Happy November 12th & 13th Birthdays!

What an interesting assortment of November 12th celebrants we have from yesterday!  Someone a little bit wild, somebody else a little bit crazy -- make that super crazy -- and a lady with class made their earthly debuts today and TV is all the better for it.

The cool patrician good looks of Grace Kelly may have helped her break into show business, but her acting ability kept her in Hollywood's top tier until she gave it all up in 1956 for an even loftier setting as Princess of Monaco.  Born on Nov. 12, 1929, Kelly's relative brief but notable big screen career -- High Noon, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, High Society, To Catch a Thief to name a few -- was preceded by a slew of television appearances beginning in 1950.  Her appearance on Studio One in Hollywood in "The Rockingham Tea Set" was broadcast on January 23, 1950:



Her royal life in Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier was a never-ending source of interest for the world at large, and though she had retired from Hollywood her high profile as a celebrity never waned.  Her untimely death on September 14, 1982 resulting from an auto accident was a shattering experience; the funeral telecast four days later drew an audience of millions of mourners from all over the globe.



Lifetime did one of their Intimate Portrait specials on Princess Grace:



Also very interesting is the ABC network 20/20 special with an hour-long interview of Princess Grace conducted by Pierre Salinger which aired on June 22, 1982, just two months before her death.

On a decidedly different and depraved note, mass murdering mastermind Charles Manson was born on November 12th, in 1934.  Not only were the crimes and subsequent trial of he and his band of marauders front page news and TV fodder ever since that bloody summer of 1969, the gruesome story was the subject of one of the most famous TV movies ever made.  Helter Skelter, based on the Vincent Bugliosi bestseller, starred Steve Railsback as Manson, his wild-eyed portrayal capturing perfectly Manson's unforgettably disturbing mien.



The whole movie is on YouTube available by clicking here.

While Manson was a whole lot of crazy, our last November 12th birthday is a little bit wild.  Ice skater Tonya Harding was born in 1970.  Most remembered for the ongoing rivalry with Nancy Kerrigan and other skaters and ultimately the knee-bashing attack on Kerrigan prior to the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Tonya and her reputation suffered irreparable damage as tawdry revelations of the involvement of her coterie of intimates in the incident came to the surface.  

Nevertheless, her strong skating style, rough-and-tumble personality and the lure of the anti-hero kept her in the public's consciousness. Tonya's continued appeal was proven earlier this year on the 20th anniversary of the Kerrigan attack -- she is a survivor, perhaps more perfectly suited to today's media world where we celebrate scrappy outsiders who live on the fringe and fight hard to keep going despite the odds.  

Everybody was all over the 20th anniversary -- here is a short segment from ABC's Good Morning America from January of this year:

Here's a full-length documentary entitled Tonya Harding:  Anything to Win:

And this is the ESPN doc from its 30 for 30 series The Price of Gold about the rivalry:



You know what...I like her.  Happy Birthday, girl!

November 13th brings some especially interesting TV birthdays for us to celebrate!  First of all we wish a very Happy 92nd Birthday to veteran actress Madeleine Sherwood!  In addition to her impressive stage and screen career -- including reprising her Broadway co-starring role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the acclaimed big screen version -- Sherwood was a frequent guest star on TV and starred in one of the most iconic sitcoms of the mid-1960s, namely The Flying Nun featuring Sally Field in the title role.




Next up we send a Happy Birthday salute to the late actor Robert Sterling, born on Nov. 13, 1917.  The always charming, utterly handsome and extremely talented Sterling had a long and successful career on stage, screen and especially on TV where his versatility made him a favorite in all genres.  His 2nd marriage in 1951 to the lovely and talented actress Anne Jeffreys was a true love match; the scintillating and all-around gorgeous couple were a success in real life as well as a performing duo.  Their biggest hit was their teaming with actor Leo G. Carroll in the 1953 TV series adaptation of Thorne Smith's popular ghostly romp Topper.  Here are a few clips and a complete episode -- several more available on YouTube, too!









