Tuesday, June 10, 2014

TVXOHOF IN MEMORIAM FOR JUNE 2014 - ALICE NELSON



Real life has once again intruded into the preferred dream-state of my personal reality so that I haven't been keeping on top of any Toobworld stories of major import.

At least here in the Inner Toob blog.  If you're on Facebook, look for the page for The Toobworld Dynamic and click "Like".  I put up stuff there all the time that I wouldn't otherwise get to in the blog.

But moving right along....

From the Los Angeles Times:

Ann B. Davis, the Emmy-winning actress best remembered as the nutty housekeeper on television's "The Brady Bunch," has died. She was 88.

Davis died Sunday [June 1, 2014] in San Antonio, said her agent, Robert Malcolm. She had fallen Saturday at her home there and did not regain consciousness.


Her most famous role was Alice Nelson, as stated in the obituary, but she was also known before that as Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz in 'Love That Bob'.  I'll have to do more research but Schultzy may be eligible for the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame - if I can find one more separate appearance for her.  (Besides 'Love That Bob', Schultzy was also seen in at least one commercial.)

But today we're remembering Alice Nelson, who could rightly be called the Queen of the TV Crossovers.

Look at her tally and see if you don't agree:

"The Brady Bunch"
117 episodes

"The Brady Bunch Variety Hour"
9 episodes

Shake n Bake Commercial


The Brady Girls Get Married (1981) 
A TV movie

"The Brady Brides" 
6 episodes

A Very Brady Christmas (1988) 
Another TV movie

"Day by Day" 
    - A Very Brady Episode (1989)
A dream sequence

"The Bradys" 
4 episodes

"Hi Honey, I'm Home" 
    - SRP (1991) 
From an alternate dimension

Swiffer Commercial


I think only Detective John Munch and Sam Drucker can rival her.  And perhaps Dr. Frasier Crane.....

O'BSERVATIONS:

Alice was so much a part of the Brady family that I would not be surprised if some viewers thought her last name was Brady as well - in much the same way as some people think Granny was a Clampett (No, Granny Moses!) and that there was a vampire named Grampa Munster.  (He was actually Sam Dracula.)

I was tempted to toss 'The Brady Bunch Variety Hour' into an alternate TV dimension, but it's still logical that they could have done a variety show in the main Toobworld since they had some fleeting fame in the early 1970s as a singing group:



And it was because of that TV variety show that Alice had a doppelganger in the dimension in which all TV characters are recreated.  This was the world from which the Nielsen family came from.


The variety show (which must have had a LOT of behind-the-scenes footage) was also responsible for a dream/nightmare Ross Harper once had when he should have been studying for his high school exams.  In the dream, Ross was now the long-lost Brady son, Chuck.


My list for Alice's credits read down in the order I think they should be in.  The Shake 'n' Bake blipvert was in 1981, but had to be before the TV movie "The Brady Girls Get Married" because Alice was only cooking for nine (counting herself.)


Ms. Davis' last appearance as Alice may have been that Swiffer commercial that leads off that trio of advertisements in the final video.  I think she may have been on vacation at a resort for some kind of domestic servant convention as we also see Benson, Rosario, Florence, and Geoffrey from 'Soap'/'Benson', 'Will & Grace' (perhaps 'The Flying Nun' as well?), 'The Jeffersons'/'Checking In', and 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air' respectively.

About 142 appearanes in all for Ann B. Davis as Alice Nelson.  You can't beat that with a stick!

Good night and may God bless, Miss Davis.  And welcome to the TVXOHOF......

BCnU!

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