AS SEEN ON TV: ANN-MARGRET & ROGER SMITH

ANN-MARGRET & ROGER SMITH
AS SEEN ON:

'Saturday Night Live'

ANN-MARGRET

AS PLAYED BY:
Kristen Wiig

From Wikipedia:
Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in "Bye Bye Birdie", "Viva Las Vegas", "The Cincinnati Kid", "Carnal Knowledge", and "Tommy".

She has won five Golden Globe Awards and been nominated for two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and six Emmy Awards.

She did a string of successful TV specials, starting with "The Ann-Margret Show" for NBC / CBS in 1968.

She made guest appearances on the television shows 'Touched by an Angel' in 2000 and three episodes of 'Third Watch' in 2003. She also appeared in the Lifetime series 'Army Wives', in the episode "Guns and Roses" (Season 4, Episode 5), which originally aired May 9, 2010. On October 14, 2010, Ann-Margret appeared on CBS' 'CSI'.

Ann-Margret guest-starred in an episode of 'Law & Order: SVU', "Bedtime," which first aired on March 31, 2010. She received her sixth Emmy nomination for her performance. On August 29, 2010, she won an Emmy Award for Guest Performance by an Actress for her "SVU" performance. It was the first Emmy win of her career, and she received a standing ovation from the Emmy venue audience as she approached the stage to receive her award.

Ann-Margret starred in several TV movies, including "Queen: The Story of an American Family" (1993) and "Life of the Party" (1999), the latter of which she received nominations for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She also starred in the TV movies "Who Will Love My Children?" (1983) and a remake of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1984). These performances collectively won her two Golden Globe Awards and two Emmy nominations.

ROGER SMITH

AS PLAYED BY:
Ed Helms

From Wikipedia:
Roger LaVerne Smith (born December 18, 1932) is an American television and film actor and screenwriter. He starred in the television detective series '77 Sunset Strip' [as Jeff Spencer]. He is married to the actress Ann-Margret.

Smith appeared in 74 episodes of this Warner Bros.-produced series but left the popular ABC program in 1962 because of a blood clot in his brain. His health continued to decline for some time, and he was forced to retire from acting after Myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease, was diagnosed in 1965. His condition went into remission in 1985. Following his retirement from performing, he managed his wife Ann-Margret's career and produced her popular Las Vegas stage shows.

Smith appeared very rarely on television once his health deteriorated, but did participate on 'This is Your Life' when host Ralph Edwards devoted an episode to Ann-Margret.

His character of Jeff Spencer is a candidate for membership in the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame:

'77 Sunset Strip' (1958–1963) .... Jeff Spencer
'Hawaiian Eye': "I Wed Three Wives" (1960) .... Jeff Spencer
'Surfside 6': "Love Song for a Deadly Redhead" (1962) .... Jeff Spencer

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD - THE MERRILLIANS AND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN "ROSEANNE" & "CANNON"

Last week we remembered the late Dina Merrill by suggesting that many of the characters she played who were her contemporaries in the Toobworld timeline were all related in an extensive family tree which could trace its roots back to the Mayflower.  But several other characters she played in lengthy career couldn't fit into that scenario.  Reasons vary from being born in the wrong time period to not even being real in the first place.

And that's the one we'll focus on today in our continuation of the salute to Dina Merrill.....

Roseanne- Hoi Polloi Meets Hoiti Toiti (1996)

Doris
The Conners get a taste of upper crust living when they visit the wealthy Wentworth family at their home on Martha's Vineyard. The experience proves eye-opening when the Conner family discovers the pill-popping, alcohol-sipping, and irresponsibility of Astrid's dysfunctional family. As the weekend drags on, the Conners give the Wentworths a lesson in real life.

(From the IMDb)

Socialite Astrid Wentworth (Mo Gaffney) invites the Conners to visit her snobby family at Martha's Vineyard. Kiki Wentworth (Hillary Tuck) tries to come on to D.J., while Roseanne teaches Doris Wentworth (Dina Merrill) other ways to get her frustrations out rather than prescription medication.

