attitude probably explained why Lois was such a control freak in a chaotic family.
Oh wait, how can I forget her as Mrs. Glick in “Three Men and a Comic Book”! The torture her character put Bart through just to earn 50 cents.
Thank you for everything Cloris! You were a superb actress with great range. Drama, kid-friendly comedy, bawdy comedy and voice acting. Thanks to your talents, the world became a better place and you are already greatly missed.
To all the MAGAts, haw haw! All that screaming, bullying and so on from your Orange Foolius to lower mileage standards have failed. For a corporation the size of General Motors to finally announce this means they have planned this for years, maybe during the Obama administration. There’s no denying it was definitely during the dark years.
Normally I would let a story like this slide…or maybe not, it is great news but it would bigger and better if it were Toyota, the world’s largest car manufacturer. It’s just too much fun given how some MAGAts are whining and claiming Grampa’ Brunch has already killed 11 million jerbs.
I remember when Ted Turner plucked this guy from obscurity…I never heard of him. Made Larry a big deal interviewer guy. His show was usually something my old man listened to on long drives because he either was sick of our music or he wanted to torture us. I guess what Turner did worked, David Letterman made Larry the butt of numerous jokes and he was one of the earliest celebrity voices on The Simpsons, a great episode written by Nell Scovell too. I think Larry was the first one to be himself since Danny DeVito and Penny Mashall were characters.
Thanks for the memories Larry and being a good sport.
A big thank you to Silver Age of TV’s Twitter feed and additional details from the ever wonderful Michael McKean bringing this anniversary up. Sadly, stars Penny Marshall and David Landers are no longer with us alongside its primary creator Gary Marshall.
Back to Mr. McKean’s two cents; he elabored on SA’s tweet that when the show began, the opening credits included the title-characters’ surnames because ABC feared audiences would be confused. Was this a show based upon a character Cher played on TV? Was this the rebranding of a failed show (or movie) called Sheila Levine is Dead & Living in New York. Mills and Gen Z may snicker at TV audiences being for stupid but they forget (or are ignorant about) there were only four broadcast networks then plus cable wasn’t anything like what most associate it with until the Eighties.
Laverne & Shirley was the first successful spinoff from Happy Days as America was going through its standard Nostalgia Wormhole (take this year, subtract 20-30 years) for the Fifties® via these SitComs, the hit musical Grease and Sha Na Na’s syndicated show. Punk Rock expressed it with the three-chord/three-minute tunes and the Ramones wearing biker jackets. I was just seven. I don’t recall everything which made the comeback.
I think Penny and Cindy Williams had also appeared on Happy Days earlier when they were Fonzie’s backup singers. Their chemistry and the reaction they received is probably what fueled the spinoff other than Cindy playing Ron Howard’s girlfriend in American Graffiti; she might have passed on Happy Days and this was a second chance to get on the Gary Marshall Success Train.
My brother Brian loved the show in its early days. I remember being annoyed over our new house having the ability to get Channel 17 (ABC) better so he could watch. He also loved the SitCom enough to name a new kitten we got Shirley; or maybe it was the wisecracking waitress on What’s Happening. I came around to liking L&S thanks to how goofy Lenny & Squiggy were (aka Michael McKean and David Landers).
Sadly, like all programs, it got long in the tooth as the Fifties® fad petered out with the Eighties getting more focused on the Sixties®. Somebody thought it was a great idea to have the title characters leave Milwaukee for the Los Angeles of the early Sixties. Not a great idea but what made it even less plausible was all the secondary characters coming along. Then Cindy quit and it was the Laverne show before ABC pulled the plug.
Its legacy? Penny went on to be a well-respected director. Michael remains an in-demand character actor on TV/Film. David of course went into semi-retirement due to his illness. Cindy appeared from time to time. To me it proved you could have a hit show with two women in lead roles. Lastly, I moved to Milwaukee from 1986-1991 and learned very quickly which neighborhood they lived in (Knapp Street which would be near downtown and the breweries then). Plus their opening schtick was used as the opening for my favorite time as a DJ on WMUR with Sheila.
