Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 12-11: Gilligan's Island

*Welcome to our annual "retro retro" episode, in which we go outside our usual timeline to focus on a "silver age" show, in this case Gilligan's Island (CBS, 1964-1966)!

*This series is complete on DVD and free to stream on Tubi as of this writing. It would look great on Blu-Ray.

*The series had 98 first-run episodes.

*The Great Society is the name given to President Lyndon B. Johnson's domestic programs launched beginning in 1964.

*The New Adventures of Gilligan aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1974 to 1977.
Gilligan's Planet aired one season (1982-1983) on CBS.

*The books I mention are Bob Denver's Gilligan, Maynard, and Me and Here on Gilligan's Isle by Russell Johnson with Steve Cox.

*Season 2's "The Little Dictator" with Nehemiah Persoff is reportedly Sherwood Schwartz's favorite episode. He recorded an amiable commentary for that one for the DVD set, and his affection for the whole series is evident.

*It's About Time aired this same season, 1966-67, on CBS. It stars Joe E. Ross and Imogene Coca.

*"Don't Bug the Mosquitoes" from Season 2 is the episode with The Honeybees singing "You Need Us" and The Wellingtons as the visiting rock band.

*Of the 3 TV movies, the first is the one in the public domain, but the others are owned by Universal: 1978's Rescue from Gilligan's Island, 1979's The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, and 1981's The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island.

*Hear us mention Tina Louise in our Dallas episode right here.

*Our previous mention of Alan Hale Jr. was in our Growing Pains episode here.

*'Will the Real Mr. Howell Please Stand Up?" premiered at 8:00 PM Eastern March 17, 1966 on CBS. I mention the other shows on that night on the podcast! Mona McCluskey and The Double Life of Henry Phyfe are both one-season wonders.

*The amnesia episode Mike references is "The Second Ginger Grant" from Season 3. "The Producer," also from the third season, features Phil Silvers as Harold Hecuba and the musical Hamlet. That installment is #52 on TV Guide's original list of 100 greatest episodes (1997). "The Hunter" from S3 is the Rory Calhoun episode.

*Finally, enjoy our video playlist for this episode, featuring theme songs, commercials, promos, and more!

*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!

Episode 12-11: Gilligan's Island

For this season's Retro Retro episode, we head back to Gilligan's Island! News comes in on the radio that Mr. Howell has been rescued, which comes as a surprise to the castaways, especially Mr. Howell! The real Howell whips the castaways into a frenzy to get him home to stop the imposter Howell from spending his money and, to a far lesser extent, ruining his reputation. Things get weirder when the imposter washes up on the island.

#podcast #tv #retrotv #sixties #gilligansisland

 

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Top Ten #325: Special "They ran out of Halloween stuff at the store 3 weeks ago" Edition!

1) Bloopers: Do you love a good blooper? Great! Do you love seeing 10 of them in a row in 4 or 5 segments over an hour period? Well, do we have a show for you on the podcast this week!

2) Practical Jokes: Personally, I prefer the blooper over the practical joke, but reasonable people have disagreed throughout history. Perhaps the genius of TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes is that it presents both timeless expressions of comedy in one forum without forcing a laugh-hungry audience to choose.

Here's a joke from the series starring Laura Branigan of Automan!

3) Ed McMahon: Ed makes his fourth featured appearance on the podcast this week in his role as the irascible cut-up on TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes. It must have been gratifying for McMahon to see Dick Clark laugh for him the way he laughed for Johnny--in enthusiasm if not in style. The booming Ed laugh and the raspy Dick wheeze are both effective in their own ways.

Hey, speaking of Ed, isn't it getting close to that time?

Hear more about Ed in our episodes on Alf, Legends of the Superheroes, and CHiPs.

4) Dick Clark: For years, he was known as America's Oldest Teenager, which doesn't really sound like a compliment at all. Are we sure that wasn't a long-running practical joke on Dick?

5) The McKeon Family Dynasty: On this week's episode, we got a solid glimpse of the storied acting family, which between them appeared in hundreds of episodes of sitcom entertainment. There's Nancy. There's Philip. 

Hmm, but not Doug, who isn't related. That takes a little of the shine off the McKeon Family Dynasty, now that I know that.

