TUESDAY'S TVXOHOF TRIBUTE - GLADYS ORMPHBY

Ruth Buzzi as Gladys Ormphby
2008 Emmy Awards 

From Reuters:
WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - Comic performer Ruth Buzzi, who played a counterpoint to the 1960s sexual revolution for laughs as the frumpy, hairnet-wearing, handbag-swinging spinster on U.S. prime-time television hit "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," has died at age 88.

Buzzi succumbed to complications from Alzheimer's disease at her ranch home near Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday, 10 years after she was diagnosed, her longtime Los Angeles-based agent Mike Eisenstadt said in a statement.

"Her husband of almost 48 years, Kent Perkins, expressed to me that she was making people laugh just a few days ago," Eisenstadt said in an email message to Reuters on Friday.

Buzzi devised a series of sketch comedy characters on the show. Gladys Ormphby, her most famous, was a scowling, irascible spinster who wore drab brown dresses and a hairnet with a spider-like knot in the center of her forehead. Sitting on a park bench, she would react to the approaches of a dirty old man played by Arte Johnson by mercilessly walloping him with her handbag when he muttered come-ons to her.

The Gladys and Tyrone bits offered a satiric contrast to the era's sexually permissive vibe celebrated on the show, which ran until 1973. The Gladys character became so popular that she began appearing elsewhere on prime time, and it became a badge of honor for a celebrity to be thrashed by Buzzi.

Appearing on one of several televised celebrity "roasts" hosted by actor-singer Dean Martin, Buzzi encountered the heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. As Gladys, the diminutive Buzzi ranted about Ali interfering in her relationship with her boyfriend, then threateningly pointed her index finger at him.

"If you want to make something of it, I want you to meet me out in the parking lot, and we'll have it out, man to man," Buzzi tells him, unleashing dozens of rapid-fire handbag hits to the head and shoulders of the bemused champion, who took it all in good humor.

At another roast, Buzzi as Gladys tells Martin: "Look at you, sitting there so calm and cool, when last night you were yearning for my body." Martin responds: "That wasn't yearning, it was yawning," precipitating a handbag assault, with entertainment legend Frank Sinatra looking on and laughing.

"No, it didn't hurt," Buzzi told interviewer Nick Thomas in 2016. "It looked vicious, but it was just a felt purse lined and filled with old pantyhose and cotton. I was able to swing it with all my might and it still wouldn't hurt anyone, although it looked great and sounded great with a 'thud' when it landed."

Buzzi earned three prime-time Emmy Award nominations in the 1970s - for "Laugh-In" and "The Dean Martin Show" - and two daytime Emmy nods in the 1980s and '90s, including one for her work on the acclaimed children's show "Sesame Street." She won a 1973 Golden Globe award for "Laugh-In."

Gladys Ormphby will be Ruth Buzzi’s most enduring legacy in the TV Universe, with Skitlandia as her domain.  And the Television Crossover Hall of Fame honors her with this memorial induction into the Hall.  Many other characters from that show were of that time and so they were doomed to be fleeting images in the long run.  But Gladys Ormphby (and her beau Tyrone F. Horneigh) were timeless.

GLADYS ORMPHBY

From the Muppet Wiki:
Gladys Ormphby was a frumpy spinster who originated on ‘Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In’ in 1968, and was one of the few characters to remain on the series for its entire five-year run. The character's frumpy attire and stooping posture were first used by Ruth Buzzi in a stage production of Auntie Mame as Agnes Gooch, but the traits were refined and retooled for ‘Laugh-In.’

The dour, hair-netted Gladys was perpetually found seated on a park bench, where she was generally harassed by dirty old man Tyrone (Arte Johnson). Gladys staunchly defended herself by pounding him with her pocket book.

When Johnson left the series, shortly after an aborted wedding between the pair, Gladys developed an increasingly desperate dream life, creating fantasy romances between herself and historical figures. Both Gladys and Tyrone resurfaced as animated characters on the 1977 Saturday morning series ‘Baggy Pants and the Nit-Wits.’

On Sesame Street
In the 1990s, when Ruth Buzzi was a regular on ‘Sesame Street’ as Ruthie, Gladys made a few guest appearances. In one sketch, seated on her park bench as usual, she is approached by Cookie Monster who begs for cookies. Gladys sharply insists that she has zero cookies, so Cookie Monster eats her pocket book instead. Still unsatiated, Cookie Monster hungers after her sweater and hairnet, and is puzzled when she runs away.

