Mary Tyler Moore

This week we lost a bonafide TV legend with the passing of Mary Tyler Moore at age 80. We’re at a point in time now where many of our favourite TV stars from the 1960s and 70s are starting to disappear, and that saddens me greatly when I think back to how important they were to the popular culture of my youth. 

Though she first gained stardom on The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to 1966, Mary really hit it big just a few years later on CBS with her own The Mary Tyler Moore Show starting in 1970. This show, along with others like All In The Family and The Bob Newhart Show were part of a new era on CBS that featured more contemporary, sophisticated themes after what was known as "Rural Purge", in which folksy, small town series were being cancelled (despite still high ratings) in favour of shows that would attract viewers who were young urban professionals. Mary Tyler Moore and her MTM Productions would become one of the major players in this new media trend.

In honour of Mary, I’ve been revisiting The Mary Tyler Moore Show these last few days and it really is a warm and nostalgic trip back in time to what I believe to be a much more genuinely entertaining era of TV. It’s a great ensemble cast, for one thing, where Mary herself plays it relatively straight as Mary Richards, the fresh-faced, newly hired associate news producer, allowing the rich cast of comedic characters to shine around her. In the struggling local TV newsroom that forms the premise of the series there’s gruff, domineering boss/news producer, Lou Grant; the under-appreciated and sarcastic news writer, Murray Slaughter; and of course the delightfully vainglorious anchorman, Ted Baxter. Rounding things out on the homefront are Mary’s elitist landlady, Phyllis Lindstrom, and her best friend and neighbour, the lovelorn but sassy Rhoda Morgenstern.

What’s striking about the series is the basic decency and genuine goodness of its central character, Mary Richards, which I’m sure comes about naturally through the delightfully charming Mary Tyler Moore herself who really does typify the All-American Girl. One can’t help but root for Mary, and I’m sure that all viewers just fell in love with her. That era of TV is still magical to me, as I don’t think that same type of character could exist today in modern TV’s cynical and edgy style of sitcoms, sadly enough. Also, back in the early 70s, in those pre-VCR (and way before PVR) years, viewers had to make a point of staying home to watch these shows as they were broadcast, or miss out altogether. As a result, we all had a shared culture where viewers were aware of most of what was on our dozen or so TV channels, and would talk about the shows with each other at school or the office the day after they aired. We also watched these series on the one TV in the living room along with our family members, so I think that families were much closer and shared similar values as a result.

And Mary Tyler Moore was one of the most beloved and iconic TV stars of that 70‘s era, which is why there was such an emotional outpouring of adoration and sadness throughout social media at the news of her passing. So dear Mary, thanks for your legacy of great entertainment. There will never be another one as special as you, and you always did turn the world on with that big beautiful smile!

Happy Birthday, Mike Connors!

Yes, Mike Connors celebrates his 88th birthday today, and he's a TV favourite of mine that I've long wanted to pay tribute to. Mike, of course, spent eight years from 1967 to 1975 playing the role of private investigator, Joe Mannix on the CBS hit series, Mannix. Apparently the show was not an immediate hit though, and was in danger of being cancelled if not for the intervention of Lucille Ball, whose production company, Desilu (formed with former hubby, Desi Arnaz) had produced the show. Lucy felt strongly that the series had merit and convinced CBS to stick with it.

The show actually started out a bit differently in its first season, with Joe Mannix working for a technology-based detective agency called Intertect, run by Lew Wickersham, played by the always reliable Joseph Campanella. The huge banks of massive computers utilized by Intertect would seem quaint by today's standard of small desktop computers, but back then it would have been very impressive.

