FATHER'S DAY IN A SNOW-GLOBE

'ST. ELSEWHERE'
"THE ABBY SINGER SHOW"

Bill Dana passed away just about one year ago (June 15, 2017), at the age of 92.  As far as I can tell, he was the last of Steve Allen's repertory players best known for those "Man On The Street" segments.  (If I'm wrong, email me; let me know.)

He died the day before Stephen Furst, most famous for "Animal House", 'St. Elsewhere', and 'Babylon 5'.  And in 'St. Elsewhere', both men shared their last scene together for that series: Stephen Furst was a series regular as Dr. Elliot Axelrod while Bill Dana was a recurring guest star as the father of Dr. Wayne Fiscus.  Both of their characters died around the same time in the show and their "ghosts" marched down the halls of St. Eligius Hospital dressed in Sandinista uniforms in Fiscus' dream/nightmare.  But he saw it as an omen about his decision to be a doctor working in Nicaragua.

Bill Dana was not the only member of Steve Allen's show to play a father on 'St. Elsewhere':

• Bill Dana - Mr. Fiscus, Wayne's father
• Tom Poston - Jim Morrison, Boomer's father
• Louis Nye - Dr. Axelrod, Elliot's father
• Steve Allen & Jayne Meadows - Lech & Olga Osoranski, Ehrlich's birth parents (and Russian spies!)

It's a shame that they didn't carry this theme out further because there were a few more players who could have pulled Daddy Duty during the show's run.

• Don Adams
• Don Knotts
• Pat Harrington, Jr.

Gabriel Dell died of leukemia during the show's final year, so he may have been too sick during its run. But who knows?

There were plenty of other characters at St. Elsewhere who could have had those men as their fathers:

• Dr. Seth Griffin
• Dr. Jacqueline Wade
• Dr. Carol Novino
• Nurse Lucy Papandreo

I am not one of those fans of 'St. Elsewhere' who accepts the series finale premise that the whole show had been all in the mind of Dr. Westphall's autistic son Tommy.  For me, when Tommy was staring out the hospital window and everything started shaking, our perspecitve as the audience entered his daydream, not exited it.  The idea of the Tommy Westphall Universe is far too limited for my needs as the Toobworld Monitaur, so I had to reject it.

But I can understand the allure of the original theory.  If we look at the entire show happening inside Tommy's mind, we can see so much of the series had to be influences from television and elsewhere.

I even have a Super Six List to cover my favorite references in the show and the Fathers all top the list.

1)Steve Allen comedians as the Dads

2) Warren Coolidge, a character from 'The White Shadow' as an orderly

3) Mr. Carlin of 'The Bob Newhart Show' was in the psych ward of the hospital

4) The dog belonging to Axelrod's father was a collie, just like 'Lassie'

5) There was a one-armed man who was a fugitive in the hospital

6) John Doe #6 - Whoo, where to begin?  Because he had amnesia, it could be said that they had given him a number and taken away his name.  He decided that he was Mary Richards of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and he even thought a visiting Naval doctor played by Betty White was actually Sue Ann Nivens.  He finally divested himself of that fantasy once he realized he was throwing a great party at the hospital.  (Mary Richards NEVER threw a great party!)

And those are just my top six.  There were so many others, like song lyrics being used as dialogue.  ("Our house was a very, very fine house.  With two cats in the yard.  Life used to be so hard....")

But I can see how the original premise can be tempting; it just doesn't work for Toobworld....

At any rate, the show gave us a wonderful way to remember those great comic actors working for Steve Allen.

Happy Father's Day!