(First: Episode 3705) Gladys also appeared in the celebrity version of "A New Way to Walk." In a 1993 episode, Gladys appears as "the Grouch Princess," complete with a magical pocket book.

Other appearances
Outside of ‘Laugh-In’ and ‘Sesame Street’, Gladys has also surfaced in such diverse venues as ads for Canada Dry ginger ale, the Dean Martin celebrity roast for Frank Sinatra, and the 1996 "Weird Al" Yankovic music video "Gump," making a cameo appearance on her favorite perch, the park bench.

O'Bservations: 
There were two instances in which Gladys Ormphby was connected to two other Toobworld characters who are also members of the TVXOHOF.  Both of them were inducted on the strength of their presence in the main Toobworld.  But with Gladys involved, these would be their Skitlandian televersions.

During that roast of Frank Sinatra, Lt. Frank Columbo showed up to get the autograph of Old Blue Eyes for his wife.  They didn't meet on screen, but within the reality of the TV Universe, they must have crossed paths off-stage at the ballroom.  And in one episode of 'Laugh-In', Gladys fantasized about working for Private Eye Joe Mannix.

In the TVXOHOF of my mind, there is that park bench in the Hall’s gardens, surrounded by daisies.  Tyrone F. Horneigh probably won’t be showing up, but I’m sure there will be plenty of other Hall members who will face the fury of Gladys’ handbag.

with Edward G. Robinson

with Sammy Davis Jr.

with Dick Martin & Dan Rowan

with James Garner

with Judy Carne

with Rock Hudson

with The Holy Modal Rounders

with Don Rickles

As Red Skelton would say, “Good night and may God bless….”

TVXOHOF TRIBUTE - A SATURDAY SALUTE TO JILL SOBULE

From NPR:
Jill Sobule, who raised eyebrows with her cheeky 1995 anthem "I Kissed a Girl," has died. According to her publicist David Elkin and manager John Porter, the 66-year-old singer-songwriter died in a house fire in Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota on Thursday.

A statement issued by the Woodbury Public Safety Department on Facebook said when first responders arrived at the home early in the morning, it was engulfed in flames. A woman in her 60s was found dead inside the property. The authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

Sobule was staying with friends in Minn. before heading to her hometown of Denver to perform songs from her autobiographical coming-of-age musical “F*ck 7th Grade” on Friday. Instead, the venue in which she was scheduled to perform, Swallow Hill Music, has arranged an informal gathering in her memory.

"Jill Sobule was a force of nature whose music is woven into our culture," said Porter. "I hope her music, memory and legacy continue to live on and inspire others."

I was a fan of Jill Sobule.  She’s one of the few celebrities I actively followed on social media.  And I think I owe my interest in her to Vin Scelsa, the retired radio deejay who was one of the last of the free-form disk-spinners.

To become a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, one must have three separate showcases as a character; this includes the fictional televersions of those who are members of the League of Themselves.  (I am an example of that.)

And the TVXOHOF can honor her memory officially because she fulfills that requirement.

JILL SOBULE

From Wikipedia:
Jill Sobule (January 16, 1959 – May 1, 2025) was an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single "I Kissed a Girl", and "Supermodel" from the soundtrack of the 1995 film Clueless. Her folk-inflected compositions alternate between ironic, story-driven character studies and emotive ballads, a duality reminiscent of such 1970s American songwriters as Warren Zevon, Harry Nilsson, Loudon Wainwright III, Harry Chapin, and Randy Newman. Autobiographical elements, including Sobule's Jewish heritage and her adolescent battles with anorexia and depression, frequently occurred in Sobule's writing.

Sobule released eight studio albums of original songs, four EPs, and a greatest hits compilation album. Sobule's output also included original songs available only via the Internet, a cover of Robert Earl Keen's Christmas novelty track "Merry Christmas from the Family," and a version of the late Warren Zevon's "Don't Let Us Get Sick" included on both Sobule's acoustic album and on a posthumous Zevon tribute record.

In the late 1990s, Sobule toured with Richard Barone as "The Richard & Jill Show". Their songs have been used on 'The West Wing,' 'Felicity,' 'Dawson's Creek,' 'South of Nowhere,' and other television shows. 