In July 1957 Anne and Robert appeared as the mystery guests on the popular game show What's My Line?:




Anne and Robert also appeared together in the sitcom Love That Jill from 1958:






In 1961 Sterling starred in the TV comedy Icabod and Me with prolific character George Chandler:






He was also a frequent guest star on many other top TV series from the 1950s through the 1980s -- here he is in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour from 1962:



Robert Sterling passed away in May of 2006 at the age of 88.  He has been greatly missed.

November 13th is also the birthday of the actor-producer-director-writer Garry Marshall, born on this date in 1934.  Marshall's career is legend; he's been associated with a laundry list of super-successful productions from the early 1960s to the present day.  Probably best known for Happy Days and The Odd Couple, Marshall's output is prodigious, with more hits than misses.  Be sure to take a look at his IMDb credits -- click here -- to see exactly how amazing his career has been.  Everybody knows the shows that worked -- here are a few clips from some of his shows that didn't fare quite as well:

1966's Hey Landlord (and boy do I really remember this theme song after all these years!):



1972 brought The Brian Keith Show:



How about Blansky's Beauties from 1977 starring Nancy Walker?:



1979's Angie starring Donna Pescow and Robert Hays:



And 1982's Joanie Loves Chachi with its almost embarrassingly earnest love song theme:



To turn to a big hit of Marshall's, how about a little The Odd Couple:



For some fascinating, insightful and entertaining stories from Garry Marshall himself talking about his long career, be sure to check out his interview at the Archive of American TV, available by clicking here.   Happy 80th Birthday, Garry Marshall!

Let's also slip in a Happy Birthday today to talented actress Frances Conroy, currently wowing us on the latest season of American Horror Story: Freak Show on FX.



This Juilliard graduate and veteran of stage, screen and television has been doing excellent work for more than thirty years, but it's probably accurate to say that she burst into prominence through her outstanding work on HBO's landmark series Six Feet Under which began in 2001.







And would it be spoiling anybody's day after all these years if we ran the transcendent end sequence of the series?  Probably not, but if you think so, please don't watch...



A very Happy Birthday to you, Frances Conroy!

Summer Nose-talgia #36: "Laverne & Shirley" & Cindy & Penny

For fans of physical comedy and all the hilarity that it can bring, almost no series have come along to rival all-time classic I Love Lucy's domination of that category...except Laverne & Shirley.  The series debuted on ABC in 1976, a spin-off from the popular Happy Days, and in our memories the two series are forever linked in TV history.  During the years -- from around 1976 - 1979 -- when these two shows topped the ratings charts they were literally unbeatable.  Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams -- who's celebrating her 67th birthday today -- made the show a hit.





Laverne & Shirley debuted in January of 1976 and immediately settled in as a hit, nestled comfortably behind similarly top-rated Happy Days and sharing a Garry Marshall production company ethos which made the two shows into a near-seamless one hour of bright family comedy.  Because it seldom happens these days, it's almost shocking that by the time Laverne & Shirley ended its network run in 1983 it had amassed 178 episodes.  (Happy Days similarly got up to 255 episodes; it began two years earlier and went an additional year beyond.)  Both shows have enjoyed a long life in syndication and with their release on DVD it's become clear that the affection in which they are both held is justified. (Review of Season 3 release here and also here, Season 4 release here, Season 5 release here.)

Perhaps Laverne & Shirley didn't have the political punch or menopausal mirth of Maude, nor the raucous high school smart aleck sass of Welcome Back, Kotter, nor the urban comedy flavor of The Jeffersons, but what the two titular ladies did have was impeccable comic timing, the never-ending courage to get in there and try anything, and a wonderful depiction of female friendship. Unfortunately late in the run this relationship seemed to have unraveled off-screen in real-life and ultimately led to the show's end, but while it lasted it was a true partnership of equals.  I always thought they had a better friendship than Lucy and Ethel, the latter always relegated to being the frumpy sidekick to Lucy, whereas Laverne and Shirley really did it all arm-in-arm together.  For instance, this wonderful sequence -- one of their best -- from the Season 2 episode "Guinea Pigs" where sleep and food-deprived Laverne and Shirley won't miss their fancy party:



We can't ignore the terrific supporting cast of Laverne & Shirley including Michael McKean and David Lander as Lenny and Squiggy, those two offbeat and off-kilter pals and neighbors of the girls.  Before Kramer on Seinfeld made entering a room into a tour-de-force moment to savor, Lenny and Squiggy never failed to amuse with their own trademark arrivals.  Phil Foster as Laverne's father Frank, Eddie Mekka as Shirley's sometime boyfriend Carmine and show-biz veteran Betty Garrett as the girls' landlady (and later Laverne's stepmother) Edna Babish added to the goings-on which happened around Laverne and Shirley's apartment, or Frank's pizza parlor, or the Shotz Brewery where they worked.  Listen to what Garrett had to say about Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall:



Nothing says it better than watching some Laverne & Shirley!

"Laverne & Shirley Meet Fabian" -- shades of when Lucy and Ethel broke into Cornel Wilde's hotel room but very great in its own way!  From Season 3:



From Season 4, "Supermarket Sweep" (this is in 3 segments):







"Fat City Holiday" from Season 5:



"The Diner" from Season 5, one of the favorite Laverne & Shirley episodes featuring the famous "Betty, please" bit which is discussed by Penny Marshall in this 2013 interview, click here:



How about the 1995 Laverne & Shirley Reunion special which commemorated the 20th anniversary of the series:








Fans still adore Laverne & Shirley -- like these dedicated folks at the LAVERNE & SHIRLEY place and other site which are listed there -- and you can count us in their number.  Cindy Williams reminisced about the series a couple of years ago in an interview available here and a few months ago in Parade magazine here, and here's another interview with Penny Marshall about her 2012 autobiography about her life and multifaceted Hollywood career.  (Phil Foster passed away in 1985, Betty Garrett in 2011.)

In 2012 Laverne & Shirley was honored with a TV Land Fan Favorite Award -- well deserved!

(If the 3rd video doesn't work, please click here.)

 In case your funny bone hasn't been sufficiently tickled yet, here's a compilation video of sixty or so Laverne & Shirley clips to enjoy -- it's wonderful.



Happy Birthday to Cindy Williams today, and thank goodness for Laverne & Shirley!

"Happy Days" Lives On -- On Stage!

Maybe you already know about this, but hit 1970s sitcom Happy Days has been turned into a stage musical by creator Garry Marshall, with music and lyrics by Paul Williams. It's doing a run at a Toronto theatre hence lots of Canadian coverage, but the show is touring all over the U.S. -- it started its run in La Mirada last October and at least for the next six months might be at a venue near you.

Happy Days seems to have lost some of its TV lustre, although it was always well-done, not particularly hilarious maybe (except in its formative first year or two, especially the filmed episodes without audiences), but a good show with agreeable actors -- Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, et al -- and always a solid sense of values and an appreciation for the comforts of home. It seems a good fit for a big family-oriented stage musical, with familiar characters and a presold concept that should work for aging baby boomers and their offspring.

From the photos, Happy Days A New Musical looks like a Bye Bye Birdie-ish romp, with Arthur Fonzarelli -- The Fonz -- taking center stage as he struts his stuff and finds love with Pinky Tuscadero, the dynamic female motorcycle ace who appeared in several episodes of the series. Set in 1959 Milwaukee, the Happy Days musical brings back Richie, Joanie, Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham, Chachi, Arnold, Potsie Weber and Ralph Malph in a probably not exactly Pinter-esque tale of love, song and saving the local burger hangout.

If I sound snide, I don't mean to be. I think this is a delightful revival of a terrific TV show, and something that will resonate with many theatregoers, and perhaps turn non-theatregoers into customers. It's certainly as valid as turning animated movies into stage shows on Broadway, or even a less-than-truly-classic movie musical like White Christmas (which really has only one famous song) into a stage extravaganza.

Reading the synopsis, I was happy to see a scene between Marion Cunningham and the Fonz -- Arthur to "Mrs. C" -- because their special and perhaps unlikely friendship was a sweet part of the show and one of the more endearing Happy Days relationships.

If you're a fan of the show, click on the links to read recent interviews with Garry Marshall, and be sure to visit the official website of Happy Days A New Musical. Garry Marshall obviously takes a lot of pride and interest in this new incarnation of his hit show, and that's a good sign. We wish them luck!