By season 2 however, it was decided that Mannix needed retooling to appeal more to viewers, so Joe was now a private detective operating out of a swanky, Spanish-style office in a well-to-do area of Los Angeles. He also now had a loyal and efficient private secretary, Peggy Fair, played by Gail Fisher. This was notable for that period in the 60s, as Peggy was a young black woman, and race was still a somewhat touchy subject on TV, though things had certainly progressed a lot by then. She was the widow of a policeman friend of Joe's who had been shot and killed in the line of duty, so Joe hired Peggy out of compassion and respect for his friend, and also did what he could to be a surrogate father figure to her young son, Toby. The show was not shy in confronting race issues on several episodes, and I think it did a lot in improving relations, evolving into the more enlightened 70s, where black actors stepped up to play leading roles in their own series.

What I love about Mannix and many other cop shows of the era, is the combination of authority and elegance that the various detectives had. One couldn't help but like and admire such characters as Joe Mannix, Steve McGarrett, or my personal favourite, Jim Rockford, as they were truly heroic and chivalrous men. They were unapologetic modern-day white knights, back before TV started to take a turn for the worse, eventually giving the viewer highly flawed "heroes" like what we have today. Frankly, I like my TV heroes to be good, decent, upstanding fellows, thanks just the same. In future blog posts I plan on paying tribute to more of them!

By the way, this Mike Connors tribute is dedicated to a fellow named Dave J. who had emailed me several weeks ago to request I do a caricature of Mannix, as he's also a big fan of the series. Thanks for the request, Dave - it was my pleasure!

Here is the opening title music to Mannix, a melodic, jazzy number by Lalo Schifrin, who also wrote the memorable theme to Mission Impossible:

RIP Jean Stapleton

So sorry to hear that Jean Stapleton passed away today. Though she was a veteran of stage and screen, she'll always be best remembered for playing Edith, the long suffering wife of Archie Bunker on the 70's classic TV series, All In The Family.

Back when I was a 14 year old kid, I drew caricatures of all four principal characters on the show and sent them to the actors care of CBS studios, hoping they'd receive them. I'm sure at the age I was then, my drawings were not that great, but I was so happy when I got this nice reply from Jean Stapleton sometime later. I think it may have been one of my first celebrity autographs. Anyway, this sweet note convinced me that Jean must be a really nice lady, and I publish it here in loving memory of this fine actress.

Happy Birthday,Yvonne Craig!

Happy birthday to Yvonne Craig, perhaps best known for portraying Batgirl/Barbara Gordon on the Batman TV series from the 60s. Being a child of the 60s, I was most definitely a member of the original TV generation, and TV sure was a lot more fun and friendly back then! Batman was probably my favourite live-action show as a kid, and I suspect that Yvonne Craig's Batgirl was my first prepubescent crush. Though quite sexy in her batsuit, Yvonne also played her as very demure and feminine. I thought she was just adorable. 

In later years I would take notice of Yvonne in the various guest spots she made on a lot of other series as well, usually small but memorable roles. Now that I'm enjoying so many of these great shows on DVD, I've been able seek out a lot her guest spots on my favourite series like Mannix and Wild, Wild West.

Here's a montage above of shots of Yvonne alongside Robert Vaughn in One of Our Spies is Missing, one of the several Man From U.N.C.L.E movies that was created by cobbling together episodes of the TV series. I used video reference from this appearance as the basis for my caricature of Yvonne, although the yellow turtleneck I grabbed from some other pics I found of her. 

She was certainly best known for playing Batgirl, but I'm sure many Star Trek fans hold her in high esteem for her memorable role as the green, dancing, slave girl, Marta in the episode, Whom Gods Destroy:

Though primarily a TV actress in later years, Yvonne did do a few movies earlier in her career. Probably her best known movie is the 1964 Elvis Presley film, Kissin' Cousins, in which she and equally lovely Pamela Austin play a couple of cute backwoods sisters who fall for Air Force officer Elvis. Off screen, Yvonne and Elvis were dating at the time.

Yvonne still does a few personal appearances at fan events in tribute to her Batgirl role. I'm hoping that she'll make it to Toronto's Fan Expo someday so I can meet her! Happy Birthday, Yvonne!

