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Jean Stapleton dies at 90


Brock

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Thanks so much Brockie. Loved the overhead shot of television City, you can see Joey's apartment in the distance. Odd that CBS founder and chairman William S Pailey died one year after Lucy. He at least paid tribute to her on that CBS special a year before he died. The speeches were boring but the show itself was terrific, did you notice all the familiar names in the credits, Jerry Herman, Oscar Katz etc . . . What year was that again? Viv's outfit was so unbecoming, as opposed to Ann Sothern and Audrey Meadows who both looked like a million.

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Thanks so much Brockie. Loved the overhead shot of television City, you can see Joey's apartment in the distance. Odd that CBS founder and chairman William S Pailey died one year after Lucy. He at least paid tribute to her on that CBS special a year before he died. The speeches were boring but the show itself was terrific, did you notice all the familiar names in the credits, Jerry Herman, Oscar Katz etc . . . What year was that again? Viv's outfit was so unbecoming, as opposed to Ann Sothern and Audrey Meadows who both looked like a million.

I know this has already been asked but why WASN'T Desi in the lineup? If he wasn't asked then what a terrible mistake.

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Thanks so much Brockie. Loved the overhead shot of television City, you can see Joey's apartment in the distance.

yes you can see him on his roof standing on his head with the soles of his shoes marked 'J O E A L A M O' up in the air.

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I'm sure he was asked BUT, again, what year was this? He was retired at one point.

 

I'm not so sure he was asked and frankly I suspect he wasn't. CBS could be really sh---y about those shows, that's one thing that always pissed me off, they many times conspiciously didn't have some important CBS names on them. To my knowledge Donna Douglas and Max Baer have never been asked to participate in any of those reunion extravaganzas and they only starred in the network's number one show of the 1960's but of course that's not the image the "Tiffany" network now wants to people to remember even for three minutes. And there might have been bad blood with Desi and the network, his MOTHERS-IN-LAW show was on NBC as was most of his post ILL tv appearances I believe.

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Funny that we were just talking about her in that norman lear thread, greatest performer of the foursome on All in the Family, I only enjoyed watching her character as she was the only funny one in that group. All the other ones ever did was rant and scream. She did a guest spot on Everybody Loves Raymond too and she was terrific on that.

 

She was unbelievably perfect on ALL IN THE FAMILY, bird-brained at times but never to the point of being irritating or schtickly, a fully developed human character.

 

Outside of ALL IN THE FAMILY, I most remember Jean Stapleton from a wonderful guest starring appearance on Cher's short-lived solo variety series. She was particularly a hoot as a star-struck "kid" who idolizes Cher's snotty Norma Desmondesque movie diva only to unsurp her as a greater movie queen but still the sweet dingy kid at heart, still hoping to get the now fallen star Cher's autograph. RIP Jean Stapleton, one of the great tv comediennes/actresses.

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Here's a piece of trivia that I just found out: Jean's cousin is the only other woman who played Wildcat on Broadway, Lucy's understudy Betty Jane Watson.

 

I thought Jean had a very small part at the end of "The Graduate" but it's not listed in imdb.

She had a cameo in some movie that was filmed before Family that I saw in a theater after she became famous. I remember the audience buzzing, which momentarily threw off the flow of the story.

Sort of like Ted Knight as the jail guard in "Psycho" whose one line right before the whole story about Norman is revealed now causes audience titters when they are on the edge of their seats.

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I'm not so sure he was asked and frankly I suspect he wasn't. CBS could be really sh---y about those shows, that's one thing that always pissed me off, they many times conspiciously didn't have some important CBS names on them. To my knowledge Donna Douglas and Max Baer have never been asked to participate in any of those reunion extravaganzas and they only starred in the network's number one show of the 1960's but of course that's not the image the "Tiffany" network now wants to people to remember even for three minutes. And there might have been bad blood with Desi and the network, his MOTHERS-IN-LAW show was on NBC as was most of his post ILL tv appearances I believe.

I dun't thin his being on another network would be enough to NOT invite him, I mean he produced one of their biggest hits ever, that should be enough, but you may be right about Douglas and Bear and CBS wanting to make themselves look better by NOT acknowledging them, DISGUSTING!

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Buddy Ebsen was there, representing The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, and Eva Gabor was there representing Green Acres. I don't think it was a matter of Douglas and Baer being shunned, its just that most of the shows represented, only had the principle stars there for them. Don't know where Eddie Albert was, though.

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Buddy Ebsen was there, representing The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, and Eva Gabor was there representing Green Acres. I don't think it was a matter of Douglas and Baer being shunned, its just that most of the shows represented, only had the principle stars there for them. Don't know where Eddie Albert was, though.

Good point, never even considered that.

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Thanks so much Brockie. Loved the overhead shot of television City, you can see Joey's apartment in the distance. Odd that CBS founder and chairman William S Pailey died one year after Lucy. He at least paid tribute to her on that CBS special a year before he died. The speeches were boring but the show itself was terrific, did you notice all the familiar names in the credits, Jerry Herman, Oscar Katz etc . . . What year was that again? Viv's outfit was so unbecoming, as opposed to Ann Sothern and Audrey Meadows who both looked like a million.

How 'bout Sally Struthers in a TUX?!!
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