LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD

 

As we approach the end of 2022, I acknowledge that there was much to celebrate this year. 

1. President Biden and the Democrats in Congress continued, and continues, to work to undo the damage done to America and the world by the Trump presidency and to deal with the problems facing our country today with competence, intelligence and integrity.

2. In November intelligence and patriotism won out over ignorance, bigotry and treason in my home state of Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country.   

Unfortunately, the three absolute worst Republican Congresspersons - Taylor Greene, Boebert and Gaetz - won re-election.  Two complete morons and a suspected pedophile and sex trafficker.  This is a sad commentary on the state of ignorance, racism and bigotry in America today.

3. The Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud.

4. The January 6^th Committee completed its extensive investigation of the insurrection, released its report, and recommended criminal charges be filed against Trump.

There is much work to be done in 2023.  We must continue to be vigilant and to oppose and denounce the Republican Party and vote against all Republican candidates for all offices at all levels.

As I have said before in various venues, although it is beginning to finally attempt to distance itself from Trump and his lies, by continuing to embrace the racist, bigoted and repressive agenda of the fake Christian “Evangelicals” of the Religious Right today’s Republican Party remains the greatest threat to America, American values and American freedom and democracy.  The once “Grand Old Party” has truly become the White Christian Nationalist Party.

By playing down and whitewashing the January 6^th insurrection and opposing the work and findings of the January 6^th Committee, not because it believes the attack or the reasons for it to be legitimate but because it does not want to lose the votes of Trump’s cult of ignorant racists and bigots, the Republican Party has proven that it has no conscience and puts the Party’s interests, and remaining in power, ahead of the Constitution, democracy and the country.

And let us hope that 2023 brings the indictment, prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment of Trump for his multitude of federal and state crimes.  It is vital for the future of our democracy that this corrupt, deplorable and despicable malignant narcissist be held accountable for his actions.

On a sad personal note, this year I mourned the passing of a long-time friend from grammar school, high school and college – Howard Levine.  We have been friends for almost 60 years - I believe we first met in the third grade.  In our high school and college days we were involved together in various political issues of the day – as leaders of the local Vote 18 campaign.  He is one of the small handful of friends from grammar school that I saw in person at least once a year every single year since we left school (at tax time).

TAFN

THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among others,

To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Robert D Flach

WORKS FOR ME

 

How about a helpful household hint?

I am always seeing fancy looking organizers and containers for storing office, household, workshop and other supplies on home improvement shows and in the aisles at STAPLES.  It appears that some are rather expensive.  However, I get all my business and personal organizers absolutely free!

I have found that the various plastic containers that food and household products come in are perfect organizers for holding different sized paper and binder clips, various sizes of sticky pads and smaller lined paper pads, stamps, pens and pencils, erasers, nails, screws, and other supplies.

For one, there is the containers that many “tv dinners” come in (the aluminum ones are no good).  And the brown container that holds three crème-filled cupcakes or clear container that holds cookies in a package.  They provide multiple sections for organizing clips and binders.

The green or blue containers that hold the Swiffer wet pads, or the generic alternative, come in several sizes and have many uses in the kitchen, bedroom, and office.

The round plastic containers that contain potato or macaroni salad from the supermarket or “Blimpie” are also good for holding small supplies.

I even make use of the metal Altoids containers.

Not only am I saving money, but I am recycling as well!

TAFN

THE BAYONNE BLEEDER

 

I recently read that a “Statue of Chuck Wepner, ‘The Real Rocky,’ unveiled in Collins Park” in his hometown of Bayonne.

 

Yes. Wepner, aka "the Bayonne Bleeder", was, surprising to me, Sylvester Stallone's "inspiration" for the character of Rocky Balboa.

 

Wepner was a liquor salesman in Hudson County NJ. We could always tell when he was making a sales call at Kilbride’s Bar, next to our office on Sip Avenue off Journal Square in Jersey City. His station wagon was detailed with a small red line along each side that ended in a pair of boxing gloves. And I think he had a boxing-related vanity plate, thought I don’t recall what it was.

