Friday, May 5, 2017

GLADYS KRAVITZ - STILL KICKIN', STILL ZONKIN'



Lucy Chambers:
Hello.

Frankie Bergstein:
Oh! No solicitors.

Lucy Chambers:
No, no, I-I live across the street, 
and I saw an ambulance here a couple of days ago.

Frankie Bergstein:
Are you Gladys Kravitz

Lucy Chambers:
No, I'm Lucy.
Oh, Grace! Grace! 
She knows me.

Grace Hanson:
Lucy.

Lucy Chambers:
Hello.

Lucy Chambers:
Hello.
Listen, what's going on? 
I've been very worried.

Grace Hanson:
Thanks for stopping by, Luce.

Lucy Chambers:
Ah! He's all right

Grace Hanson:
Yeah, he's fine.

Lucy Chambers:
Oh, well, I'm so relieved.

Grace Hanson:
We're all relieved.
'FRANKIE AND GRACE'

Team Toobworld knows how we should play this - if there is no attribution connected to the character mentioned, we should be able to assume that the character exists in the same TV dimension as the person who mentioned them,


But Gladys Kravitz lived in Westport Ct., while Frankie Bergstein was in La Jolla, California.  And even though she was subjected to a magic spell which transformed her appearance, that never raised her recognition factor within Toobworld because the spell was designed so that nobody would be able to notice the change.  But even so, she could have been known to the general public.

That's because Samantha Stephens' secret life as a witch did become public, to the point where a TV show was developed based on the news reports, the Kravitzes could have been a reference by Frankie to their place in the public consciousness.

Abner and Gladys Kravitz did visit California after Tabitha had moved to Los Angeles in order to force their niece Nancy back home.  And when that failed, they left to return to Westport.  

However.... 

Abner Kravitz passed away around 1980, leaving Gladys a widow.  I think it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Mrs. Kravitz may have taken stock of her life after the death of her husband and thought she should move closer to her only close relative - her niece Nancy Kravitz in Los Angeles.  So that's what must have happened - Gladys Kravitz moved to the West Coast and down to the La Jolla area.  I think she may have been a neighbor living not too far away from Grace Hanson.


And even in her advancing years, her nosy behavior remained unabated.  I think Gladys Kravitz was such a snoop into the private lives of the Hansons (especially after Robert had his "episode".)  And Grace must have complained about it all the time to Frankie.

So when Lucy Chambers showed up, showing just as inquisitive an attitude as Gladys Kravitz, then Frankie naturally assumed it was the former Connecticut native.

So our decision: the reference to Gladys Kravitz was about the actual woman, but she was also fictionalized in the Toobworld version of 'Bewitched'.

One final note - Sandra Gould, the second woman to have played Gladys Kravitz, died in 1999 at the age of 82.  Had she been alive still, she would be reaching the century mark.  This is not out of the realm of possibility for Gladys, if not for Sandra.  (My great-uncle just turned 100 last week.)


So I have no problem thinking that Gladys Kravitz could still be alive, so that Frankie's mention of her was a contemporary one.  And who knows?  Maybe when Samantha transformed her so that her physical appearance was changed, it also caused her basic cellular structure was "refreshed", literally giving her a new lease on life.

As the Claviger for the Toobworld Dynamic, I'm going to stick with that theory.

BCnU!

(My thanks to "Cousin" Steve Goldmintz for bringing the reference to my attention.  I am way behind on my Netflix queue!)


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