6) Dr. Joyce Brothers: Did you know she went on an early quiz show as a boxing expert? You would if you grew up in a certain era because it was talked about more than any academic/medical credentials. I wish Ed and Dick had interviewed her about what America's fascination with bloopers said about itself.

7) The World Series: With this Yankees/Dodgers match-up, we can party like it's 1981 again! Let's just forget the bummer of the midseason strike, missed games, and bizarre playoff format.

8) NBA: The pro basketball league returns this week, and you can watch most of the stars play many of the games! I miss the good old days before load management, when sitting out games was more likely because of drug-related suspensions.

9) Halloween Week: The big day is this Thursday, so there's still time to get your Halloween viewing in before passing out candy.

10) R.I.P. Ron Ely: Our game show episode featured some of the late actor's work hosting Face the Music.

YouTube Spotlight: Madonna on "Bloopers"?

One of the interesting clips in this week's video playlist devoted to TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes is this clip of bloopers from Desperately Seeking Susan featuring Madonna:

Imagine that: 3 of the biggest showbiz icons of all time together at once: Ed McMahon, Dick Clark, and Madonna! If you didn't watch that clip up above this paragraph, I am going to disappoint you: Madge does not walk out to greet Dick and Ed as if she was personally delivering bloopers from her new flick. Can you imagine her seizing everyone's attention by writhing provocatively on a big 3-dimensional represeantion of the word "GOOF"?

I am sure NBC was thrilled to be able to promote a Madonna appearance on the show, even if it was a mere collection of film clips. Madonna knew Dick Clark from American Bandstand and, of course she knew Ed McMahon from American Family Publishers. (She was not on The Tonight Show until 1987).

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 12-10: TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes

*Is it me or is there a Mandela Effect going on here. I might have thought this show was TV's Practical Jokes and Bloopers?

*Kermit Schaefer, Mr. Blooper, is credit with pioneering the practice of collecting media bloopers. He released several albums in the Sixties along with books like the one I mention. His 1974 movie Pardon My Blooper was a compilation of bloopers. 75 minutes of them!

*Johnny Carson's practical jokes special is "Johnny Carson's Greatest Practical Jokes," which aired on NBC in 1983.

*Later versions of the show aired on ABC from 1998 to 2007 and in syndication for a brief spell starting in 2012.

*ABC's knock-off, Foul-Ups, Bleeps, and Blunders aired midseason 1984, then was on the Fall schedule, but soon became just a series of specials before fizzling after a short run.

*1984 miniseries Celebrity is a 3-part NBC miniseries based on a 1983 novel. Stars include Michael Beck and James Whitmore. It won an Emmy for cinematography.

*The episode we discuss premiered February 13, 1984 on NBC.

*Jim Perry was a longtime game show host we talk more about in our Face the Music/Sale of the Century episode.

*Nancy McKeon of Facts of Life was not quite 18 when this aired. Brother Philip (Alice) was 19.

*Lee Cooper has been around over 100 years and is still around!

*You can see a lot of vintage Robert Klein specials on the Clown Jewels YouTube channel.

*1984's Angel from New World Pictures was a hit relative to cost and spawned several sequels.

*Finally, check out our video playlist for this episode, which includes (as of this writing) the full episode upload we watch and discuss for the podcast, plus promos, a few bloopers, and Dr. Joyce Brothers on Make Me Laugh!

*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!

Episode 12-10: TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes

The mid-eighties saw the rise of blooper-mania, and nothing exemplified that more than TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, starring Dick Clark and BOTNS semi-regular Ed McMahon! If you've never seen the show, don't be fooled by the title, though. It's really TV's Bloopers, Commercial Compilations, Comedy Bits, Dance Montages, and Practical Jokes! Also appearing in this episode Nancy and Phil McKeon and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

#podcast #tv #retrotv #eighties #bloopers #practicaljokes #tvsbloopersandpracticaljokes #dickclark #edmcmahon #nancymckeon #phimckeon #drjoycebrothers 

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Power Rankings: Chico and the Man!

The Power Rankings return to evaluate the characters on Chico and the Man. What more important pastime can there be than assigning rank to fictional people on a 1970s sitcom?