 

Wepner’s claim to fame was a title bout with Mohammed Ali back in 1975.

 

I remember the week-end before the fight with Ali. I was at Jimmy Byrnes’ Sea Girt Inn with friends from college with whom I shared a summer home in Belmar. Wepner was there and drunk, and got up on the stage between band sets and bragged about how he was going to beat Ali. As I recall his reference to Ali included racial slurs, including the notorious “n” word.

 

The night of the fight I watched along with friends at Narrowback’s Bar on the Boulevard in the Heights section of Jersey City.

 

Here is a story I heard shortly after the fight. It was so long ago I don’t remember the source -

 

Wepner bragged all week to everyone, including his wife, that he was going to beat Ali. As he left for the Richfield Coliseum on the morning of the fight, he told his wife - “Honey, tonight you’re going to be sleeping with the champ.”

 

After the fight was over, with a not surprising conclusion, as Wepner was sulking in his dressing room his wife came in and asked him -.

 

“Is Ali going to send a car for me, or should I meet him at the hotel?”

 

An aside to my long-time friend and client Aditi Kinkhabwala, reporter for the CBS Sports cable network and frequent co-host of  "We Need to Talk", this is my only sports story.

 

TAFN

A HALF DOZEN MIRACLES

 

The Christmas season is underway.  Here are some things nobody ever told you about a Christmas classic.

We all know and love the 1947 film MIRACLE ON 34th STREET with Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, a very young Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies.  It is on everyone’s list of Top 5 Christmas movies, along with IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and WHITE CHRISTMAS.

Of course, 34th Street in the title refers to Macy’s Department Store, located on 34th Street at Herald Square in New York City.

It was remade in 1994 with Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, Mara Wilson, and Richard Attenborough as KK, written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Les Mayfield.  There were two major differences in the remake - Macy's department store declined involvement with the remake, so the fictitious "Cole's" was used instead of Macy’s, and the final court decision in the remake is based on a different reasoning than in the original film.

I remember the 1973 television version with Jane Alexander, David Hartman, Susan Davidson, and Sebastian Cabot.  The store was still Macy’s and the basis of the court decision was the same as the original movie.

There had been two previous tv versions.  A 1955 one-hour television adaptation, originally aired as an episode of “The 20th Century Fox Hour”, starred Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey (who starred as Dr Tom Horton for almost three decades on tv soap “Days of Our Lives”), Sandy Descher, and Thomas Mitchell.  Ed Wynn played Kris in a 1959 adaptation broadcast live and in color on NBC the day after Thanksgiving.  It also featured Orson Bean.

But did you know that there was a Broadway musical version?     HERE’S LOVE, with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for THE MUSIC MAN (the first Broadway musical I saw as a child – at age 5), opened on October 3, 1963 at the Shubert Theatre, and closed on July 25, 1964 after 334 performances and 2 previews.  I was in the audience for one of the 334 performances. 

HERE’S LOVE was directed by Stuart Ostrow and choreographed by Michael Kidd.  The cast included Janis Paige, Craig Stevens (aka tv’s Peter Gunn), Valerie Lee, and Laurence Naismith as Kris.  The classic song "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" written by Willson in the early 1950s, was used in the show.

BTW – according to Wikepedia - “Lux Radio Theater broadcast an adaptation in 1947 which starred the original cast including Natalie Wood. In 1948 it was done again on Lux, without Natalie Wood's participation, and it was adapted as a half-hour radio play on two broadcasts of Screen Director's Playhouse, all featuring Edmund Gwenn in his screen role”.  

TAFN  

 

I LOVE A MYSTERY

 

I love the Turner Classic Movies cable tv station.  On occasion TCM runs episodes of classic detective movie series from the 30s and 40s.  It is just another reason why TCM may be the best television station around.

