Golden Girls
Beatrice Arthur's friends and colleagues remembered the Emmy- and Tony-winning actress as a brave force in comedy whose talent and voice were one of a kind.
"I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much," said Betty White, Arthur's Golden Girls costar. "I'm so happy that she ...
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Bea Arthur
Beatrice Arthur, the star of the hit shows Maude and The Golden Girls, died Saturday at age 86.
Arthur died peacefully at her Los Angeles home early Saturday with her family at her side, a family spokesperson tells the Associated Press. The actress, who had cancer, would have turned 87 on May 13.
Arthur first portrayed the outspoken and liberal Maude Finley in the Norman Lear comedy series All in the Family. So much did she impress CBS executives that ...
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Jon Hamm and January Jones in Mad Men by Carin Baer/AMC
Advertisers do not like controversy. Advertisers have thin skin. Just a few of the valuable observations to be taken from Sunday’s rich episode of Mad Men, written by Matthew Weiner and Rick Cleveland, which provided a fascinating window into how the TV and ad business worked circa 1962 (and in some ways it hasn’t changed that much since then).One major subplot, with surprising personal and professional repercussions, hinged on a controversial episode of CBS’s groundbreaking legal drama The Defenders, with a shockingly blunt abortion storyline that was causing sponsors to flee. Schlubby Harry Crane, disgruntled after inadvertently learning how much less he was being paid than colleague Ken Cosgrove ($200 a week to Ken’s $300), brought the episode to his bosses’ attention at Sterling Cooper—prompting a screening for lipstick client Belle Jolie, the idea being that women would likely seek this episode out, despite the controversy. (Peggy was on hand to he...
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Snakes on a Plane edged out Jackass Number Two and The Covenant to top last week's DVD sales chart. Little Miss Sunshine (which I just got myself, yay) was the No. 1 rental.... Married... with Children's Katey Sagal and her husband, Kurt Sutter, welcomed their first child together, daughter Esme Louise, born via surrogate on Jan. 10, says People.... Maude: The Complete First Season arrives on DVD March 20, to mark the series' 35th anniversary.... Steve Carell, Adrian Grenier, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eva Longoria and Sienna Miller have been added as presenters at the Golden Globes, airing Monday on NBC.
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Question: In your recent comments about the Parents Television Council, you made reference to people who wish that all TV looked like Nick at Nite. I understood your point. But it is interesting to note that Nick at Nite does show episodes of All in the Family and Good Times, two series that caused an uproar with groups like the PTC in the '70s, and has in the past run episodes of Maude, another controversial show. In fact, I was watching All in the Family the other night and thought that there was no way a show like that could make it to network TV today. As far as the PTC goes, it's pretty simple: If you don't like it, don't watch it. There is plenty of technology available to parents for blocking channels. For that matter, there is no law saying that one must own a TV. If it offends thee, pluck it out, as someone once said. Don't subject the rest of us to a worldview that sees Petticoat Junction as the zenith of American television.
Answer: Not that there's anything wrong with
...
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Kene Holliday and Victor French, Carter Country
Question: Do you remember a show with, I think, the guy from Highway to Heaven and a black actor that was sort of a comedy version of In the Heat of the Night? It's driving me nuts.
Answer: Yes.
Aaaah, you didn't really think I was gonna stop at being a wiseacre and answer your question with one word, did you? You'll never so easily curb my urge to babble, Joon.
Funny you use the word "nuts," since the show in question, ABC's Carter Country, bore the name of former peanut farmer Jimmy Carter, who was president at the time it debuted in September 1977. As you say, it bore a strong resemblance to In the Heat of the Night, which 10 years later would be a hit TV series itself.
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Beatrice Arthur, Maude
Question: What was Maude's husband's name? My husband and I have a bet going. Can you please help? Thank you.
Answer: OK, Kandi, allow me to bore regular readers with my usual admonishment that those who have bets should let me know what's at stake in their questions — I'm just snoopy like that — before moving on to the usual enlightenment.
So, here's the enlightenment. On Maude, which ran on CBS from September 1972 to April 1978, the fourth husband of Maude Findlay (Beatrice Arthur) was Walter Findlay (Bill Macy). Rounding out the family was Maude's divorced daughter, Carol (Adrienne Barbeau) and her young son, Phillip (Brian Morrison for five years, then Kraig Metzinger).
And don't feel too bad about forgetting Walter's name — it's not the first time Macy has suffered character-related ind
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Question: Oh, great Televisionary, I vaguely recall a game show where the contestants got a chance to play on a giant pinball machine. Who was the host and how was the game played? Thank you.
Answer: Well, I... uh...
Sorry, Jeffrey — I was stunned into pfumpfery by your shameless worship (not that there's anything wrong with that). The show you're thinking of was called The Magnificent Marble Machine and it aired on NBC's daytime schedule from July 1975 to June 1976. Hosted by Art James, it featured celebrities who teamed up with average-joe contestants to play a 50-foot-high pinball machine. Without getting into too much detail, players were supposed to light up bumpers and earn points using a regular ball and a special bonus ball in an attempt to win cars and other big prizes. Before they could do that, though, they had to defeat another contestant in an initial round, which called for them to identify mys
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Question: What were some of the more popular shows of 1976?Answer: Well, since we're actually talking about two seasons in any given calendar year — for example, the tail end of 1975's fall season and the first half of 1976's — it's a whole host of programming. But because I like that time-capsule stuff, I'll give you a taste.
The Top 5 shows for September 1975-April 1976, together with each one's network and rating (percentage of total TV households in the country at that time) were: All in the Family (CBS, 30.1); Rich Man, Poor Man (ABC, 28.0); Laverne & Shirley (ABC, 27.5); Maude (CBS, 25.0) and The Bionic Woman
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