Remember, these ratings reflect how these individuals would fare against each other on a neutral playing surface in Malden, Massachusetts.

1) Chico and the Man (tie): Is this a cop-out? Of course it is, but the series relies so much on the tremendous chemistry between the two that it seems wrong to elevate one over the other. Prinze's Chico was the breakout, but Albertson's Ed Brown was the glue and was there the whole run (for better or worse).

3) Louie Wilson: Played with charismas as always by Scatman Crothers. Despite what I said above, don't think I didn't ponder putting Louie higher for a brief moment. Louie has to be one of the all-time great garbagemen (Future bonus episode idea?).

4) Della Rogers: Della Reese offered a surprisingly effective foil for Albertson after Prinze's death.

5) Charo: A little of Charo goes a long way, but the series needed some energy at the time, and, well, one thing Charo always provides is energy.

6 (tie): Mando, Mabel, and Reverend Bemis: The performers tried hard, but they just couldn't elevate these characters (Chico's pal, the mailperson, and, well, the reverend)  beyond solid contributors. They seem designed to be the kinds of characters who get rapturous applause when they show up, but I just have not gotten into them.

Also receiving votes: Raul and Monica. Don't blame the actors. They walked into an impossible situation.

Top Ten #324

1) Chico and the Man: This week on the podcast, we talk about a series which started blazing hot but ended early for obvious reasons. I enjoyed Chico and the Man more than I expected and am still watching it.

2) Freddie Prinze and Jack Albertson: What a team. You have a multitalented, charismatic superstar who commands the screen and who left us too soon...and Freddie Prinze was great, too!

3) Scatman Crothers: Scatman is always welcome on Battle of the Network Shows, whether he is in the series we discuss or not. Fortunately, he happens to be in 

4) James Komack: Say what you will about the executive producer, and many have, but he seems like a bit of a character.

5) Kmart: I for one bought many a cool toy at the store, the last of which closed this week. And by "bought," I mean, "asked my mom to buy for me."

6) Mannix: Check out the guest cast in the episode aired on CBS 50 years ago tonight, "The Green Man": Elisha Cook Jr., Russell Johnson, SCATMAN CROTHERS!

7) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The ceremony aired last night on Disney Plus. Congratulations to Cher, who we celebrated last season. She won the listener-voted Batty for Outstanding Duo with Sonny Bono! 

Meanwhile at the Hall, Allison Troy remains snubbed.

8) The Great Bear Scare: 40 years ago this weekend, many stations aired this 1983 Halloween-themed follow up to The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas.

9) Big Eddie: Let's take another look at the short-lived CBS sitcom that aired the same night as "Chico and the Van," the episode we talked about on the pod this week.

10) R.I.P.: Mitzi Gaynor and Sherry Coben (creator of Kate and Allie):

YouTube Spotlight: Can You Still Hear the Laughter?

One of the clips in our Chico and the Man playlist this week is this promo for the TV movie based on star Freddie Prinze's short life:

The full movie is also available on YouTube without looking too hard. Directed by Burt Brinckerhoff, it premiered on CBS Tuesday, September 11, 1979 after an episode of Wonder Woman. Opposition was a repeat of Part 2 of Holocaust on NBC and the ABC combo of new episodes of Three's Company, Taxi, and The Lazarus Syndrome. The sitcoms were season premieres.

Writing in The New York Times, critic John J. O'Connor called the movie "the bare scaffolding of the show-business structure constructed on the familiar story premise of 'too much, too soon.' As a magazine article, the form can still delvier narrative clout. As a dramatization, it demands much more than Can You Hear the Laughter?  was willing--or able--to make."

He says the movie is shallow and doesn't explain much about Prinze's life nor his death. He does praise star Ira Angustine, who resembles Prinze and "also manages to convey a good deal of his special warmth." Randee Heller and Kevin Hooks earn praise, too.

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 12-9: Chico and the Man

*Chico and the Man aired on NBC 4 seasons from 1974 to 1978.

*Freddie Prinze was only 22 when he died. Jack Albertson lived 1907-1981, so he was well into his 60s when the series debuted.

*Freddie Prinze: Gone Before His Time is the documentary I refer to on the podcast.