Here are some of the series that I have seen on TCM over the years-

* Two famous film series about literary detectives that began with George Sanders as the star – The Saint, more famous as a British tv series with Roger Moore, and The Falcon. Interestingly enough, after making 3 Falcon films Sanders decided to retire from the role, and in the 4th of the series, THE FALCON’S BROTHER, Sanders was killed in the end and his fictional brother, played by Sanders real-life brother Tom Conway, took over as the new Falcon and continued for all but the last three of the 16-film series. FYI - when called THE GAY FALCON the reference was not to the detective’s sexual preference. Back then gay meant something else entirely.

* The adventures of retired jewel thief Boston Blackie, brought to life by Chester Morris, a real-life amateur magician who shared the hobby with his screen character, and his sidekick “Runt”. I had seen many of the Blackie movies during my youth on Saturday afternoon television.  

* The Perry Mason series, which, while keeping the actual ESG mysteries intact, took too many liberties with the characters, portraying Perry as a drunk bon vivant amateur chef who marries Della Street in one episode, a far cry from the more true to the books portrayal of Raymond Burr with which all boomers are familiar, and Paul Drake as a typical bumbling movie sidekick nicknamed “Spudzy”.

* Another retired jewel thief who appeared in a series of 15 films over 14 years – Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf. This literary detective’s nickname was actually the source of the popular term “lone wolf”, used to describe “one who prefers to go without the company or assistance of others.”

* The uniquely named debonair detective Philo Vance, whose initial entry, THE CANARY MURDER CASE was completed as a silent film and hastily adapted for sound for its 1929 release. This series included THE GRACIE ALLEN MURDER CASE, not among the TCM offerings, written especially for the comedienne by Vance’s creator S.S. Van Dine. A later entry in the series, CALLING PHILO VANCE, was actually a remake of the earlier THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, both of which have been shown on TCM.

* A very interesting series I had never heard of before about Nick and Nora–ish rare booksellers Joel and Garda Sloane, from a novel by famous screenwriter Harvey Kurnitz writing as Marco Page. There were three films with three separate sets of actors playing the couple – Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice in FAST COMPANY, Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell in FAST AND LOOSE, and Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern in FAST AND FURIOUS, directed by Busby Berkeley.

* And of course, the father of all such detective series – William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Of course, you do know by now that the Thin Man was not Nick Charles but a character in the first book that never reappeared, despite the movies’ titles.

While the individual detectives had their unique quirks and subtle differences, to be perfectly honest in many cases the characters and stories are interchangeable. All the heroes are handsome, urbane, witty, and intelligent, generally with some kind of shady past or underworld connection. They usually have a comic relief sidekick and, even if married, are often in the company of a beautiful dame. And they are frequently at odds with a hard-boiled police lieutenant or inspector with a blundering sergeant. They become involved in the mystery or adventure to help a friend, or one of the aforementioned beautiful dames, or to clear themselves of wrongful charges. As some of the films were made during the war years, the heroes occasionally tangled with Nazis and foreign spies.

While these films were considered to be “B” films they often featured actors and actresses early in their careers who would later go on to fame on the big and small screens. One young dame who crossed paths with Boston Blackie was Harriet Hilliard, who would marry a band leader named Nelson and raise her two boys on radio and television.

As with any genre, some series were better than others. And as with any episodic series, some entries, usually the earlier ones (although not always), were better than others.  Different actors often portrayed the various detectives during the runs of the individual series, and some casting choices were far superior to others. But they all were entertaining.

A few of the movie series were later translated to the small screen – Boston Blackie, Lone Wolf, The Thin Man (which starred Peter Lawford as Nick Charles), and of course Perry Mason and the Saint.

TCM has also offered the comic series about radio detective The Fox, which starred Red Skeleton “Whistling” in Dixie, Brooklyn and the Dark, and Margaret Rutherford’s classic run as Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple.