I’ll close with a little contest to see who’s paying attention. Name the other successful spinoff from Happy Days in the comments. If you can also name the two dud spinoffs, I give you a prize. Try not to “cheat” and use imdb.com or Wikipedia please, just your brains/memories.
You may not recall his name, but Gregory was a frequent guest or recurring cast member in my SitComs I grew up with. The main one was Barney Miller as a detective who had to live with killing a suspect in self-defense. He left after the first season I think as the cat was still trying to gel into most people remember. The last movie I remember him being in was Vampire$ as a weak-minded Catholic priest the heroes brought along in their raid. Go to his imdb.com page, you’ll see he appeared in all the heavy hitters of the Seventies: Sanford and Son, Gunsmoke, Columbo, Soap, Hawaii Five-O and Kung Fu. Pretty cool that was in a couple movies I like from the period, Peter Sellers’ remake of The Prisoner of Zenda and Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
Sadly, Gregory passed away on the same day as Tanya Roberts but the news didn’t make the rounds for a couple weeks. I’m guessing he had retired as his appearances drop off by the year 2000.
Thanks for everything Gregory! Sure, you were typecast as a cop but it was always a pleasure to see you playing a different role when spotted!
When Jeremy alerted me to the rioting in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam and Urk I concluded that either American Idiocy has become our number one export or the Dutch failed to get all their morons to emigrate to the States. It’s probably a horrible mix of both.
The protestors are mainly pissed over the curfew imposed by the government. Unlike Amerika’s clusterfuck jigsaw which cripples a national response thanks to Science Deniers (Republicans and Libertarians) at the state, county or city level; their national parliament voted and agreed by a majority (not some two-third’s bullshit) to take their Outbreak Management Team’s recommendation. The recommendation was a curfew to limit people’s contact with each other to slow the spread while the vaccine gets rolled out.
If you’ve followed the news recently, you might ask, “Wait. Didn’t the Dutch government recently collapse? So there should be an election soon. How can they get anything done during a lame-duck period?” Jeremy explained to me how the people who occupy their pre-election positions are allowed to keep them until a new government is formed unless they did something pretty egregious, unlike Amerika (Turd Cruz, Josh Hawley and most GOPers in Congress). Italy has Technocrats take over for the interim, the “ousted” ministers, etc., may make decisions and do things to keep the state running unless it’s a major policy matter, this was what I expected; again, Amerika gets an F thanks to Mitch McConnell still having a couple months to throw sand in the gears.
So there’s a bunch of cranky Dutch residents pissed off about their “freedom” to spread the virus. Sounds familiar. With Urk (maybe it’s the ancestral home of Urkel?), the morons destroyed a CV-19 testing facility. Wow. Take that virus! The only upside there? Dutch cops don’t need to sweat over the protestors having military-grade weapons and copies of The Turner Diaries.
I’m sure there’s a version of this demonstration in Dutch…
No…you’re thinking of Jack White. This gentleman who passed away yesterday was the founder/owner of Austin’s Broken Spoke, a honky tonk started in the mid Sixties. Over the years, numerous famous performers came through: Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Asleep at the Wheel to name a few. I think the (Dixie) Chicks even played when they weren’t a big deal yet. The place became an institution for not just Country and Western music but Americana (I can only think of artists who flirt with this, Elvis Costello, Brandi Carlile, Shawn Colvin) and Alt-Country (Cracker, Leftover Salmon, Drive-by Truckers). The venue even played a part in the recent movie Yellow Rose with local fave Dale Watson as the performer and being a version of himself.
Sadly, the Broken Spoke‘s fate is in doubt. When White started, wayyyyy South Lamar was barely occupied and the place was surrounded by mesquite trees. Now it’s surrounded by overpriced condos, Hipster-gathering points and other conveniences of wealthier people who imported Dallasification, Houstonization and Californication. If you don’t get the references by now…translation: the beloved place sits on very coveted land the One Percenters want and the city government will hand over for peanuts.
Let’s hope White has either offspring willing to fight or someone willing to step in to save it. There’s no point in Austin’s marketing people continuing the lie about us being the Live Music Capital of the World if the musicians have to commute from Belton and all the venues are owned by Clear Channel.
Thanks for everything James. You contributed greatly to all music genres and Austin’s character. You earned a statue to stand alongside SRV, Ann and Willie.
