Wednesday, October 29, 2008

TMI WITNESS: FLIPPER

I'm not one who wants to know about the actors and actresses playing my favorite characters. I LOVE Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, but I don't need to know about Mary Tyler Moore's behavior on the set of the sitcom 'Mary'; it's too depressing and has no relevance to what goes on in the TV Universe. Unless of course, the actor or actress later appears as themselves in fictional settings - like the experience of Jennifer Grey's cosmetic surgery, which became a running joke in 'It's Like... You Know'.

So this exchange from an LA Times interview with Jessica Walter gave me pause... and more information... information... information than I needed to know!

You went out to L.A., and thought, "I'll hustle at the TV scene and do an episode of 'Flipper.' "

That was out of Florida! One of the first shows I ever did. I was 18, or 20 or something. . . . This is the worst. The story is, I remember, that we were in trouble on our boat, and medicine was dropped from a helicopter and it missed the boat and went into the ocean, so they sent Flipper to dive down and nudge it up with his nose. So I was saying to the other actors, "Isn't it amazing, they had Flipper fall from the helicopter and into the ocean and he doesn't swim away!" And they said, "Oh, that's the dead dolphin, they keep it on ice." Remember the little pelican, Pete? I said, "Isn't it amazing, Pete doesn't fly away!" They said, "Oh, they broke his legs." Welcome to TV!

It's like finding out Lassie's been beaten and burned!
I really didn't need to know any of that......

BCnU!
Toby O'B

1 comment:

  1. My best friend was named for Brian Kelly, the lead actor (besides Mitzi the dolphin, anyway) on Flipper....

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