TAFN

UP, UP AND AWAY!

 

Spiderman was not the first comic book super-hero to appear on the Great White Way.  In March through July of 1966 IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S SUPERMAN ran for 19 previews and 129 performances at the Alvin Theatre.  I was in the audience for one of these performances.

This musical had a more traditional Broadway pedigree than today’s Spiderman adaptation.  Music and lyrics were by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams (ANNIE, APPLAUSE, BYE BYE BIRDIE, etc), and it was produced and directed by Hal Prince.   

While it had Lois Lane, there was no Lex Luthor.  The villains of the piece were a mad scientist and the Daily Planet’s Winchell-esque gossip columnist Max Mencken, played by Broadway veteran Jack Cassidy (father of “Tiger Beat” favs David and Shaun and husband of Partridge Family mom Shirley Jones).  

Also in the cast, as Cassidy’s assistant, was Linda Lavin, who would go on to fame on the small screen as Alice, a waitress at Mel’s Diner. Appropriately initialed for the “silver age” Superman, LL sang the show’s one contribution to the Great American Songbook – “You’ve Got Possibilities” – which was featured a few years back in a Pillsbury Doughboy commercial.

According to the Superman Supersite  –

“The plot revolves around Superman's efforts to defeat Dr. Abner Sedgwick, a ten-time Nobel Prize-losing scientist who seeks to avenge the scientific world's dismissal of his brilliance by attempting to destroy the world's symbol of good. Additionally, Superman comes into romantic conflict with Max Mencken, a columnist for the Daily Planet newspaper, who resents Lois Lane's attraction to Superman.”

FYI, to find out everything you always wanted to know about Broadway go to www.ibdb.com.  The Internet Broadway Database archive is the official database for Broadway theatre information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today. Details include pertinent people involved as well as interesting facts and production statistics.

Get a list of every production of Hamlet on Broadway or a list of your favorite actor's credits. Find out what shows opened in a specific Broadway season.  I use IBDB often to verify my memory and to fill in missing or forgotten information for my writings on Broadway.

TAFN

AND AWAY WE GO!

 

There has been a long-standing tradition of making successful television shows out of popular Broadway plays and theatrical movies, from THE NAKED CITY, TOPPER and MR LUCKY to MASH, THE ODD COUPLE, and ALICE.  A while back Hollywood began to reverse the trend, making inferior films based on successful television series.

The first tv series based on a play and/or movie was MAMA, based on the 1944 play and 1948 movie I REMEMBER MAMA.  The show ran on CBS from July 1, 1949 to July 27, 1956.  The cast included a young Dick Van Patten of EIGHT IS ENOUGH.

The second series taken from a play and/or movie was THE FRONT PAGE, starring real life journalist John Daly (who would later become famous at the host of WHAT’S MY LINE) as newspaper editor Walter Burns.  It had a brief run from September 29, 1949, to January 26, 1950.

The third movie turned into a television series was THE LIFE OF RILEY, a successful radio comedy that was made into a movie in 1948.  Both the radio show and the movie, and eventually the tv series, starred William Bendix as Chester A Riley.  But Bendix was not tv’s first Riley.

Television’s first Chester A Riley was none other than “honeymooner” Jackie Gleason. 

William Bendix was supposed to have starred in the initial television version, but Bendix's RKO Radio Pictures movie contract prevented him from appearing. 

The first series was telecast from October 4, 1949 to March 28, 1950.  It won television's first Emmy, for "Best Film Made For and Shown on Television". According to Wikipedia it came to an end because the producer and the sponsor, Pabst Brewing Company, reached an impasse on extending the series for a full 39-week season.

The show returned on January 2, 1953, with a totally new cast that now included William Bendix as Chester A and Marjorie Reynolds as Mrs. Riley, and lasted for 6 seasons.  I remember watching it as a child.