(From the 'Roseanne' Wiki)

The thing is....  By the end of that last season in which this episode appeared, we learned that after the heart attack suffered by Dan Conner - from which he did die - Roseanne retreated into a fantasy of her life which she put down on paper.  And that's what we saw enacted on our TV screens.  Dramatizations passed off as being real life in Toobworld has been used in other shows like 'Jack Of All Trades' (the ramblings of a syphilitic old man), 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' (excerpts from a book), and the John Hart episodes of 'The Lone Ranger' (a TV show within a TV show).  Perhaps the most famous would be 'Newhart' which had been nothing more than - SPOILER ALERT!!! (as if!) - a dream of Dr. Bob Hartley from 'The Bob Newhart Show'.

And the episode with Dina Merrill was a good example that it wasn't reality we were watching.

From TV.com:

This episode has references to a couple of plays by Tennessee Williams.

• In the last scene, Doris has a short monologue where she refers to a unicorn with a broken horn which is from The Glass Menagerie." 
• The last scene, where Lily rolls into the kitchen in her wheelchair and yells "Stella" is from the play A Streetcar Named Desire." 

So what we were seeing is the depiction of Roseanne's fantasy version of her life and everybody who appeared in it was based on somebody from her life (or whom she knew about) whom she used as inspiration.  O'Bviously, the members of her immediate family and her friends appeared in this fantasy as themselves.  But everybody else had to come from somewhere else.

If this was a post about the episode itself, I'd come up with the inspiration for all of those characters.  But we're focusing on Doris Wentworth as played by Dina Merrill.

I don't think there was an actual character played by Ms. Merrill who could have crossed paths with Roseanne in Llanwood, not even if she had just stopped in to the diner for a quick cup of coffee on her way to anywhere else.

But Roseanne Conner could have read about one of those aristocratic women from that family tree in the newspapers or magazines, or maybe saw one of them on TV.  Sure, there could have been a 'Nova' episode in which she saw Dr. Barbara Dalton who once had to deal with a deadly toxin in Hawaii.  Or it could have been about her twin sister Dr. Carol Brooks, a marine biologist.  Maybe she saw an old movie which featured Thelma March in the cast.

But I think the main inspiration for Doris Wentworth was a woman -#  Well, like Warner Wolf never said, "Let's go to the episode guide!"

Cannon
- Murder by the Numbers (1973)

Doris Hawthorne
A wealthy middle-aged woman's fiancé disappears shortly before their scheduled wedding, and she hires Cannon to find him.

I'm sure that case garnered some attention in the press back in '73, but it's doubtful that it was publicized beyond the borders of California.  Maybe today with 24 hour cable news networks in need of fodder, but not back then.

However, as with many characters living in Toobworld, a TV show was made about the heavyset private eye in the early 1970s, not only in Earth Prime but in Earth Prime-Time as well.  We know this because it was mentioned (or seen) at least once by other Toobworld characters in the following shows:

• 'Cheers'
• 'Sanford And Son'
• 'Home Improvement'
• 'The Sopranos'
• 'Life On Mars'

So Roseanne could have seen the show's dramatization of the case.  And so Doris Hawthorne could have been the inspiration for Doris Wentworth because at the time Roseanne was writing that chapter, she was watching a rerun of 'Cannon'.  And the fact that both women shared the same first name is a good indication of the source for that character. 

  

OTHER SHOWS CITED:

'Hawaii Five-O'

'Marcus Welby, M.D.'

'Nancy Drew Mysteries'

BCnU

THE HAT SQUAD: KARL MALDEN

Academy Award winning actor Karl Malden has passed away at the age of 97. He made over fifty films including "Patton", "The Birdman Of Alcatraz", "Baby Doll", "On The Waterfront" (for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor), and "A Streetcar Named Desire" (recreating his Broadway role of Mitch, for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor).

On TV, he appeared in nine TV movies, many of which had him portraying real-life figures like Herb Brooks, Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., and Leon Klinghoffer. He also played The Walrus in an adaptation of "Alice In Wonderland".

But in Toobworld, he is best known for playing Lt. Mike Stone, a 20 year veteran police inspector working 'The Streets Of San Francisco', and as himself in a series of commercials he made for American Express Traveler's Cheques and for the American Express credit card over a 21 year period.

He also played the title role of Pete Skagska, a Pittsburgh steelworker felled by a stroke in the short-lived 'Skag'. His last character appearance on TV was as President Jed Bartlet's former priest in a first season episode of 'The West Wing'. (Father Tom Cavanaugh, like all of the characters in 'The West Wing', can be found in an alternate TV dimension and not Earth Prime-Time.)

