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OTHER FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO DIED


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  • 2 weeks later...

Chachi's Joanie, "Happy Days" actress Erin Moran has apparently died of (to-date) undisclosed causes at 58.  Sad.  Much too young.

She has indeed passed. The reports I read said 56. Very sad news. Her life seemed to be rather turbulent these past few years. A sad reminder of what the business can do to people who don't climb as high as others. At least she has one indelible legacy she'll be remembered for.

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Chachi's Joanie, "Happy Days" actress Erin Moran has apparently died of (to-date) undisclosed causes at 58.  Sad.  Much too young.

 

Though I was no fan of "Happy Days", I did see Erin once (I think).  Jerry Paris was a guest lecturer at a class I was taking and invited anyone ever visiting LA to call him and they could come on the set to watch filming.  This was early on when it was still a single-cam show.  It hadn't yet become a big hit.  I hadn't actually ever seen the show.  Remember this was the OLDEN days before cell phones.  I arrived in LA and had to make a least a DOZEN phone calls to Paris and wait patiently by the phone (which was attached to the WALL).   Most likely prompted by his receptionist ("will you get this guy off my BACK?") Paris did call and was quite brusque: "Are you ANOTHER ONE who wants a job? 'Cause I ain't hiring, bub" (who did he think I was? Bill Frawley??).  I said no, I was still in school and was  merely taking him up on his offer.  So he invited me and I got to see a brief scene being filmed with our own Amzie Strickland,  something to do with her meeting a black person and backing away and out the door in a panic.   I remember a little girl on the sidelines and I assume it was Erin.  I chatted with Donnie Most but was a little embarrassed to admit I hadn't seen the show.  He was very soft-spoken and unassuming; very nice.  Paris actually wanted my reaction to the scene!  I was unprepared and stammered a bit.  "Oh, you're too young to know what it was like in the 50s". 

 

But to hear that Erin hit hard times:  it's always distressing to hear that a child-actor hadn't developed another life beyond the faux acclaim.   Even now we see them as TV series regulars  and they're so cute and adorable (think of the "Modern Family" kids).  But when you PEAK at age 12, you have to have a very strong sense of self to move on to adult life successfully.  So many don't.  The ones that do (Ronnie Howard, Shirley Temple) seem to be in the minority.  With a child's short-sighted vision of the future, you don't understand insincerity and can't imagine a day when all the sycophantic fawners will cast you aside when you're no longer a viable commodity.  You become a has-been before you're 20 and even crueler yet: a joke, a laughing stock.  For every Ronnie, Shirley and Jackie Cooper, there are dozens if not hundreds of Dana Platos, Annisa Joneses and Gary Colemnas.  Viv was so wise to advice Ralph's mother to get him out of show business.  Any parent that puts their child in the business:  well, they should have their head, or more appropriately, their soul examined. 

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She has indeed passed. The reports I read said 56. Very sad news. Her life seemed to be rather turbulent these past few years. A sad reminder of what the business can do to people who don't climb as high as others. At least she has one indelible legacy she'll be remembered for.

That's my mistake, I thought it had read 58 so my bad.  Shall correct it. Mea culpa! :D

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Scott Baio certainly acquitted himself poorly on this one.

 

You're being incredibly diplomatic.  I have stronger words in my head.  And so does Erin Moran's family:  http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/erin-morans-family-unleashes-holy-hell-on-fcking-coward-scott-baio/http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/erin-morans-family-unleashes-holy-hell-on-fcking-coward-scott-baio/

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  • 4 weeks later...

Terry McCann: 1916-2016

 

I posted this in another thread, but it kind of fits here as well.  This is a woman whose name you might not recognize but I will bet you know and remember well.

 

http://www.lucylounge.com/index.php?/topic/4099-maude-2-has-passed-away-at-age-100/

 

Why didn't this woman have a show business career??  She had an ease in front of the camera and a GREAT voice!

It seemed like something planned, but then again it didn't.   The band was pretty quick with "You Made Me Love You" in Eb; and the microphone that picked up Terry's singing added a little reverb.

The clip version with Terry in the audience must have been from Carol's short-lived revival in 1991.   Terry says the original was in 1979.   Carol's CBS series ended in 1978, but in the summer of 1979, ABC ran 4 new episodes entitled "Carol Burnett and Company".  Could Terry's appearance have been on one of those?