*Here is an interesting contemporary article about Prinze's suicide from Time in February 1977.

*Mark Evanier writes about James Komack here and elsewhere on his site. Also, check out this 1978 People article about Welcome Back Kotter.

*The diner the characters enter is indeed seen elsewhere in the second season.

*Shout-out again to the 200 Dollars a Day Plus Expenses podcast with our friends Steve and Dave!

*"Chico and the Van" premiered October 17, 1975 as the sixth episode of the second season.

*Laverne and Shirley premiered in January 1976.

*Ann Gibbs and Joel Kimmel are credited as writers along with James Komack.

*Our look at Sammy Davis Jr.'s TV movie Poor Devil is right here.

*Fame was a hit movie for MGM in 1980, and it became a series in 1982, starting on NBC before moving to first-run syndication.

*The TV movie about Prinze's life is 1979's Can You Hear the Laughter?, which debuted September 11, 1979 on CBS.

*Finally, check out our video playlist for this episode, featuring all kinds of Seventies goodness--variety shows, a clip from a Dean Martin roast, commercials, promos, Farrah Fawcett, and more!

*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!

Episode 12-9: Chico and the Man

Things get rough for Chico and the Man when THE Man tells them Chico can't live in the Man's van. Also, they go to a diner and crack some jokes.

#podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #chicoandtheman #freddieprinze #jackalbertson #sitcom

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YouTube Spotlight: Blansky's Beauties

One of the clips in this week's bonus episode playlist is the opening to Nancy Walker's sitcom Blansky's Beauties.

Garry Marshall had an amazing career in film and television, producing many remarkable hits. This is not one of them! The series didn't get enough of a boost from being introduced on Happy Days and fizzled out in a matter of months in 1977.

Walker's character is sort of the den mother of a bevy of showgirls and also produces their show. It doesn't quite work, but it is interesting to see how much it attempts to leech off other Marshall shows.

One interesting thing is that Eddie Mekka was on this and on Laverne and Shirley at the same time. On this, his character is said to be a cousin of The Big Ragu. Other familiar faces include Pat Morita, who had been on (and would return to) Happy Days; and Lynda Goodfriend and Scott Baio, who would later join that series. If that isn't enough, Pinky Tuscadero (Roz Kelly) is in the debut episode. Marshall gave himself a role, too; and the series featured Caren Kaye in an early regular part.

For now, you can find many of the 13 episodes on YouTube if you want to check it out for yourself!

Top Ten #323: Special "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween" Edition

1) Jan Miner/Nancy Walker: Actresses, pitchwomen, and now stars of our newest bonus episode game. talk about multitalented!

2) Marie Osmond: Happy 65th birthday to the co-star of Donny and Marie. She, of course, played Marie.

3) National Hockey League: Hockey is back! I doubt Hall and Oates are involved these days, though:

4) Nobel Prizes: Multiple awards were announced this past week. Mike and I are still in the running for the Nobel for TV Podcasting.

5) Sinatra--The Main Event: 50 years ago tonight, ABC aired this special taped from Madison Square Garden starring Ol' Blue Eyes. For some reason (boxing/MSG tie-in, I guess), Howard Cosell introduced him. What a pair: One guy wants to punch everyone, the other makes everyone wants to punch him.

6) Herb Alpert: Only one man could follow Sinatra in 1974, and that man was Herb Alpert, who had his own special right after the Sinatra one on ABC that night. He wasn't alone, though; he was helped by The Muppets, who were exiled to this one after Fozzie had accidentally no-showed a gig opening for Frank in Vegas in '72.

7) Archie Bunker's Place: The program, not part of the streaming package of All in the Family, is now on Roku Channel--sort of. Available are Season 1's 24 episodes, 19 episodes of Season 2, and a whopping 4 of Season 3. Imagine Archie Bunker sitting in his chair, leafing through his TV Guide and trying to find Season 4 of the show were he ran a bar.

8) Diff'rent Strokes: The series aired its second (by my count) bed-wetting episode 40 years ago tonight, this night with Sam doing it for real. The show dealt with this sensitive topic in typically tender fashion, depicting with gentle humor Drummond's solution to buy a brand-new mattress every day until the problem vanished.

