GAME OF THE NAME - MISS HOGARTH TO MRS. VAUGHN AND BACK AGAIN

From Wikipedia:
Virginia "Patsy" Garrett (May 4, 1921 – January 8, 2015) was an American actress and singer. Beginning her career as a radio performer at the age of seven, Garrett is best known for her seven years on “Fred Waring's Pleasure Time” radio show during the 1940s, as well as for her recurring television and film roles; as nosy neighbor Mrs. Florence Fowler on ‘Nanny and the Professor’ (1970–1971), school secretary Miss Hogarth on ‘Room 222’ (1972–1973) and as Mary Gruber in the “Benji” series of motion pictures beginning in 1974.
Let’s take a look at her roster of episodes from ‘Room 222’…..

Room 222
Miss Hogarth / Mrs. Vaughn

- The Flu (1969) ... Mrs. Vaughn
- I Wonder If January 15th Will Ever Come Again? (1972) ... Miss Hogarth
- Just Call Me Mr. Shigematsu (1972) ... Miss Hogarth
- And He's Not Even Lovable (1972) ... Miss Hogarth
- Hands Across the Sea (1972) ... Miss Hogarth
- Elizabeth Brown Is Failing (1972) ... Miss Hogarth
- The Nichols Girl (1972) ... Miss Hogarth
- Fifteen Years and What Do You Get? (1973) ... Miss Hogarth
- Someone Special (1973) ... Miss Hogarth
- A Hairy Escape (1973) ... Miss Hogarth
- Pete's Protege (1973) ... Miss Hogarth
- Pi in the Sky (1973) ... Miss Hogarth

As you can see, in her very first episode of the show, Ms. Garrett was listed as “Mrs. Vaughn”.  I watched the episode on YouTube – and while I think of it, you won’t find it listed by its actual title.  It was mislabeled as  “Teacher’s Dropping Out”, a later episode from that first season.

But in the version that’s on YouTube, I didn’t see her.  But they do mention that she couldn’t help out covering class periods because she was now out sick with the flu.  Either the online copy was from the syndicated rerun which was probably edited to fit in more commercials, or her scenes were cut in the editing room before it first aired, but she still got onscreen credit.

Patsy Garrett would not return to the show until nearly three years later,  By then she was now playing Miss Hogarth, the school secretary.

That interregnum actually works to promote my splainin to do.

My theory?  Miss Hogarth was Mrs. Vaughn, but she was now divorced and she went back to her maiden name.  On top of that, she had become disillusioned with teaching, yet still enjoyed her time at Walt Whitman High School.  About the only thing keeping her sane during that time as she fought her soon-to-be ex-husband in court was her devotion to her cat.  (When the audience in the Trueniverse learned of this, they also discovered her hidden talent of being a serlinguist, able to talk through the dimensional vortex to the people in the Real World.)

So in my theory, when Miss Tandy (played by the marvelous Helen Kleeb) finally retired, she applied for the job. Those in charge of hiring for the high school may have been sorry to lose her talents as a teacher, but they accepted her application.

I think it’s a better splainin than claiming that Miss Hogarth and Mrs. Vaughn were either twins or identical cousins.  Both of those splainins are overused.

I’m taking this one step farther with a fanficcer conflation….

Around the time we last saw Miss Hogarth, Toobworld was experiencing the same problems happening in the Real World….

From Investopedia:
In the winters of 1972 and 1973, [Fed Chairman Arthur] Burns began to worry about inflation. In 1973, inflation more than doubled to 8.8%.

So, in 1973, Miss Hogarth felt the pain to her pocketbook caused by inflation.  And she found relief at Community General Hospital, where she got a second job working as part of the maintenance staff.

That’s where she met Lt. Columbo while she was working that second job as a cleaning lady.  (He was investigating the murder of Sharon Martin, a nurse at that hospital.)

SHOWS CITED:

• ‘Room 222’
• ‘Columbo’
• ‘Diagnosis Murder’
• Purina Cat Chow Commercials

O'Bservation: It's because I'm wrapping up the eighth season of 'Ironside' in this year-long marathon (far from binge-watching!) that I noticed Ms. Garrett.  Checking to see if she had done a 'Columbo' episode - one of my side interests - I noticed that she died four years ago last week.  It was already too late to run this Game of the Name post for that day, but I gave her the next available berth on the schedule.

BCnU!