Carol's 1991 revival was an interesting footnote to her variety show career.  I don't remember much hoopla about it (i.e. "Carol's BACK!!)  A strike of some kind delayed some fall premieres that year so Carol's show didn't go on until November and was off by the end of December.  Saddled with a less-than-stellar time slot: Friday at 9 (like her ill-fated "The Entertainers" back in '64) , it came and went without a ripple.  None of the 1991 CBS Friday night shows were renewed.  The 8:00 show "Princesses" was pulled after 4 episodes! 

The 1991 CB Show was the ONLY variety show on any network in prime time that season and the first one attempted since Fox's Tracey Ullman went off in '89.   You'd think there'd be room for more than one other than SNL.  But prime-time variety was dead. 

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Why didn't this woman have a show business career??  She had an ease in front of the camera and a GREAT voice!

It seemed like something planned, but then again it didn't.   The band was pretty quick with "You Made Me Love You" in Eb; and the microphone that picked up Terry's singing added a little reverb.

The clip version with Terry in the audience must have been from Carol's short-lived revival in 1991.   Terry says the original was in 1979.   Carol's CBS series ended in 1978, but in the summer of 1979, ABC ran 4 new episodes entitled "Carol Burnett and Company".  Could Terry's appearance have been on one of those?

Carol's 1991 revival was an interesting footnote to her variety show career.  I don't remember much hoopla about it (i.e. "Carol's BACK!!)  A strike of some kind delayed some fall premieres that year so Carol's show didn't go on until November and was off by the end of December.  Saddled with a less-than-stellar time slot: Friday at 9 (like her ill-fated "The Entertainers" back in '64) , it came and went without a ripple.  None of the 1991 CBS Friday night shows were renewed.  The 8:00 show "Princesses" was pulled after 4 episodes! 

The 1991 CB Show was the ONLY variety show on any network in prime time that season and the first one attempted since Fox's Tracey Ullman went off in '89.   You'd think there'd be room for more than one other than SNL.  But prime-time variety was dead. 

 

Ms. McCann was definitely wrong about her appearance being from 1979.  I am pretty certain that that appearance shows up in the Carol Burnett and Friends syndicated reruns, which is comprised of 1972-1977 edited episodes of The Carol Burnett Show.  It does not include anything from her 1979 summer series, or even the last season of The Carol Burnett Show -- or the first five seasons.  It's only the 1972-77 window.  My guess: about 1974.

 

I agree it's a little difficult to believe this was entirely spontaneous.  However, that first woman in the audience who stands up and points out Terry McCann, asking if she's Maude, seems very authentic.  It doesn't look like she's acting.  And as for the piano playing, notice that the piano player is only playing some random notes at the start and doesn't actually start playing "You Made Me Love You" until after Ms. McCann starts singing.  So I don't know. 

 

Good question about why we never heard from her, other than these two brief appearances with Carol Burnett.  She was talented, she had a great personality, a great ease in front of an audience, could get on her feet quickly and start performing --- and she was living right there in Los Angeles at the time (!), but running a beauty salon.  It's surprising nobody in television or movies snatched her up.

 

 

Wasn't the '91 show a comedy-anthology? I've never seen an episode, but I'd love to one day (ahem, Time Life)!

 

Yes, it is my recollection it was sort of an anthology.  That's part of why I didn't like it:  there were no recurring skits like they had on The Carol Burnett Show.  Nothing to mold or develop, like The Family or Nora Desmond, or As the Stomach Turns.  It was several regular performers performing alongside Carol Burnett and guest stars each week, and playing completely different roles every week.  I saw no chemistry.  The skits were dull.  I was very disappointed.  I watched several episodes but I was disappointed every time, so I stopped watching.  Also, Carol Burnett had had her plastic surgery by this time, and also seemed to have sworn off doing some of the funny faces she used to make, which hampered her ability to be funny.

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 and she was living right there in Los Angeles at the time (!), but running a beauty salon.  It's surprising nobody in television or movies snatched her up.

 

 

 

 

She obviously had performed SOMEWHERE because she knew her "You Made Me Love You" key was Eb.  And this was before karaoke.

I think Carol would have been wise to invite her back as an actual guest.....which might have led to a recurring role on "Maude" as her sister.   "Maude and her sister Terry enter a Bea Arthur lookalike contest"

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She obviously had performed SOMEWHERE because she knew her "You Made Me Love You" key was Eb.  And this was before karaoke.

I think Carol would have been wise to invite her back as an actual guest.....which might have led to a recurring role on "Maude" as her sister.   "Maude and her sister Terry enter a Bea Arthur lookalike contest"

 

I could swear I read that she used to perform as an amateur in local clubs, but I may be imagining that.  It would have been interesting if Carol turned this former audience member into a guest star.  She could have played one of Mother Harper's friends who competes in a singing contest with Eunice.

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