Speaking of first actors to appear in a role and Jackie Gleason – Audrey Meadows, who became famous as Alice Kramden on the iconic HONEYMOONERS tv show, was not the first actress to portray Alice on tv.  The original Alice Kramden, to Jackie Gleason’s Ralph when “the Honeymooners” first appeared as a regular series of skits on the DuMont Network's "Cavalcade of Stars" was Pert Kelton

Kelton appeared in the original 10 to 20-minute sketches.  She was abruptly replaced by Audrey Meadows as a result of blacklisting - the practice of denying employment to screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other American entertainment professionals during the mid-20th century because they were accused of having Communist ties or sympathies, a practice that grew out of Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunt.  Instead of acknowledging she was being blacklisted, the producers explained that her departure was based on heart problems.

Kelton is most famous for her Broadway role as Mrs. Paroo, the Irish mother of the town librarian Marian Paroo, in Meredith Willson's Broadway musical THE MUSIC MAN, a role she reprised in the 1962 film version of the show.

FYI – Broadway legend Elaine Stritch played Trixie, the burlesque dancer wife of Ed Norton, for one sketch before being replaced by Joyce Randolph.

And another FYI – Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel and aide in his Communist witch hunt was lawyer Roy Cohn, who later became Donald Trump’s mentor and lawyer when he was starting out in the real estate business and who was a great influence on Trump.

TAFN

VOTE!

 

Tomorrow is Election Day.  This election is perhaps the most important election in at least my lifetime (I will turn 69 later this month).  You MUST vote like your life depends upon it – because it does!

It is vitally important for the future of America, true American values, and American freedom and democracy that EVERY intelligent and patriotic American regardless of political orientation – every libertarian, conservative, moderate, progress, and liberal - vote against EVERY Republican candidate in EVERY election at EVERY level.

Today’s Republican Party has totally abandoned all integrity and credibility and has totally abandoned all true Conservative and traditional Republican values, philosophy and policies.  Today’s Republican Party is controlled by the racist and repressive Religious Right, bought and paid for by the NRA, and completely embraces ignorant, incompetent, corrupt, crooked, and treasonous demagogue Trump and his lies. 

I am not saying this because I am a Democrat or a “liberal”.  I am not, and have never been, a “card-carrying” member of the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or any other Party.  In the past I have voted for Democratic, Republican and third-Party candidates, liberal, moderate and conservative, in various federal, state and local elections, based on the issues and the individual candidates.  I am saying this because I have a brain and a conscience and a true concern for the safety and security of America and American democracy.

I very seriously and sincerely believe that the greatest threat to America today is the Republican Party.  And I very seriously and sincerely believe that if Republicans gain control of Congress and state legislatures tomorrow it will be the beginning of the end of America as we know it!

The bottom line –

VOTE TOMORROW AGAINST EVERY REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR EVERY ELECTION AT EVERY LEVEL!

LUCY LOVES DESI

 

When CBS first approached Lucille Ball to do a TV series they did not want it to co-star Desi Arnaz, as Lucy had wanted, because he was a Cuban.  The network didn’t think audiences would buy the marriage of an all-American girl and a Latino.

 

Lucy saw the television show as a great opportunity to work with Desi and perhaps save their shaky marriage.  To prove the network wrong Lucy and Desi developed a vaudeville act that they took on the road with Desi's orchestra. The act was a hit and convinced CBS executives that a Ball-Arnaz tv pairing would work.

 

Or so I learned from AN EVENING WITH LUCILLE BALL: “THANK YOU VERY MUCH”, which I saw at the Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven on Long Beach Island several years ago.  The one-woman show, starring Suzanne LaRusch, was written by Ms LaRusch and Lucie Arnaz and directed by Lucie Arnaz.  

 

In 1950 CBS had asked Ball to take her successful radio comedy MY FAVORITE HUSBAND to television with co-star Richard Denning.  The radio program was written by Bob Caroll Jr and Madeline Pugh, who would go on to write for I LOVE LUCY, and co-starred Bea Benaderet and Gale Gordon as their neighbors.  This is the show that eventually became I LOVE LUCY.