This weekend, the one podcast I have religiously listen to since…I can’t remember. Let’s just say when iTunes (now divided into Music and Podcasts) first added the ability to subscribe to podcasts. Checking the Internet, iTunes 4.9 which was about July 1, 2005. No. I think I stumbled upon OTM in that medium at least a year later because I first heard it via KUT on Saturday mornings, 9 AM Central when the show was permanently added on June 2, 2005. Given the irregularity of my work shifts, I probably missed it often and I don’t think KUT would do a rebroadcast on Sundays for a while. When OTM did make the jump to include a podcast, I’ve never missed a week…I’ll give it plenty of error and hang my hat on the beginning of 2007 when iTunes offered it. This worked out pretty well in the modern format because I worked Saturdays until I was promoted in 2009.
However, my relationship with the show was off to a rocky start when its debut on KUT featured this load-of-crap story. The truth is, Parker and Stone are really typical, wealthy douchebags who believe in whatever is convenient to their tax bracket. They’re very similar to the founders of Reason or PJ O’Rourke, Hippies who suddenly got rich and then decided they don’t want to pay taxes. Walt Disney was the same kind of asshole when his animators unionized. Nevertheless, I wrote a polite e-mail to OTM saying, good luck staying on the air by giving right-wing pricks oxygen to push their views during the Bush Restoration. And until they collapsed, they seemed to have a hard-on against Air America, the short-lived Left-Wing based radio network; its’ sad legacy was giving the fact-impaired Rachel Maddow a career.
Despite being annoyed and unimpressed that Saturday morning, Brooke and Bob along with the numerous producers kept my attention by focusing on all forms of Communication be it political, technical or historical. They tapped into what I went to university for. They’ve turned me on to new authors which have been reviewed on my site. They’ve gotten to me to rethink certain movies. They’ve had unusual guests I never thought’d bother with: Marc Maron (twice), the gang at Rifftrax (love ya’ Kevin, Mike and Bill); people who were a waste of time: Glenn Beck, anyone who works at Reason magazine and the guy who went to prison for the revenge-porn site. They brought up how the Madden videogame influenced a new generation of college/pro quarterbacks with plays that were never formulated by previous coaches.
Years ago, they foolishly bothered to have message boards. One thing you don’t want to finance if you’re NPR is free place for people call each other names. Oddly, they read my comment criticizing an interview they did with Sci-Fi writer Jerry Pournelle; he’s dead now and anyone familiar with his work will know, he and his frequent partner, Larry Niven, hate democracy. I was thrilled! I even let them go on mispronouncing my surname (I did give Bartleby instructions).
When Orange Foolius was made president, they had a post mortem show comprised of just Bob, Brooke and their main executive producer Katya. It wasn’t so much a mea culpa on getting the outcome wrong, they had an argument about which direction should they go (how I understood it). Especially being New Yorkers, they already knew how much this asshole hated the Media for pointing out his hundreds upon hundreds of lies.
Sadly, the show has been getting gradually shorter by a minute every few years since commercial free (my ass) public radio is squeezing in more underwriting and sponsorship plugs…which are commercials. They’ve also lost their focus on the World of Communication. There are too many long-ass pieces in the last 20 minutes I just stop with because they’re not terribly interesting, they’re axe-grinding tirades about how White People ruined the world (even as a Leftist, the people of color bitching is getting old) or some intern’s boring-ass pet project involving (c)rap music. I do hope they keep plugging away. Disagreements and all. I also hope WNYC, the show’s home, have successors in training as Brooke and Bob are getting on in years. The more important concern, is getting On The Media back on to its main point: the stories behind journalism and communication be it print (dying), broadcast (dying), cable (dying), streaming, podcasts, video games, movies, so on and so forth.
Maybe when the show turns 30, it will just be injected into our brains. By then, Disney will probably own everything, including PBS and NPR.
I was only nuts about baseball for several years as a kid but I’ve always known about Hank Aaron, the guy who beat Babe Ruth’s longstanding home run record. I don’t care if Barry Bonds allegedly holds it, there’s a big fat asterisk next to Bonds’ achievement.
