AS SEEN ON TV: NATALIE SHAEFER

After dealing with a monster like Hitler for Friday the Thirteenth, I thought something different was in order, to cleanse the palate for the "As Seen On TV" feature. And for Valentine's Day, I thought I'd 'fess up to a teen-age crush (one of many)......

With the musical sitcom 'That's Life', I fell hard for E.J. Peaker. And I followed that up with the TV movie "Three's A Crowd", in which she and Jessica Walter were both the wives of Larry Hagman's character, living in different cities. (Eventually, as expected, romantic hilarity ensued.)

But I lost track of her for years, and with no internet to apprise me back then as to what TV shows she'd be making guest appearances in. So basically thirty years later, it was a surprise to finally see her again; this time playing another actress from that same time period, but now closer in age to that actress back then: Natalie Shaefer of 'Gilligan's Island'.

In 2001, Ms. Peaker appeared in the TV movie "Surviving Gilligan''s Island: The Incredibly True Story Of The Longest Three-Hour Tour In History", which I think was either based on the memories of Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann, or was produced by her. This TV movie falls into that dimension in which our TV shows are seen by fictional characters. It's populated by other such TV movies like those that depict the behind the scenes drama for other programs like 'Dynasty', 'Three's Company', 'Charlie's Angels', and British offerings like 'Steptoe And Son' and 'Up Pompeii' (in connection to the life of Frankie Howerd).

So Thomas Wolfe be damned, it was still nice to see E.J. Peaker again....
BCnU!
Toby O'B