 

Bea Benaderet and Gale Gordon were Lucy and Desi's first choice to play the Mertzes, but the actors were unavailable.  When they came across William Frawley, Desi Arnaz wanted him, but he was told that Frawley would be a poor choice because he was a womanizer, a gambler, and a drunk. Arnaz said, "He's perfect!"  It is rumored that Frawley and Vivian Vance did not get along off-screen.

 

Gale Gordon went on to play the principal on OUR MISS BROOKS (see below for Lucy connection).  He guest-starred on I LOVE LUCY and later co-starred with Lucy in THE LUCY SHOW and HERE’S LUCY.  Bea Benederet was unavailable for I LOVE LUCY because she was already cast at George Burns and Gracie Allen’s neighbor Blanche Morton on their tv show.  Bea was the original voice of Betty Rubble of THE FLINTSTONES, and also appeared in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES and starred in PETTICOAT JUNCTION.

 

Before deciding to do MY FAVORITE HUSBAND on radio Lucy was offered the title role in the radio series OUR MISS BROOKS.  This show eventually went to Eve Arden, and was also taken to television.

 

Lucy first met Desi when she appeared as his love interest in the 1940 RKO movie adaptation of the successful Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical TOO MANY GIRLS.  Desi reprised his Broadway role in the movie.  The movie was the film debut of co-star Eddie Bracken, also reprising his Broadway role, and Van Johnson as a member of the chorus, and introduced the standard “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”.

 

Desi Arnaz invented the television rerun during the pregnancy episodes of I LOVE LUCY when he re-aired episodes from the first season to give Lucy some rest.  He also pioneered the use of three cameras simultaneously for filming a sitcom, resulting in high-quality prints preserved for future TV audiences.

 

And one more bit of I LOVE LUCY trivia.  The famous "valentine" opening credits we know from syndication were not the original opening credits.  They were added when CBS began rerunning the series in 1958. Originally the credits featured animated stick figures of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz along with the sponsor's product, for example Phillip Morris cigarettes.

TAFN

WHY TRUMP OWNS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

 

I think I understand Trump’s power over the Republican Party.

Trump accomplished one thing as President.  He “legitimized” racism and white supremacy as an “acceptable” political position.  This had two results -

1. In the past extreme racists and white supremacists either did not vote, because neither Republicans nor Democrats spoke to them or their hatred, or they voted for true fringe party candidates.  They have now been empowered and organized into an actual voting bloc loyal to Trump – his core “base” of ignorant racists - and today’s Republican Party truly courts and panders to them, while abandoning intelligent “traditional” Republicans.

2. Previously “closeted” racists and white supremacists, who in the past hid their beliefs because they had correctly been considered wrong and unacceptable by society and politics, can now “come out” and joined the new Trump-loyal ignorant racist voting bloc.

Add to this the repressive “Religious Right” contingent of the Republican Party, who are also basically racist and have embraced Trump, and the percentage of “loyal” Republicans who have and always will vote Republican regardless of the candidate or issues, and you have a large number of American voters – certainly enough to control the selection of Republican Party candidates and policy.

And, of course, I still seriously and sincerely believe Trump has blackmail information on the sexual “eccentricities” of Republican elected officials and leaders that he got from Jeffrey Epstein.

This is why we MUST vote against EVERY Republican candidate in EVERY election at EVERY level in November – and continue to do so until the Republican Party officially denounces and disavows Trump, his lies, his ignorant racist followers, and the repressive agenda of the “Religious Right”.

If Republicans gain control of Congress and state legislatures next month it will be the beginning of the end of America as we know it.

TAFN

YOU CAN SELL SHIT AND GET THANKS. THAT’S WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE YANKS

 

What is the point of so-called “Reality TV”?  It teaches us absolutely nothing about reality, real life or humanity.