It was pretty cool to see (or hear) Hank play himself as a head in a jar and his distant descendent on Futurama. The latter was in the Hall of Fame as the worst player ever, until Leela took it for her horrendous pitching.
Thanks for setting a pretty impressive record. Maybe one day it will be beat without the aid of steroids.
The test results came in and I was alerted minutes ago, pretty impressive, I found out within 22 hours.
NEGATIVE
That’s all for Jennifer and me. We can all get on with our lives, namely, watching the Packers crush Bucs’ MAGAt QB, old man Brady. Given the game is at Lambeau and the line protecting Rodgers seems decent, I say Packers by 10. I just hope they don’t depend on a running game to win.
More people know her from Lost, another boring-ass, disappointing JJ Abrams shit show. The rest of us will forever love her as Ambassador Delenn on Babylon 5, the Sci-Fi program which had consequences and real intrigue while the other two Star Trek shows were mostly Matlock in Space and/or boring resets at the end of the hour.
Mira did a great job and being Croatian probably helped add some validity to her alien accent. I’m glad they scaled back the makeup/appliances after Babylon 5‘s pilot, they gave her an ugly-ass chin. B5‘s creator, J. Michael Straczynski was definitely a fan of her work too. Rumor had it when I tried to get B5 back out there with more movies or something, Warner Brothers’ executives wanted new cast members, people the general public recognized. JMS wanted his show’s regulars, including Mira so he walked away.
Thank you for everything Mira. You were awesome and Delenn remains a favorite alien character in my lexicon.
At least the testing was free as we rushed to downtown Austin. It’s also easier to take. Last Summer it was a painful shove up both nostrils. The pain lingered for a couple hours. Now they’ve got it down to swabbing your gums, teeth, roof of your mouth and tongue. Luck was with me too. I got an extra swab in case one side effect is my ears enlarging to the size of Quark. Jeremy informed me that I need to be careful due something called Rule #34…
If something exists then there is porn about it.
The porn industry makes movie knockoffs of kid shows so I’m sure they’ve been pushing to find any premise for their stuff.
We’ll now the outcome of the tests tomorrow at best. I’m figuring Monday. If I don’t have any symptoms or problems, I might as well work. Boredom is more painful.
Jennifer just received the phone call from her employer about an hour ago. We’re both off to get (re)tested since there’s a good chance it’s a false positive given the number of times she is tested—three times a week since Travis County is at Stage 5. And yes, I know, the number of “negatives” doesn’t act as a protection, we’re getting a second opinion since the sheer number of tests she’s passed raises the possibility of a false outcome. The bigger pisser in this is that it will put off Jennifer getting the second shot needed for the vaccine.
Fingers crossed this works out because I have too goddamned much to get tackled this weekend as well.
Personally, I don’t think Christ would’ve gotten half the inauguration hype Grampa’ Brunch got by the way the Democrats have pumped up this career Centrist. You won’t get any disagreement from me about how horrendous the last four years were. Our archaic system foisted on us a person who proved, “You thought the last Bush was shitty? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! I’ll through in some Hooverism for free!” My beef with this guy is he’ll never live up to FDR or Lincoln, two past presidents who really pulled America through horrible crises, hell FDR defeated a pair before he died in office. Both did some horrible stuff along the way which I will never deny but they were brave enough to fight what ailed America. They didn’t half-ass things with pointless speeches about unity or bipartisanship. Centrism has never worked and it never will. Centrism fueled the American Civil War until it hit critical mass in 1861. Centrism would’ve dragged out the Great Depression into the Fifties and given the Nazis enough wiggle room to develop a nuclear weapon. Trust me, if a planet-killer-sized meteor were heading to Earth, Centrism guarantees our demise. Putting the world back to where it was in 2015 won’t do.
Normally I would’ve let a hack like the current occupant have a longer grace period. We just don’t have the luxury with over 400,000 Americans dead and millions starving and/or homeless. I really do hope he succeeds. I can’t get behind him completely. He has a very long trail of slime, lies, Republican behaviors, nepotism and questionable wealth acquisition to overcome to prove he deserved to be the nominee. He and his apologists need to also remember he owes the pandemic for his victory. Otherwise, he’d be crying in his beer with past losers who thought “It’s My Turn” was a winning campaign slogan.