Suzanne Pleshette

Sadly, we lost Suzanne Pleshette yesterday, who died from complications following a battle with lung cancer. This follows the death only about a year ago of her husband, comedian Tom Poston, whom she'd married late in life, after both had been widowed by previous spouses. I ran this caricature once before in celebration of Bob Newhart's birthday, as "The Bob Newhart Show" remains one of my alltime favourite sitcoms. Now, hearing about Suzanne Pleshette's death at 70, I find it hard to believe that it's been over 30 years since that show was originally on the air.

For many of my generation, Suzanne Pleshette represented the type of woman we associate with entertainment of the 60's and 70's. She was attractive and sophisticated, and always a class act. In addition to the years she played Emily Hartley on "The Bob Newhart Show", I remember her as a familiar presence in some of the Disney films of my youth, including "Blackbeard's Ghost", "The Ugly Dachshund", and "The Shaggy D.A.", all of which teamed her up with Disney regular, Dean Jones, with whom she had a natural onscreen chemistry. She also costarred alongside one of my very favourite actors, James Garner, in "Support Your Local Gunfighter". With the advent of DVD, many of the TV shows I loved when I was young have been released in the last few years, enabling me to bask in the warm glow of nostalgia. Again, Suzanne Pleshette turns up in guest roles on some of these series. She played opposite Eddie Albert in a first season episode of "Columbo", and she was in the very first episode of "Wild Wild West", starting the trend that show would become famous for - having a different gorgeous woman in every show opposite Robert Conrad, much like the tradition of the Bond girls.

After hearing of Suzanne's passing yesterday, I watched an episode of "The Bob Newhart Show" in tribute to her. She and Bob were just so great together and I miss the classiness of that era of TV. Goodnight, sweet Suzanne...

(Please also see Jim Hill's site for another look back at Suzanne's career, with an emphasis on her films for Disney)

He Yam What Today's Cartoons Ain't

John Kricfalusi has a terrific post on his blog (link to his site at right) regarding the Fleischer "Popeye" cartoons now finally being released on DVD. I suspect John and I had similar childhoods, both being Ottawa boys. Back in the 1960's, Canadian kids only had access to our own home-grown TV channels: local affiliates of CBC, CTV and a handful of independents. We didn't get any American channels until the early 70's when cable was first introduced into Canadian households. As such, exposure to cartoons on TV was somewhat limited back then. "The Bugs Bunny / Roadrunner Hour" was carried on CBC Saturday evenings, and we had "The Wonderful World of Disney" (one of the titles of its various incarnations) every Sunday evening at 6 pm, also on CBC. Since Disney would only run a show with cartoons only once every five or six weeks or so, there really wasn't that much regular exposure to the Disney shorts, although that was still the era where Disney would have a couple of vintage cartoons accompany a new film release at the theatre, so it wasn't completely bleak.

However, that was also the era of the various kid's shows on local TV channels hosted by affable middle-aged fellows, sometimes in goofy costumes like "Howdy Doody's" Buffalo Bob. These shows were mainly comprised of whatever old theatrical cartoons were available to them cheaply to run to their heart's content. Fortunately, this meant that the old "Popeye" cartoons were on practically every day in lunchtime and after school timeslots. As such, back when I was really young, Popeye was my favourite cartoon character, by virtue of the fact that I had seen more of those cartoons than anything else at that time. Somewhere there's a photo of me at about age 5 or 6 holding these big solid plastic toy figurines of Popeye and Wimpy - great toys as I recall. I remember drawing Popeye and the gang all the time, (and the Goons!) and that was probably the catalyst that launched me into this lifelong pursuit of working as a professional cartoonist. Admittedly, as I saw more of the Disney animated features at the theatre in those formative years, they became my real passion in the medium, but I will always harbour a special fondness for Popeye the Sailor, and I will certainly be adding this new DVD set to my cartoon library.

PS: Rather than give my own summation of the Fleischer "Popeye" cartoons, I would rather point you to what John K. has written on his blog, as he certainly has covered all the bases far better than I could on why these cartoons are so great.