9) Saturday Night Live: 40 years ago tonight, the show welcomed Bob Uecker and Peter Wolf.

10) R.I.P. Nicholas Pryor: More known for work in theatrical movies like Risky Business and for soap operas outside the time frame, but he was also in TV movies like this one:

Show Notes and YouTube Playlist: Bounty or Palmolive

*Jan Miner (1917-2004) also appeared in Cagney & Lacey and One Day at a Time.

*Nancy Walker (1922-1992) also had a recurring role on Family Affair. Her last regular role was in the 1990 Fox sitcom True Colors with Frankie Faison (later Cleavon Little) and Stephanie Faracy. It also starred Claude Brooks (no relation).

*Perry Mason the radio version aired 1943-1955 on CBS Radio. In addition to Jan Miner, Gertrude Warner and Joan Alexander played Della. 4 different actors played Mason.

*Do Re Mi, headlined by Phil Silvers with Walker, premiered December 1960 and ran until early 1962. Garson Kanin wrote the book, with lyrics by betty Comd

*Viva Madison Avenue! ran a mere two performances in 1960 according to the Internet Broadway Database.

*Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers was an MTM show from James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that premiered in Fall 1974 but lasted only a half season. Miner had a recurring role as Sand's character's mother.

*Montgomery Clift's serious car accident occurred in 1956 during production of Raintree County.

*Othello with Moses Gunn played Broadway in 1970.

*Can't Stop the Music (1980) is a notorious disco-era flop starring The Village People. It was Walker's only outing as a feature film director.

*The Allan Carr documentary I refer to is 2017's The Fabulous Allan Carr.

*Girl Crazy, the 1943 MGM musical from Arthur Freed, starred Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland and was a big hit.

*The Women with Jan Miner lasted less than two months on Broadway in Spring 1973.

*Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood was originally titled A Bark Is Born.

*Finally, here is our video playlist for this episode, featuring Bounty ads, Palmolive ads, movie trailers, and show intros! 

*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!

Bounty or Palmolive

In the seventies and eighties, two stars of screen and stage also graced our televisions in long-running ad campaigns, offering their advice and years of wisdom to to America. Nancy Walker played Rosie the Bounty paper towels lady, and Jan Miner played Madge the Palmolive dish soap lady. In this bonus game, Mike quizzes Rick on their careers and lives outside of those ad campaigns. Who worked with the Village People? Who once played Della Street? Who appeared in a terrible movie with nearly every actor in Hollywood?

#podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #games #nancywalker #janminer #bounty #palmolive

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YouTube Spotlight: The Tom Swift and Linda Craig Mystery Hour

Here's a clip from this week's Dungeons and Dragons playlist you may not recognize:

This is an attempt to launch a series based on the popular Tom Swift series of books for young readers. ABC had some success pairing The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries in this time slot, so it tried to match Willie Aames and Lori Loughlin. All viewers got was this single outing, though, on July 3. 1983.

The interesting supporting cast includes William Windom, Janet Du'Bois, Carmen Zapata, Lucille Benson, and George DiCenzo. It was called the premiere of a new mystery series in the press, but nothing came of it. Presumably it didn't fare well against 60 Minutes and a Voyagers! rerun. The following Sunday, ABC ran a Ripley's Believe It or Not rerun in the spot.

Top Ten #322

1) John Amos: We say a special goodbye to our Season 4 Genius Award recipient: The great John Amos, who combined a commanding screen presence with equally powerful reserves of hurt and vulnerability in his brilliant portrayal of James Evans. 

And I mean, he was also on Future Cop!

2) Dungeons and Dragons: This week on the pod, we look at the 1980s CBS cartoon and touch on the game on which it was based. The episode leads us in many different and fantastic directions, but we eventually find our way out! At least, I think we did.

3) Mazes and Monsters: It's just fun to think of Tom Hanks in this old TV movie.

4) Donny Most: To me his Eric is the real star of Dungeons and Dragons and a significant but overlooked part of the Most legacy.

5) Uni: Come on! The lil' creature is adorable! Even grizzled podcasters have to admit that.