He was a solid, dependable actor who never disappointed, and Toobworld is richer for the characters he provided.

TV SERIES
"Skag" .... Pete "Skag" Skagska

"The Streets of San Francisco" .... Detective Lt. Mike Stone

TV PILOTS
Skag (1980) .... Pete 'Skag' Skagska

TV SEQUELS
Back to the Streets of San Francisco (1992) .... Mike Stone

TV MOVIES
They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping (1993) .... Ed Ray

Absolute Strangers (1991) .... Fred Zusselman

Call Me Anna (1990) .... Doctor Harold Arlen

The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro (1989) .... Leon Klinghoffer

My Father, My Son (1988) .... Elmo Zumwalt Jr.

Fatal Vision (1984) .... Freddy Kassab

With Intent to Kill (1984) .... Thomas E. Nolan

Miracle on Ice (1981) .... Herb Brooks

Word of Honor (1981) .... Mike McNeill

TV GUEST APPEARANCES
"The West Wing" .... Father Thomas Cavanaugh
- Take This Sabbath Day (2000)

"Armstrong Circle Theatre"
- Anything But Love (1950)

TV COMMERCIALS
American Express

LITERARY ADAPTATIONS
Alice in Wonderland (1985) .... Walrus

Captains Courageous (1977) .... Disko Troop

"The Ford Theatre Hour"
- Little Women (1949)
"Good night, and may God bless."

BCnU.....

TENNESSEE TELEVISION

• Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Tennessee Williams' birth. These are most of the plays by Mr. Williams which were adapted for television, many of them for foreign TV markets...... "The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone"


• "A Streetcar Named Desire"


• "Eccentricities Of A Nightingale"


• "Suddenly, Last Summer"


• "Orpheus Descending"


• "27 Wagons Full Of Cotton"


• "The Glass Menagerie"


• "The Strangest Kind Of Romance"


• "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"


• "The Migrants"


• "Summer And Smoke"


• "Dragon Country" (combination of "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow", "Talk To Me Like The Rain", and "Let Me Listen")


• "Portrait Of A Madonna"


• "Ten Blocks On The Camino Real"


• "Mooney's Kid Don't Cry"


• "Last Of The Solid Gold Watches"


• "This Property Is Condemned"


• "The Lady Of Larkspur Lotion"


• "Hello From Bertha"


• "The Rose Tattoo"

My thanks to the Classic TV History Blog for the pictures. For more on Tennessee Williams' plays done on television, visit them here: http://classictvhistory.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/three-plays-by-tennessee-williams/ BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Today marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of playwright Tennessee Williams, known for such works as "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof", "Sweet Bird Of Youth", "The Glass Menagerie", "The Rose Tattoo", and "A Streetcar Named Desire".

And while his works have been performed on television and spoofs of them have appeared on occasion on comedy shows, I was surprised to discover no one has ever portrayed him on TV. But there was a TV character whom I think comes close to being based on him - the playwright Harper Worthington Yeats, played by Strother Martin in the "Baby Fat" episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'. Mr. Yeats had written his first comedy ("Baby Fat") and wanted TV star Alan Brady to play the lead in it. In Alan's opinion, the play was a bomb and he wanted Rob Petrie, the head writer of his TV show, to punch it up with jokes.
If you'd like to see the episode, go to Hulu.com; they have it there....

BCnU!

"An artist in the throes of inspiration must forever be alone."
Harper Worthington Yeats
'The Dick Van Dyke Show'

MY SITCOM LIFE: "THE EVIL DEAD" MUSICAL

Do you have any examples of TV sitcoms which mention theatrical musicals based on movies or plays which you'd never think would be adapted as musicals?

I'm confusing you, aren't I?

Here are two examples I came up with, both from 'The Simpsons':

'Planet Of The Apes' - the musical
'Streetcar Named Desire' - the musical

I'm blocked on more examples, but I know there have been others, always good for a laugh.

Last night, I actually went to one of those musicals, adapted from a movie (in this case, 2 1/2 movies) which I never would have guessed to become musical material.

"The Evil Dead"!