Greedy self-absorbed individuals with questionable intelligence and minimal, if any, self-respect, self-control and common sense are put in staged situations and told to “act outrageously”.  All we learn are that people are stupid and will do anything for attention and money.

We can learn more about reality and humanity from one episode of a scripted drama or comedy than in an entire season of any Reality TV garbage.

While the motto of the father of Reality TV programs is “Outwit, Outplay and Outlast”, the real motto of this genre is “Embarrass, Humiliate and Abuse”. Reality TV has absolutely no worth or value – no educational value, no entertainment value, no “socially redeeming” value.

Back in 2008 USA TODAY did a cover story on reality tv with interviews of panels of “stars” from various shows of the genre.  When a panel from cable channel VH1 was asked about the most memorable moments from their shows, Flavor Flav said, “One of the most memorable moments in the history of reality TV was when that girl shit on my floor.”  Someone else responded, “No, I’d say it’s Mini-Me pissing on the carpet” from THE SURREAL LIFE.  Need I say more?

A result of this vile genre is the creation of a new breed of “celebrities” – self-important narcissistic buffoons with no talent who are merely “famous for being famous”.

One of the best descriptions ever of Reality TV and the making of its pathetic “stars” into “celebrities” appeared in an episode of the BBC tv show JUDGE JOHN DEED, starring Martin Shaw as the judge, over a decade ago.  In “Popular Appeal” an angry contestant in a British show called “The Dungeon” kills another competitor on camera, and the show's producers face charges of manslaughter in Deed's court. The prosecution contends that they acted recklessly and engineered conflict in order to get higher ratings.  A psychiatrist working for the station that airs the show testifies that the producers purposely look for psychologically flawed “contestants” who can be easily manipulated and angered, which clearly represents what Reality TV producers do in “real life”. 

Judge Deed, speaking to the producer of the TV show after the jury has returned its verdict, correctly observes –

“Celebrity: the pursuit of the talentless by the mindless. It's a common disease of the twenty-first century. It pollutes our society, and diminishes all who seek it and all who worship it, and you must bear part of the responsibility for foisting this empty nonsense onto a gullible public.”

Just to be clear, when I refer to “reality tv” I am not talking about legitimate talent contests or home improvement shows likes those on HGTV or DIY.  You know what shows I am talking about.

Television can change the world.  Pioneers like Norman Lear and the creative staff behind M*A*S*H changed the world for the better in the early 1970s.  And same-sex marriage would not have become legally accepted without Ellen DeGeneres and shows like WILL AND GRACE and MODERN FAMILY.  Today reality tv garbage is resulting in the decline and deterioration of our society.

In her excellent and spot on blog post “The Danger of Reality TV” Canadian Rhonda Scharf correctly observes -

“The reality of reality shows is that they effectively affect our society. Television tells us what is normal and accepted and eventually it worms its way into our subconscious. 

These messages are wrong. They instill a workplace mentality of winning at all costs. They have no compassion, no understanding, and no reality about the world we actually live in.”

A news item from 2012 reported –

“The Girls Scouts are warning of the dangers of reality tv after a study by the Girl Scouts Research Institute concluded that reality shows are having a negative effect on young women.

The study found that reality television ‘more frequently portrays girls and women in competition with one another rather than in support or collaboration. This perpetuates a 'mean-girl' stereotype and normalizes this behavior among girls.’

The study concluded: ‘Teen girls who regularly view reality tv accept and expect a higher level of drama, aggression, and bullying in their own lives, and measure their worth primarily by their physical appearance.’"

Reality TV is a result of, and a major contributor to the ongoing continuance of, the “dumbing down of America”. 

Want to know how truly dangerous Reality TV is?  It is partially responsible for the death of the Republican Party and for putting the absolute worst person possible - a mentally unstable narcissistic sociopath and cartoon clown who is completely unfit to serve in any elected position of power – in the White House.  Of course, I am talking about Donald J Trump.  By giving undeserved credibility to Trump via THE APPRENTICE Reality TV can claim credit for the substantial damage done to America and American democracy by the Trump presidency.