In 2005, Sobule contributed music to 'Unfabulous', a popular Nickelodeon TV series about a 13-year-old aspiring songwriter, including a title song performed by Sobule under the program's opening credits.

Jill’s fictional televersion is actually a multidimensional in the greater TV Universe – There is a Jill Sobule in three different Toobworlds.

EARTH PRIME-TIME

TREME

TIPITINA (2012)

Season Three Finale. Davis McAlary and Cheeky Blakk go 'full ghetto' on McAlary's goodbye to the musician's life. Tim Feeny reveals himself and his intentions to Desautel when he finds out that she's throwing an unauthorized benefit for Gigi's. Delmond Lambreaux parts ways with the powers that be. Toni Bernette sees hope that Joey Abreu's killer may be prosecuted.

O’Bservation:
Jill played at that unauthorized benefit.  When she posted about it on Instagram, she was excited that she had six trombonists backing her up.  The song she played was “When My Ship Comes In”, my personal favorite.

LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN
SEASON 3 EPISODE 171 (1996)

O’Bservation:In her first appearance on the show, she performed “The Secretive Life.”  I don’t know what she played when she came back about a year later.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 137 (1997)

O’Bservation:
Normally, I don’t include talk show appearances as qualifications for inclusion in the Hall.  But I’m just bringing these two appearances to your attention because Conan O’Brien is a member of the TVXOHOF already.  Even that wouldn’t be enough technically.  

However!  There is a televersion of this show in Toobworld.  For example, Dr. Greene was seen watching the show in the ‘ER’ episode “Good Touch, Bad Touch”.  And Paula received a job offer from the show as seen in the episode “Montana” from ‘The Larry Sanders Show’.

It even exists in the Tooniverse, thanks to shows like ‘The Simpsons’, ‘South Park’, and ‘The Critic’.  For the most part, all those TV characters were watching the same episodes as we saw in the Trueniverse.  (Although we would never see the ‘Late Night’ episode in which Vince planned to talk about the threesome in which he took part.)   And that would mean the TV characters probably saw the fictional televersion of Jill Sobule on the show.

ALTERNATE TOOBWORLD

THE WEST WING
INAUGURATION PART 2 – OVER THERE (2003)

O’Bservation:
The club where Josh, C.J., and Toby listen to Jill Sobule sing “Heroes” is Iota, which used to be in Clarenden, Arlington, Virginia, but it closed in 2017.

The IMDb trivia section for this episode has not been updated.  It claims that this was Jill Sobule’s only TV series appearance.  That held true until 2012 when she appeared in that aforementioned ‘Treme’ episode.

THE TOONIVERSE

THE SIMPSONS
MARGE THE LUMBERJILL (2019)

O’Bservation:
Jill Sobule is not seen in animation form in this episode, but as seen in the pictures, the reference to her proves that she does exist in the Tooniverse.

HOMER:
Um, I like what you're wearing.
MARGE:
Thank you.
These are locally-sourced dungarees and Pendleton flannel.
It's what Jill Sobule wore when she played the Crystal Ballroom.
LISA:
Jill Sobule?
Like every other place we go, I love Portland.

And she is heard as well, singing the “Ballad of the Lumberjill:”

I walked into the forest
So beautiful and green
And there I saw a woman
Who was chopping down a tree

The sawdust was flyin'
She was spinnin' on a log
On her waist was strapped a tool belt
With a Black & Decker saw

Vroom, vroom, pull the cord
Buzz, buzz, just one more
Roar, roar, what a thrill
With Lumberjill

Vroom, vroom, pull the cord
Buzz, buzz, just one more
Roar, roar, what a thrill
With Lumberjill.

She continued the song over the end credits:

I walked out of the forest
Before we said goodbye
The birds were all a-singing
As she pointed to the sky

She said, "Can't you see the rainbow?
They made it just for you"
She handed me her toolbox
Said, "Now you know what to do"

Vroom, vroom, pull the cord
Buzz, buzz, just one more
Roar, roar, what a thrill
With Lumberjill

Vroom, vroom, pull the cord
Buzz, buzz, just one more
Roar, roar, what a thrill
With Lumberjill.

This has brought me small comfort, because I can’t help but think of the horror of such a death.  It may not be much, but I hope this tribute to her “life” in the TV Universe brings a smile to others who loved her music.

As Red Skelton would say, “Good night and may God bless….”