...while the much inferior "I Love Lucy" is still wildly popular. IMJ was a much better show in every way possible, yet it's now a distant memory, while ILL mysteriously continues to suck in another generation of viewers. WTF!
| by Anonymous | reply 133 | February 11, 2019 3:30 AM |
I loved "I Married Joan."
Gosh, OP, aren't we OLD??????
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 6, 2019 1:46 PM |
It was actually Lucy NOT Joan Davis who was due to star in I MARRIED JOAN but she had a dream one night of a lazy Jewish man talking her out of it, saying that her fans wouldn't accept her playing a character named Joan.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 6, 2019 1:49 PM |
I think the only thing I've seen Joan Davis in was the Abbott & Costello film Hold That Ghost
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 6, 2019 2:07 PM |
I watched I Married Joan in reruns on channel 5 around 1960 when I was three - I still remember episodes. That and Topper were my favorites!
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 6, 2019 2:09 PM |
Never liked the series or her.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 6, 2019 2:18 PM |
I used to watch it in the early 80's on Pat Robertson's CBN network of all places. The channel played some of the shows that you did not see continually on TBS and later Nick at Night. Love that Bob, Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, westerns like Laramie etc. I used to listen to Jack Benny's old radio shows while studying. A lot of his stuff has aged well.
Is I Love Lucy still gaining new generations of viewers?. It is still on TV a lot, but it seems more early morning hours. I am not sure it has the presences it used to have when I was growing up. I suppose CBS does those colorized episodes over the holidays. I wonder what the age demographic is of people watching those episodes.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 6, 2019 2:19 PM |
R6, there are ILL marathons on two cable channels that I know of regularly.
I find it far too dated, and I've already seen each episode more that three times.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | February 6, 2019 3:34 PM |
I agree. I wish it would be released in its entirety on DVD.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | February 6, 2019 3:49 PM |
Decades was showing it. I thought it was terrible.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 6, 2019 4:06 PM |
Joan Davis was a very intelligent, strong, and independent woman who vigorously portrayed a very stupid, weak, and childish woman based on the worst stereotypes of her era. It was cringe-inducing.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 6, 2019 4:09 PM |
Then again, who can ever forget Spring Byington on December Bride?
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | February 6, 2019 4:10 PM |
A few years back, I tried watching IMJ on a channel that could not get rid of a loud sonic distortion that made watching impossible. Either they stopped running it or I stopped watching it. I don't remember.
I loved it when I was a child, though.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 6, 2019 4:11 PM |
R6 I watched those reruns on CBN as a kid, too, and loved I Married Joan. She wasn't as much of a ham as Lucy. The accidentally-inflated raft scene from this episode was later used in a Dick Van Dyke episode, I believe.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 6, 2019 5:27 PM |
Speaking of tragic Joan and her family had tragedy after tragedy. Joan died at age 48 of a heart attack. Her mother, daughter and grandchildren died in a house fire two years later.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | February 6, 2019 5:32 PM |
I Married Joan is ok, but it is no where near as perfect as I love Lucy, and Joan was never as beautiful nor as funny as Lucy.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 6, 2019 5:59 PM |
Loved it, loved it loved! Fannie Brice always said she wanted Joan Davis to play her. Pity Joan died so young. Let's start arguing about whether she was better than LB. I say she was. More natural.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | February 6, 2019 6:03 PM |
Joan Davis was a straight up cunt. Jim Backus HATED her with a passion. She was abusive to everyone she worked with. Her show was about as UNfunny as it gets. Forced situations and bad canned laughter. She could not shine Lucille Ball's shoes. She knew it. And she was jealous as hell. A truly nasty woman. Read up on her if you can find information on the internet.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 17 | February 6, 2019 6:05 PM |
On R17's link, a comment:
"I Married a Cunt!"
OK, which one of you bitches posted that?
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | February 6, 2019 6:08 PM |
You think she was "natural," all I see is bad mugging for the camera. She deserves to not be remembered, not only was she not as good as Lucy, she pales in comparison to other early tv stars, like Gracie Allen, Imogene Coca, and if you want "natural" and funny check out Gertrude Berg on The Goldbergs.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 6, 2019 6:09 PM |
The JOAN Davis Show - I Married JOAN, starring America's Queen of Comedy, JOAN Davis as Mrs. JOAN Stephens!
Gosh, ya think JOAN was an egotist?
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 6, 2019 6:32 PM |
I've only seen one or two episodes of the show, but I have to say I was surprised that censors allowed for the episode where she gets locked out of the house and alludes to the fact that she took a crap in her neighbors' hollybushes.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 6, 2019 6:53 PM |
[quote]Gosh, ya think JOAN was an egotist?
Absolutely not.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | February 6, 2019 7:16 PM |
I loved that show---and, unlike I Love Lucy, its opening theme had lyrics.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 6, 2019 7:22 PM |
If Joanie loved Chachi, why did she marry Mr. Howell?
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 6, 2019 7:46 PM |
Cuban pinga and Vivian Vance? ILL for the win!
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | February 6, 2019 7:56 PM |
Then, R17, Joan was a LOT like Lucille!
I liked that Joan's husband treated her more fairly, almost like an equal (!). Ricky Ricardo treated Lucy like she was a retarded child.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 6, 2019 8:04 PM |
It’s weird she and Eddie Cantor has a thing going on.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | February 6, 2019 8:07 PM |
The whole series is available on DVD. It is in the public domain so there used to be many purchase options. Try Youtube, lots of episodes.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | February 6, 2019 8:25 PM |
R17 Thanks for the link. That site is DL gold.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | February 6, 2019 8:26 PM |
I'll check it out. Remember the time she bought the $400.00 dress and the time she ate three spaghetti dinners.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | February 6, 2019 9:34 PM |
She had her real-life daughter play her SISTER on the show.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | February 7, 2019 1:05 AM |
If Lucy had a sister, she'd have done the same.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | February 7, 2019 2:18 AM |
[quote]It’s weird she and Eddie Cantor has a thing going on.
Also kind of weird that they both had daughters who came to premature bad ends. As mentioned above, Joan's daughter Beverly died in a house fire she started by falling asleep with a lit cigarette, killing Joan's mother and her own daughters as well. Joan pushed her daughter into a showbiz career starting in childhood. Joan was a rather obnoxious stage mother, using her own powers such as they were to plug her daughter at every turn.
Eddie Cantor, by contrast, refused on principle to aid his one daughter out of five who sought a career in show biz. Cantor had gotten a lot of comic mileage over the years at the expense of his five daughters (and no sons - like Tevye) and the implication that they were homely girls who would be difficult to marry off. When his middle daughter failed in show biz and then took her own life, Cantor repented of his unwillingness to aid her career. People close to him said his grief over his daughter's suicide hastened his own death in 1964.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | February 7, 2019 8:39 AM |
I recently watched a lot of Our Miss Brooks with Kate Ballard. What a gay sensibility with her arch humor!
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | February 7, 2019 12:49 PM |
It's more of a shame I Married Dora is all but forgotten.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 39 | February 7, 2019 1:09 PM |
I watched a few Joans and they were pointless and unfunny...
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | February 7, 2019 1:15 PM |
Oh [R11]!!!!! December Bride!!!!! SO glad you remember. I thought I was the only one.
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | February 7, 2019 1:39 PM |
[quote]She had her real-life daughter play her SISTER on the show.
She was the Catherine Zeta-Jones of her day.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | February 7, 2019 1:48 PM |
Great theme song, though.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 43 | February 7, 2019 1:52 PM |
Don't forget cringy Life With Elizabeth with Betty White in a lame, unfunny mess. Yikes.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 44 | February 7, 2019 2:06 PM |
r35: I never knew about Cantors daughter committing suicide.
r37-38: You mean Eve Arden.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | February 7, 2019 2:10 PM |
"Life With Elizabeth" was my introduction to Betty White. I watched the show (in syndication) faithfully as a young child and thought it was hilarious. Many years later, I found some episodes on a cheap DVD and bought it. Yikes. Not funny at all. And it had an odd format of two or three unrelated sketches per show. I remained a fan of Betty's, though, and fell in love with her again when she played Sue Ann Nivens.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | February 7, 2019 2:18 PM |
One of my all-time faves, r1. And yes, we are!
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | February 7, 2019 2:35 PM |
David Shipman, the greatest writer about the movies, pointed out that Grace Moore never could make it in the movies because of her too great resemblance to Joan Davis. Back then, I believe Joan was mostly radio with an occasional RKO movie.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | February 7, 2019 3:41 PM |
Joan didn’t have the memorable supporting cast and writers like Lucy did
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | February 7, 2019 3:50 PM |
A beautiful woman making funny faces.....
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 51 | February 7, 2019 3:59 PM |
Did Beverly Wills ever meet Beverly Sills in Beverly Hills?
| by Anonymous | reply 52 | February 7, 2019 4:30 PM |
I believe that was Chill Wills, r52.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | February 7, 2019 4:42 PM |
Joan's daughter had two husbands -- the first a gentle schoolteacher who fathered her two sons, and the second a salesman (grifter) of some sort.
This was the first case were the court had to decided who died first to ascertain who inherited the estate.
I think the salesman won the money. The teacher buried his sons in Hillside Cemetery in Culver City, Joan's mother was buried in Holy Cross cemetery next door, but there is no trace of Joan's daughter that I could find.
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | February 7, 2019 4:42 PM |
Someone please post a pic of Joan’s daughter and maybe one of Cantor’s daughters.
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | February 7, 2019 4:50 PM |
Beverly Wills photo is easy to find r55. And I've got to say the 50s Mamie Eisenhower hairdo she is wearing has to be the least flattering hairdo of all time. This woman was only 30 when she died so this photo was probably taken when she was mid-20s.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 56 | February 7, 2019 4:54 PM |
[quote]Joan Davis was a straight up cunt.
Yet even she had the good sense not to pose with a gruesome likeness of the severed head of Dwight Eisenhower when he defeated her beloved Adlai Stevenson in 1952.
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | February 7, 2019 5:00 PM |
Thanks r56. Yes, that hairstyle is really unfortunate.
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | February 7, 2019 5:03 PM |
Miss Jane Wyman swore by it.
| by Anonymous | reply 59 | February 7, 2019 5:09 PM |
She should have swore at it r59.
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | February 7, 2019 5:11 PM |
Joan had a run at Fox in the 30s and early '40s - moving from 'B' s with Jane Withers to second-banana parts in Sonja Heine - Alice Faye films and supported Shirley Temple (with Bert Lahr) in "Just Around the Corner" where Lahr out-does her at every point. Her routines and songs run from just OK to painful - one of her shticks was 'comical' stuttering. She left Fox in 1941 after her supporting part and song in SUN VALLEY SERENADE were cut down to barely three lines. She moved to Columbia and Universal for a bunch of 'B' musicals and comedies where she got glammed up (she looks a bit like Charles Busch in some of them) and...becomes funny, supporting forgotten lovelies like Jane Frazee and Joan Woodbury and the beautiful Jinx Falkenburgh in such quickies as TWO LATINS FROM MANHATTAN and TWO SENORITAS FROM CHICAGO. Her best film IMHO is the goofy SHE WROTE THE BOOK with Jack Oakie. : "Joan Davis is Professor Featherstone, a genius who is also very conservative and works for a very conservative small college. A friend approaches her with an unusual proposition...to go to New York and pretend to be the author of "Always Lulu", Lulu Withers. Why? Because this book is apparently very racy and the publisher wants to meet her...but the lady is afraid to go because she's the Dean's wife! So, Featherstone goes and is prepared to just pick up a royalty check and run. But, when she suffers a head injury, her memory is impacted and she now believes she IS Lulu...a worldly lady who has had scores of lovers! What's next? See the story for yourself." She works well with Oakie and wears glamorous clothes very well, even while taking pratfalls.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 62 | February 7, 2019 5:25 PM |
Only on DL would a thread on Joan Davis get more than three responses. That's why I love it here!
| by Anonymous | reply 63 | February 7, 2019 5:35 PM |
R61 Jane can kinda pull that look off. Love that movie, btw.
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | February 7, 2019 5:39 PM |
Exactly, R63. Where else would an obscure, long forgotten (at best) B list celebrity be remembered as a beloved icon.
| by Anonymous | reply 65 | February 7, 2019 5:40 PM |
I wish i liked the tv show more, though. Pointless situations and poor quality kinescopes/film make it hard to embrace
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 66 | February 7, 2019 6:57 PM |
It is interesting that Davis, Arden & Southern were well known as movie comediennes, yet it was Lucy (who was a bit at sea following an unsatisfying stint at MGM and wasn't particularly well celebrated for her comedy) who became the TV comic legend.
| by Anonymous | reply 68 | February 7, 2019 7:45 PM |
Sothern, not Southern! Damn spellcheck....
| by Anonymous | reply 69 | February 7, 2019 7:46 PM |
Watch Fuller Brush Girl or Miss Grant Takes Richmond, r68.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 70 | February 7, 2019 7:53 PM |
I loved I Married Joan in reruns throughout my childhood in the late 1950s/early 60s so this news that she was so unpleasant is very sad.
Joan, Lucy, Ann Sothern, Eve Arden, Gale Storm and Spring Byington were my babysitters. I spent so many hours in front of the b&w TV watching them during summer mornings and sick days from school.
Some here may recognize Joan's daughter Beverly who appears (fleetingly!) as a member of Sweet Sue's All-Girl Band and as Marilyn Monroe's roommate in Some Like It Hot.
| by Anonymous | reply 71 | February 7, 2019 8:13 PM |
I thought Jim Backus was adorably sexy as Judge Bradley Whateverhisnamewas.
| by Anonymous | reply 72 | February 7, 2019 8:18 PM |
[quote]Sothern, not Southern! Damn spellcheck....
Totally understandable.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 74 | February 7, 2019 8:26 PM |
Jeri was a hard-looking woman!
| by Anonymous | reply 75 | February 7, 2019 8:27 PM |
It was all the caffeine and nicotine, r75.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 76 | February 7, 2019 8:31 PM |
Someone gave me "Coffee, Cigarettes & Memories" years ago. The title track is certainly languid.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 77 | February 7, 2019 8:44 PM |
Used to watch this in the early 80s when CBN ran it late at night alongside My Little Margie and Bachelor Father. (Basic cable pickings we’re slim back then.) I couldn’t tell you the plot of a single episode or any character aside from Joan and Jim Backus. The ensemble of Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred helped keep ILL more balanced and memorable. Ricky also had a distinct personality whereas Judge Stevens was pretty milquetoast and only there to react to Joan’s shenanigans.
| by Anonymous | reply 78 | February 7, 2019 9:02 PM |
The story at the link posted by r17 sounds like it was written by a semi-literate, spoiled child. A lot of name-calling but no context and no real substance. I guess being an unlikable woman is a sin in and of itself?
I don't doubt that Joan was a CUNT but come on, she earned it. She was a funny woman trying to maintain a successful career in the fucking 1950s for chrissakes. I'm sure she had to piss off a lot of people before they shit on her first.
My favorite JOAN story is the one where her sponsor, General Electric, promised her an all-new kitchen if she agreed to host some exectives' wives for dinner. Biting her lip, Joan had them over. However, three martinis into the evening and her acid tongue unleashed, she insulted one of the ladies and that kitchen never came to be. Oh Joan!
| by Anonymous | reply 79 | February 7, 2019 9:16 PM |
Jeri was extremely....languid, r77.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 80 | February 7, 2019 11:20 PM |
I thought she was great in Hold That Ghost. The ballet with Joan and Lou Costello is a gem.
| by Anonymous | reply 81 | February 7, 2019 11:23 PM |
I liked her a lot in "Hold That Ghost", too. Her first line is a scream (literally). And she looks better as a brunette (blonde in "I Married Joan").
| by Anonymous | reply 82 | February 7, 2019 11:28 PM |
R80, that is the fucking worst song I've ever heard..
I wanted you I wanted you I wanted you...
I thought the record was skipping.
| by Anonymous | reply 83 | February 7, 2019 11:33 PM |
Cantor's daughter Marilyn was pretty.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 84 | February 7, 2019 11:35 PM |
There were some funny episodes. Brad invites an important judge and his wife to a supper club. Joan encounters the wife in a hat store (they didn't know each other) and fight over a hat. Later Joan realizes what she done, and at the supper club ends up in the acrobats act. (This was very physical, but Joan gives it the college try). Sherwood Swartz was a writer. He says that one of the writers always had to be on set. He said they would write only 15 minutes of schtick, so many episodes have a completely different second half (The ballerina episode comes to mind). Finally Jerry Hauser, Ricky's agent on the early episodes got in a big fight on set with Desi over a unconnected telephone in a scene. Desi blowing up, cursing. Jerry quit then and there and came over to IMJ, he plays various roles, one as a carpet store worker. Joan gets tangles in a carpet, and he beats the hell out of the "lump" in the carpet. Much love for Joannie here.
| by Anonymous | reply 85 | February 7, 2019 11:41 PM |
Thank you, r71! I knew I recognized her face from somewhere!
| by Anonymous | reply 86 | February 7, 2019 11:49 PM |
I remember when I was about 3 my grandmother used to watch me during the day and she always watched the reruns of ILL and IMJ. I distinctly remember telling her I didn't like IMJ. She would put me down for my nap and always told me how I'd usually sleep through IMJ but as soon as that ILL music played I'd wake up and run out of the bedroom to watch the show with her. I honestly don't remember anything about IMJ other than telling my grandmother I didn't like it. I do remember liking My Little Margie, December Bride, Love That Bob, some show about a talking dog and that Ann South...whatever show but no where near as much as how I loved ILL.
| by Anonymous | reply 87 | February 8, 2019 12:38 AM |
Olga from the Volga......
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 88 | February 8, 2019 12:59 AM |
Does anyone remember a show about a talking baby named Happy?
| by Anonymous | reply 89 | February 8, 2019 1:01 AM |
This one I would assume....