TAFN

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING MARGARET

 

Thanks to PBS Americans are familiar with the various actresses who played Agatha Christie’s iconic character Miss Marple in the British television adaptations of the novels – Joan Hickson, Julia McKenzie and Geraldine McEwan. 

But I. and my generation. was first introduced to Miss Marple in the four films in the early 1960s starring Dame Margaret Rutherford (MURDER SHE SAID, MURDER AT THE GALLOP, MURDER MOST FOUR, and MURDER AHOY), and in an uncredited cameo in 1965’s THE ALPHABET MURDERS starring Tony Randall as Hercule Poirot. 

Rutherford is also remembered as Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII of Grand Fenwick in THE MOUSE ON THE MOON and for her 1963 best supporting actress Oscar turn as The Duchess of Brighton in THE VIPs. 

Rutherford went into acting rather late in life, making her stage debut at the Old Vic in 1925 at age 33.  She achieved West End prominence as Miss Prism in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST at the Globe Theatre in 1939.  In 1941 she was the bumbling medium Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's BLITHE SPIRIT at the Piccadilly Theatre, a role which Coward wrote for her.  She was also in the film adaptations of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and BLITHE SPIRIT. 

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961 and was raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967.

What makes Margaret Rutherford a topic for discussion is not her professional career but her personal life and family history.

Her father, William Rutherford Benn, suffered from mental illness.  During his honeymoon he had a nervous breakdown and was confined to an asylum.  In March of 1883, after being released on holiday, he bludgeoned his father, Congregational minister Julius Benn, to death with a chamber pot.  He later tried to kill himself by slashing his throat with a pocketknife.  Benn was confined to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.  Several years later he was released, reportedly cured of his mental affliction.  He changed his name to Rutherford and returned to his wife Ann.

Margaret Rutherford was born in 1892 in Balham, the only child of William Rutherford Benn’s second wife Florence.   As an infant Margaret and her parents moved to India.  She returned to England when she was three to live with an aunt in Wimbledon after her pregnant mother committed suicide by hanging herself from a tree.  Her father also returned to England and was confined once more to Broadmoor in 1904.

She married character actor Stringer Davis in 1945 and the couple appeared in many productions together, including all the Marple movies and THE MOUSE ON THE MOON.  They were happily together until Rutherford's death.  Davis nursed Rutherford through periods of depression, often involving stays in mental hospitals and electric shock treatment.  In the 1950s, Rutherford and Davis unofficially adopted the writer Gordon Langley Hall, then in his twenties.  Hall later had a sex-change operation and became Dawn Langley Simmons, under which name she wrote a biography of Rutherford in 1983 

Rutherford suffered from Alzheimer's disease at the end of her life and was unable to work.  She died on May 22, 1972, at age 80. 

Before I go, here is some Miss Marple trivia: 

* While it was thought Agatha Christie did not approve of Rutherford’s portrayal of Marple, Christie dedicated her novel THE MIRROR CRACK'D "To Margaret Rutherford in admiration".

* Joan Hickson, who starred as Marple in the 1984 to 1992 BBC adaptations of the original Miss Marple novels, played a housekeeper in the first film in which Margaret Rutherford played Marple.

 * Before she updated the Marple retired school teacher detective character to the perhaps more famous Jessica Fletcher, Angela Lansbury was Jane Marple in the 1980 film THE MIRROR CRACK’D, whose cast included Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, Kim Novak, Tony Curtis and Pierce Brosnan.  And Helen Hayes assumed the role in two tv movies.

* A few years ago, it was reported that The Walt Disney Company had acquired the movie rights to the Miss Marple character, and is planning a contemporary adaptation to be set in the US with Jennifer Garner as Marple.  However, I have heard nothing on this since.

TTFN