Sometimes actors do their job so well the audience forgets that they are acting. The actor has actually become the character in the audience's mind. This was the case for an American character actor named David Dukes. Dukes was an accomplished film television and Broadway actor when he was cast in a role that for a time changed his life. Dukes was cast in a two part episode of "All in the Family" that aired on October 16, 1977. The role he played was that of a character called Lambert who masquerades as a cop in search of a neighborhood rapist. He appears the the episode titled "Edith's 50th Birthday" as the cop he gains access to the Bunker home where Edith is home alone awaiting to go to her surprise birthday party next door. It turns out that Lambert is not a cop but the rapist and attempts to rape the beloved character of Edith played by Jean Stapleton.
In the course of the episode Duke's character threatens Edith with a gun and ties her hands with a necktie. He makes several attempts to rape Edith only to be foiled and finally getting hit with a burning birthday cake and pushed from the house.
The episode was both funny and moving at the same time. It was the first time on American television let alone on a sitcom where an attempted rape is shown. The character of Edith was so loved by the American viewing public that audiences truly believed in her and thus believed that Dukes really did attempt to assault Edith. Dukes received hate mail and death threats because of the episode and the audiences belief that it was Dukes not his character that attempted to rape Edith Bunker.
Mary Grace Canfield has died. If you don't know who she is then you didn't watch "Green Acres" or 1960's or 1970's television she was a character actress fixture. Her most notable character was Ralph Monroe one of the Monroe Brothers in the surreal world that was Hooterville. This was a world where a woman named Ralph could be a brother but still a woman. Ralph was always looking for love and eventually found a man and his name was Evelyn. The world of Hooterville was enchanting and magical. A place anything could happen and the fourth wall was fluid. Everyone was in on the joke and that is waht made it funny.
Thanks for being a part of one of the best written television shows in TV history Mary Grace Canfield,
The go to actress in the 1960's and 1970's when you needed a wife was Emmaline Henry. Her most notable role was Amanda Bellows in the sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie".
Born in Philadelphia Henry never planned on becoming and actress she started out as a singer on local radio and television. She moved to Hollywood to further her signing career but started getting acting roles. She appeared regularly in guest spots on sitcoms and dramas through out the 1960's. It was the role of nosy Mrs. Amanda bellows that got her noticed. She played the role until the series end. She also had a small role in "Rosemary's Baby" and Hitchcocks's "Marnie". After "I Dream of Jeanine" she continued to appear on TV with roles in "Three's Company" and "Eight is Enough".
Emmaline Henry died in 1979 from the complication of brain cancer. She was 50 years old.
Who is the best Nazi in the world? John Banner! His real name may not be a household word but his character's is. John Banner played the iconic character of Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz on the popular TV series "Hogan's Heroes".
Banner was actually a Austrian Jew born in Vienna. He escaped the Nazi occupation and got to Hollywood. Banner was then cast as a Nazi in the anti-German films during and after the war. His career was stalled until he had his break through as Sgt. Schultz the most inept Nazi in a stalag of ineptitude Stalag 13.
John Banner after his fame on "Hogan's Heroes" was able to be cast in guest starring role on many TV shows. He and his wife decided to return to his native Austria in 1972. It was while visiting friends in Vienna John (Johann Banner) Banner died. It was on his 63rd birthday.
Florence Stanley has one of those faces that is hard to forget. The character actress had a long and varied career with Broadway, movies, and television performances. One of her best known performances is that of the long suffering Bernice Fish the wife of Phil Fish from the sitcom "Barney Miller" and its spin off "Fish".
Florence Stanley was born in Chicago in 1924 with the name Florence Schwartz. Her career started in the 1940's. In the 1950's she appeared in several live television productions. On stage Ms. Stanley appeared in "Clytemnestra" and "The Glass Menagerie" She took over the role of Yenta the matchmaker in "Fiddler of the Roof" from Bea Arthur performing in over 2,000 Broadway performances. One of her other great successes was in Neil Simon's "Prisoner of Second Avenue".
In film Ms. Stanley appeared in "Up the Down Staircase" with Sandy Dennis, Jean Stapleton and Bud Cort as well as "The Day of the Dolphin".
In the 1970's Florence Stanley was once again on television co-starring in the short run sitcom "Joe and Sons". It was while making Joe and Sons she was cast in one of her most famous roles that of Bernice on an episode of "Barney Miller". She played the long suffering wife of Fish played by Abe Vigoda. The producers of Barney Miller then created the spin off "Fish" with Vigoda and Stanley playing the roles of Fish and Bernice as foster parents of a group of mixed race kids. The series ran for two seasons. Ms. Stanley was later cast in the sitcom "My Two Dads" as Judge Margaret Wilbur a family court judge and curmudgeon. She also appeared of "Family Guy" as the voice of Thelma Griffin. She was replaced by Phyllis Diller after her death.
Florence Stanley died in 2003 from complications of a stroke.
The DGA announced their list of the 101 best written television programs this week and there was one glaring omission from their list. The did not mention "Green Acres" at all. How they could mention a show like "Modern Family" a relatively bland and predictable sitcom and neglect "Green Acres" is a mystery to me.
"Green Acres" premiered on September 15, 1965 on CBS. The first episode was shot in a "mockumentary" style following the main characters of Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert)and his Hungarian wife Lisa from their home in a penthouse over looking mid-town Manhattan to Oliver's agrarian dream of owning a farm. It was during the second episode when the absurdist element of the show started to take form. They lived in a world where rules of nature, logic and common sense did not come into play. Every character lived in this surreal world except for Oliver who was the voice of reason but then he too lived in his own world, that of gentleman farmer. He was a farmer in the sense that he owned a farm yet he dressed in a suit and tie to plow his fields and feed his livestock. The fourth wall was often broken when characters would speak directly to the camera.
The characters that were created by Jay Sommers and Paul Henning were some of the most memorable in television history. Lisa Douglas (played by Eva Gabor) as the European socialite whose strongest desire is to go back to New York was a woman with a tentative grasp on the English language and minimal house keeping skills. Their hired hand Zeb who was under the impression he was the Douglas' son to the great disturbance of Oliver. There was Mr. Haney the huckster extradonaire who sold them their farm and was always just happening by with a new transparent scheme. One of the most popular and enduring characters was Arnold Ziffel the pig who was the child of the Douglas' nearest neighbors Fred and Doris Ziffel. Arnold watched television and at one point was a film star himself.
The town of Hooterville was not far from Pixley and shared many of its characters with Another Paul Henning TV show "Petty Coat Junction". These included Mr. Drucker and The Monroe Brothers who were actually a brother and sister.
"Green Acres" ran very successfully for 6 seasons until what was known as the rural purge at CBS when the network cancelled their rural themed programs. Because of the caliber of the writing and performances the show lived on in re-runs and one of its episodes is ranked in TV Guide's 100 top funniest sitcom episodes.
It must have just been a terrible mistake on the part of the DGA to have forgotten to mention "Green Acres". Perhaps they will revise their listing in the future and this sitcom satire its just rewards.