It's based on the first two movies, with some great lines (like the speech about the "boomstick") lifted from the third movie, which was also mentioned in the final scene.

It's a big, goofy spoof with plenty of gore spewing out into the audience. Since I wasn't in the splatter zone, I found it hilarious to see that happen to the others in the front rows. I'm scheudenfreude that way......

My only complaint was that too much of the show was played to the audience and the lines punched up - give us some credit, we get the jokes on our own. But any show that gives me a Bullwinkle J. Moose impression is aces in my book!

Nobody can step into Bruce Campbell's blood-soaked shoes as Ash, but Ryan Ward did a good job at it and could definitely play Campbell's ganglier brother.

My favorite song in the show? "What The F*** Was That?" and my favorite lyric was "You F***ing Stabbed Me!".

That's right. That was a lyric, not a line.

It's playing at the New World Stages over on W. 50th Street between 8 and 9th Avenues in New York City. I'm not saying it's fun for the whole family - I know some people walked out. But if you're in the mood for something along the lines of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Little Shop Of Horrors", and just ready to laugh, check it out.

Until they make a musical out of the "Saw" trilogy....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

AQUA-MANAGEMENT

The WB has finally announced who will be their next small screen hero in the upcoming series 'Aquaman'. Twenty-eight-year-old newcomer Will Toale will star in the title role in the new series from 'Smallville' creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.

The Florida-born Toale worked as a model before landing a supporting role in "A Streetcar Named Desire" at Broadway's Roundabout Theater alongside Natasha Richardson and John C. Reilly.

Broadway, Tennessee Williams, Richardson and Reilly.... no small potatoes!

The pilot is expected to be shot in Miami, and the series will start as part of the WB’s fall offering lineup. (There are reports that 'Aquaman' will not be the title for the series.)

"In the comic, Aquaman's the lost king of Atlantis," said Gough. "But in our version, he is Arthur Curry, this twenty-something who owns a dive shop."

I'll have to take a wait-and-see attitude on this new 'Aquaman'; wait for more information. If the show remains independent of 'Smallville', then everything is fine, because the 'Smallville' universe (which also houses 'The West Wing' and 'Mr. Sterling') already has its own 'Aquaman'. The trouble and splainins begin if a crossover ever happens.

And how could they resist? Same network, same producers, and 'Smallville' is enjoying some of its best ratings ever. Kal-El may not have his cape yet, but he's got some great coattails to ride.

So if they do cross over the new 'Aquaman' to 'Smallville', a splainin will have to be found as to why he no longer looks like Alan Ritchson in that stand-alone episode, 'Aqua'.

If he never crosses over, we can leave him beached in some alt. TV dimension. But which one?

The Tooniverse has its own Aquaman; a traditional rendering of the superhero based on the comic books. And in the main Toobworld, Aquaman is just a comic book character, and a joke at that considering the scorn heaped on the concept by Vince Chase's 'Entourage'.

But their contempt comes from ignorance about a race of mermen that actually do exist in Toobworld. Most notably there is Mark Harris, 'The Man From Atlantis', but various merfolk have been seen in episodes of 'Doctor Who' ("The Underwater Menace") and a tele-flick for 'Sabrina The Teenage Witch' ("Sabrina Down Under").

According to the comic books, Arthur Curry is the son of a human father and an Atlantean mother. (In a similar vein, 'Fantastic Journey' featured Liana, who was born of a human mother and an Atlantean father.)

The fact that Aquaman is a comic book character in Toobworld doesn't negate the possibility that he actually exists there. Superman is regarded mostly as a comic book character in today's Toobworld, but he actually did exist, serving Metropolis and saving the world until his death in the early 1960s. (Whole other story!)

But even while he was alive, Superman was a comic book character, as seen in "The Birthday Letter" episode of 'The Adventures of Superman'. I would guess that Supes okayed its publication, so long as all profits went to some charity to help the kids.

And after his death, somebody - perhaps Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen? - was able to reveal the full story of the Man of Steel. And that's how Jerry 'Seinfeld' knew that Superman's birth-father was Jor-El.

So if the King of Atlantis is out there as Arthur Curry in Earth Prime-Time he has not revealed himself.

He wouldn't have been hard to miss, though, with that garish orange body-shirt!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby