"stuck in the middle with you"

 

Rita Moreno

In Grace and Frankie on Netflix, Episode 2 of Season 2 is titled, "The Vitamix."

The very talented actress Rita Moreno makes a guest appearance.

Grace and Frankie go to Grace's ex-husband's house to get things for Frankie's ex-husband who is now married to Grace's ex-husband... The married husbands are at the hospital because one had a heart attack, so the ladies are helping them out.

        (During the process, Frankie questions a couple of times why they are doing nice things for their ex-husbands who left them and "ruined their lives.")

Anyway, the two characters, played by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, come in the door,  and shortly the door opens again and the Rita Moreno character puts her head in and wants to know what's going on.

        Frankie asks her, "Are you Gladys Kravitz?" - a Bewitched reference.  

Gladys Kravitz was the nosy neighbor who lived across the street from Samantha and Darrin Stephens.  Mrs. Kravitz would accidentally witness some witchly magic and call out to her husband at home, "Abner!  Abner!" and breathlessly tell him about it.

        Then when Abner would go to the window and look, the weird thing would be gone.

At the beginning of the Grace-Frankie episode, credits appear on the screen - "Directed by Rebecca Asher."

        That's the daughter of Elizabeth Montgomery and William Asher.

        Small world in Show Business.

        

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well, the little things you say and do

 

Prejudice probably exists in the first place because human beings have some kind of built-in thing in their psychology which makes us a little afraid and suspicious of someone who is different from ourselves.

...If they look different, or if we have knowledge that they are gay or Catholic or whatever...  (Roman Catholics:  "A Protestant!  Oooh, weird!")

(Gene McCarthy:  "Kennedy?!  No way.  All we have are farmers and Protestants...")

I think of myself as being a non-prejudiced person, but when I imagined a scenario where I'm walking along and I meet an alien from outer space with antennas on his head, I had to admit I would be afraid and suspicious.  

        Because I am not accustomed to seeing outer space aliens (I don't even really believe they exist) and it would be extremely startling if I were confronted with one.

        That is prejudice, I guess.  Maybe.  I don't know.

This topic made me think of a scene in the film, The Buddy Holly Story.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets are booked to play at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.  The guy who made the deal to bring them there assumed the people in the group were African American.

The M-C introduces the band, the curtains part and these three white dudes are revealed.  The all-black audience's applause sort of trails off, and we hear a surprised murmur in the crowd.  One man on the aisle looks like he's going to leave.

        Buddy Holly (portrayed by actor Gary Busey) stands for a moment as if frozen in place.  Then, looking a little nervous, he steps forward to the microphone and says, "Well we weren't expectin' y'all, either."

        This was not in super-recent times, it was August of 1957.

Watch the clip on You Tube, it's six minutes (3 songs!)

video title:  The Buddy Holly Story Live at the Apollo

uploader / channel:  48mafatue48

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our kind of folks

 

Bobby Kennedy

[excerpts from Bobby Kennedy, by Chris Matthews - Simon & Schuster, 2017] -------------------------- Unknown to him, a pattern of resistance to Jack was beginning to emerge on two fronts.  Both were owing to the candidate's religion.  Sorensen had gone to the Minnesota delegation to plead for the backing of Congressman Eugene McCarthy.  "Forget it!" came his dismissive reply.  "All we have are farmers and Protestants."

        Then, there were the anti-Catholic politicians, who were now, on the second ballot, looking to stop the Kennedy momentum.  Oklahoma governor J. Howard Edmondson phrased his own feeling on the matter this way:  "He's not our kind of folks."

        ...The Kennedy campaign's attention now turned to Wisconsin.  The first to arrive there, Bobby made quick work of a reporter's open skepticism as to the possibility of a Roman Catholic being elected president of a largely Protestant country.  "Did they ask my brother Joe whether he was a Catholic  before he was shot down?"

        Still, he wasn't taking any chances.  His first act upon arrival in Milwaukee was a purely pragmatic one.  He moved their state headquarters away from the Catholic cathedral just across the street. ---------------------------

Ted Sorensen (speechwriter for JFK)

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why is it bad if someone is a Catholic??

 

Dick York; Dick Sargent

"a phony ex wife in my bio" - 

it's a weirdly rhythmic phrase.

Like a "rap."

A phony ex-wife in my bio -

a phony ex-wife in my bio....

I remember that phrase being said by the actor Dick Sargent, in the "Bewitched" episode of "The E True Hollywood Story."

Why should these people have to pretend they were married to someone?

To benefit who?

Or - whom??

I thought about prejudice. 

Prejudice: both in the shows I watch, and in the books I read.

In the book Bobby Kennedy, written by Chris Matthews, they talk about when Jack Kennedy was running for president in 1960, and some people were whining, "He's a Catholic!  It's bad!  Aaaagghhh!"

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"a phony ex-wife in my bio"

 

Elizabeth Montgomery; Dick Sargent

In the "Bewitched" E-True Hollywood Story, they talk about the two Darrins.

In the first five years of the series, the actor playing Darrin Stephens was Dick York.  Then in the next three years of the series a different actor, Dick Sargent, portrayed Darrin Stephens.

During the "E True Hollywood Show" they get into talking about the gay people who were on the show:  Dick Sargent being the main one.

He says, "When my lover was alive, he felt very strongly about being in the closet.  And I had a phony ex-wife in my bio - and all this stuff.  Which everybody did in those days...."

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a dependable actress

 

Elizabeth Montgomery

In the Bewitched E True Hollywood Story (made in 1998 or so) the actress Liz Sheridan, a friend of Elizabeth Montgomery, said that she (Montgomery) "wanted to be respected as a dependable actress, and not just do comedy."

(I don't agree with the idea that if you're in a comedy, you're "just doing comedy."  There is no "just" - it's difficult, and not everyone can do it.

        Some people tend to think acting in drama is "better" in some way, than comedy.  

        WHY?  To me, I think Comedy is the Best!) 

Crime reporter Edna Buchanan said of Elizabeth Montgomery, "She just had a certain glow.  So many stars - when you see them on the screen, they're bigger than life.  They have this magic and charisma.  But - if you met them on the street, you wouldn't look at them twice.  

        They had the magic on the screen, but - she had it all the time."

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"Selfish!"

 

Elizabeth Montgomery and Paul Lynde on Bewitched

When watching the "E! True Hollywood Story" about Bewitched  you get to the part where Paul Lynde's performances are talked about. 

        "Lynde was a comedic actor, best known for his work on The Perry Como Show and the Broadway and film versions of Bye Bye, Birdie".

        Herbie J. Pilato, who wrote a book about Bewitched, says, Paul Lynde was only on eight or nine episodes of the show, but his presence was so strong - that - everybody thinks he's in, like, forty.

Bewitched director Richard Michaels says, "Paul Lynde's personality was so unique that, on our show, or anywhere else he appeared, he was outstanding.  So he made a mark bigger than the number of shows he did."

In Paul Lynde's first appearance on Bewitched, in 1964, he was Samantha's driving instructor.

        They are stuck in traffic, the instructor tells her to turn, and she says it's One Way, the "wrong" way....

        and another driver is laying on his horn, and Paul Lynde calls out the window at him, "Selfish!"

Richard Baer:  "He said it with such disgust, and such disdain, that it was hysterical."

(Paul Lynde:  "Selfish! .. SELFISH!!")

Richard Baer:  "I wouldn't have written it for anybody else, and nobody else would have done it the same, but it was probably my favorite line, and it wasn't even a joke."

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lemme do a re-write, and I'll give it to ya

 

Elizabeth Montgomery; William Asher

In the 1990s there was a show called the "E True Hollywood Story."

Its opening music was intense and spooky, with insistent rhythm and the sound of helicopters overhead. ...

        They made one episode about the TV series Bewitched.

It completely captivated me.  I recorded it on VCR tape and watched it several times.

        Now it is on You Tube.  With the title, "Bewitched" - Behind the Scenes.  Uploader / channel:  Mima 1999. 

        After television producer and director William Asher and actress Elizabeth Montgomery got married, Mr. Asher brought the idea to his wife that they do a TV show together.  Bewitched was the result.

In the E-True program William Asher says the original script was "very heavy, very witchy"... he said, "Let me do a re-write, and I'll give it to you."  

Something about the way he said that stuck with me.

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getting frantic

 

Elizabeth Montgomery portraying Samantha Stephens' cousin Serena

That chocolate factory episode of "I Love Lucy" is funny because the "belt" - the thing that moves, and transports the chocolate candies to where the workers are, so they can wrap them up - starts going too fast.

The candies are zipping in, and Lucy and her friend Ethel don't have enough time to wrap them properly, so they get frantic, and start trying to get rid of the candies - they eat some of them, hide some of them in their clothes and under their hats...

        It's very silly - in real life, why would you speed up the assembly line and cause all that waste?  (Someone in management would surely get grouchy over such a move.)

But in a comedy show, you don't have to worry about wasting product, because you're not really making product - you're making entertainment.  And when things speed up and go too fast, it becomes funny.

There's a scene in the second Sex And The City movie where the ladies - Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York Goldenblatt, Samantha Jones, and Miranda Hobbes - get kicked out of a luxury hotel in the Middle East (don't ask) and they have to get their stuff packed and get out in a certain time frame.  They are running back and forth in their hotel rooms, trying to pack, and pretty soon they just start throwing items into bags. 

        It's funny because it's frantic, and desperate, and - not real.... 

There's another iconic assembly-line scene in a 1960s situation comedy - Bewitched - where Samantha Stephens' Uncle Arthur and her cousin Serena temporarily lose their magical powers and so they decide they need to get jobs.  

        They get jobs making frozen desserts involving bananas, nuts, and chocolate syrup.  Like in the "I Love Lucy" episode, the assembly-line "belt" starts going too fast, and Serena and Uncle Arthur go crazy trying to keep up.

Serena:  "Oh!  OH!  They're speeding up!"

It's very similar to the "I Love Lucy" assembly line scene.  With a little sexual harassment thrown in.

        When the belt speeds up, Uncle Arthur stops finishing the banana-nuts-chocolate syrup dessert and putting it in the freezer, and starts just throwing the individual ingredients into the freezer - (as if they're going to assemble themselves in there! - LOL).

Uncle Arthur is played by the actor Paul Lynde (1926 - 1982).  God, nobody is funnier than him.  It's his delivery of the lines....

Paul Lynde; Elizabeth Montgomery

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assembly-line humor

 

"I Love Lucy" was a situation comedy that was on TV in the 1950s.  

That was before I was born, but I heard of it when I was a little kid in the 1960s.  And saw it a few times, in my childhood - once on my Grandma and Grandpa Snow's TV, I think....

"Lucy" was Lucille Ball, an actress who played in movies in Hollywood's "golden age" - 1930s and 1940s.

In the 1950s she and her husband Desi Arnaz had the sitcom "I Love Lucy" - and it was the early days of television ... along with Milton Berle and whatever....

Lucy went on to have two more situation comedies after "I Love Lucy" - "The Lucy Show" in the early 1960s, and "Here's Lucy" in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Each of these shows went for six years.

Anyway - "I Love Lucy" had an iconic episode where she and her friend Ethel get a job at a factory where they make chocolates and wrap them up.... it's an assembly line....

Go on You Tube, and type in

I Love Lucy | Lucy and Ethel At The Chocolate Factory

...and watch.  It's funny.  

        Although - if you work in Quality Assurance, maybe you should skip it, because if you watch, you might get traumatized and have to go into therapy... the unsanitary... - you don't want it, take my word for it...OY!

Lucille Ball

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blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind

On You Tube, type in this video title:

Signs - The Five Man Electrical Band 1971

... prepare to rock out, and PLAY!

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Honey West

  

On You Tube there are some videos tagged with the description, "unaired pilot."

The pilot is the episode they film to show to studio executives and see if it can become a series that's on the air.

If the show gets "picked up," as they say, then the 'pilot' episode might be shown on television, or it might not.  If it's not, then it's the "unaired pilot."

There's an unaired pilot labeled "Honey West."

I had never heard of that.

        Honey West is the name of a woman (a TV show character)  who is a private detective, and she has some of the same qualities and accoutrements of 1960s television and movie spies - she is strong, has ju-jitsu skills (flipping a guy over her shoulder onto the floor), and unexpected gadgets - like a lipstick she takes out of her purse, and you think she's going to apply it to her lips, but instead she talks into it:  it's a two-way radio disguised as a lipstick...!

In the pilot, this man is stealing jewelry in a hotel room and the closet (closet??!!) door opens and Honey West exits it, with a gun in her hand.  [This is not what we mean when we say "coming out of the closet"...]

The man says, "Who are you, by the way?  I hate being arrested by strangers."

She says:  "Honey West."

- "Honey West.  Well, well, well... A girl private eye.  Don't you know a woman's place is in the home?"

- "This is no time for a proposal.  Just hand over the loot."

- [sigh] "I guess you can't win 'em all"...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This dialogue caught my attention.

"Honey West" was picked up and the series ran for one year.

        I thought it was from the 1950s, by the look of it, but it ran in 1965...so - what do I know...?

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