6) Saturday Night Live: It began its tenth season 40 years ago tonight with the new additions like Billy Crystal, Marty Short, Rich Hall, Chris Guest, Pamela Stephenson, and a returning Harry Shearer, but no host, along with musical guest The Thompson Twins. This was the "all-star" season of the show and the last of the run of Dick Ebersol in charge while Lorne Michaels was absent.

7) National Coaches Day: Today let's pay tribute to the often-awkward, seldom-revelatory football coach shows on local TV stations!

8) The Bob Newhart Show: I was excited to see Prime Video had added this classic sitcom again for October, then I was dejected to learn it was only the first three seasons...again. Then I was more disappointed to see season 2 isn't even available yet.

At this point, I wonder if this is some kind of misguided attempt to pay homage to Newhart's comic delivery by delaying gratification. Sounds crazy, but so does adding the first and third seasons of a 6-season classic.

9) The Bizkitts: This series didn't do much other than happen to be airing an hour and a half before the D&D episode we cover this week, but, hey, when else are we going to mention this 13-episode wonder from Hanna Barbera? 

10) Drake Hogestyn: R.I.P. to the longtime Days star.

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 12-8: Dungeons and Dragons

*Mazes and Monsters premiered December 28, 1982, on CBS.

*Dragon magazine was in print 1976 to 2007, and since then has remained more or less active as a digital publication.

*Mark Evanier's site is right here.

*Dungeons and Dragons aired 27 episodes and 3 seasons, September 1983 to December 1985. CBS ran reruns in 1987 and 1990.

*This episode we discuss premiered Saturday, October 15, 1983. I didn't mention the primetime shows on that day, just the Saturday morning lineup, but here is what was on that night:

CBS: Cutter to Houston, Movie: Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer

ABC: T,J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island

NBC: Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, The Rousters, The Yellow Rose

And later, Saturday Night Live welcomed hosts Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman with musical guest Eddy Grant

*Let's salute Johnny Douglas, the series' composer, for that wonderful orchestral theme music!

*Finally, here is the video playlist for this episode, chock full of promos, that great theme song, commercials, and SID Miller on Barney Miller! All this plus Menudo!

*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!

Episode 12-8: Dungeons and Dragons

Just in time for the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons the game, we take a look at Dungeons & Dragons the Animated Series. The Dungeon Master goes missing, and the kids go looking for him, encountering frog men, pig men, Warduke, and of course Venger along the way. Will they find DM before his "life force" runs out? Plus, one of the group decides to go his own way and runs into a whole other set of problems.

#podcast #tv #retrotv #eighties #dungeonsanddragons #dandd #saturdaymorningcartoons

 

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Brooks on Books: "I, Rhoda" by Valerie Harper

Mike and I both mention this autobiography on the latest podcast episode. It does have info about the production of Rhoda, of course, but it has so much more. It's an easy read, conversational and accessible, and I mean that in a positive way. Valerie Harper comes across as an engaging storyteller in this simple but entertaining memoir.

I was interested to read about her early stage career. Her background as a dancer, her life in New York City, her appearing with Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball--all of it's new to me. The sections on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda offer some good stories, but you will need to supplement them with other books to get satisfaction if those are your primary interests.

One thing that left me wanting more: Her account of the whole mess with Valerie--where she was kicked off her own show, which NBC continued as The Hogan Family--feels incomplete somehow. Don't get me wrong; she won the court case, and I have no trouble accepting that she was ill treated by Lorimar. Yet she glosses over what led to the wrongful firing by Lorimar, the difficult contract negotiations. I understand why she focuses on what happened after that process--the dismissal and lawsuit--but there is likely a lot of interesting stuff she leaves out about the vision of the series, the creative differences, etc. I don't recall her ever mentioning in the book her holdout after season 1 of Rhoda, which is interesting to consider when looking at this situation.

Her TV movie work gets short shrift, too, but that's not surprising in what is a fairly sparse volume.

She takes a pretty classy route in this book, though, doling out sincere praise to family, co-workers, her ex-husband, and many others. Her account of her health issues is compelling and offers a little more introspection than some of the rest of her life story. Any fan of Valerie Harper will be relieved to discover spending time with her in book form is a pleasant experience.