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 90 | February 8, 2019 1:04 AM |
[quote]I do remember liking My Little Margie, December Bride, Love That Bob, some show about a talking dog and that Ann South...whatever show but no where near as much as how I loved ILL.
The show with the talking dog was "The People'sChoice," starring Jackie Cooper, Patricia Breslin, and Cleo the Basset Hound. Cleo didn't actually talk, but the audience could hear everything she was thinking. Cleo was voiced by veteran sitcom character actress Mary Jane Croft. I loved this show when I was a kid. Even as a 9-year-old gayling, I could certainly appreciate Jackie Cooper's majorly good looks and very nice ass.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 91 | February 8, 2019 1:12 AM |
The talking dog show was "The People's Choice," starring Jackie Cooper as an aspiring politician. The dog was a basset hound named Cleo, whose voice was provided by future Lucy co-star Mary Jane Croft.
| by Anonymous | reply 92 | February 8, 2019 1:13 AM |
For some reason I don't get Retro anymore. They sometimes show Racket Squad which I liked.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 93 | February 8, 2019 1:27 AM |
I like DECOY with Miss Beverly Garland. I use this photo for my desktop background.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 94 | February 8, 2019 1:29 AM |
Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory was on today - it never gets old.
| by Anonymous | reply 95 | February 8, 2019 1:44 AM |
This has nothing to do with "I Married Joan" except that it's from the same time: does anyone here remember the song "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas", sung by 10 year old Gayla Peevey in 1953? I was 6 then and watched Joan Davis' show on TV every week because my mother loved it (I did too, but loved Lucy even more) -- but I never heard the hippo song until this past Christmas season when it was played in some supermarket. I prefer it to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", sung by Jimmy Boyd and released at the same time, also greatly beloved by my mother. Those were the days indeed!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 97 | February 8, 2019 1:49 AM |
I really loved My Little Margie with adorable Gale Storm and hot silver daddy Charlie Farrell as her dad Vern Albright. Unlike Lucy Ricardo, Margie Albright was young and chic and alternately rocked those pencil skirts and big swishy 50s crinolines. They lived in a fabulous deco high rise with an elevator operator in.....was it Palm Springs? And there was a funny confused old lady neighbor in the building called Mrs. Odets and Margie had a cute and dopey boyfriend named Freddy.
Any other fans? Do you remember how Margie would look straight at the camera and "gurgle" when she knew her dad had caught her in some hi jinks?
I watched that in reruns, being too young to have caught it in its original run, but eagerly awaited Gale Storm's comeback series Oh, Susannah! with Gale as the social director aboard a luxury ocean liner (long before Love Boat). Her cohort in misadventures was the unforgettable Zasu Pitts who played Nugie (nickname for Elvira Nugent), the ship's manicurist. My parents remembered her from silent films! Roy Roberts (another hot silver daddy type) played bossy Captain Huxley. I loved the show but I think it only lasted a season or two.
| by Anonymous | reply 98 | February 8, 2019 2:26 AM |
My Little Margie rocks, R98. Several complete episodes are on YouTube. Mr. Honeywell always reminded me of Mr. Monopoly.
| by Anonymous | reply 99 | February 8, 2019 2:36 AM |
[quote]I liked her a lot in "Hold That Ghost", too. Her first line is a scream (literally).
Wasn't her first line right after she runs toward the cab and right into Lou Costello, with the both of them falling to the ground? He says, "Will you watch where you're going?!" And she replies, "I knocked you down; didn't I?"
| by Anonymous | reply 100 | February 8, 2019 2:54 AM |
I liked the IMJ episode The Jail Bird with the stealing crow and Joan's bit with the necklace when she first wears it in front of her neighbor who owns it.
| by Anonymous | reply 101 | February 8, 2019 3:05 AM |
R68 Lucy had already established herself as a comedian with DuBarry Was a Lady, Miss Grant Takes Richmond, Room Service, The Fuller Brush Girl, Fancy Pants, and Sorrowful Jones, among others. Also, My Favorite Husband was one of the last premiering comedy successes of radio, before TV took over, along with Our Miss Brooks.
| by Anonymous | reply 102 | February 8, 2019 4:01 AM |
r102: all true, but she wasn't known exclusively for comedy the way Davis was. But "Miss Grant Takes Richmond" and especially "The Fuller Brush Girl" are Lucy Ricardo in all but name.
Has anyone here seen "The Magic Carpet"?
| by Anonymous | reply 103 | February 8, 2019 4:14 AM |
R103 But Joan, was not as well known as Lucy. Joan was never able to break out of B-movies, whereas Lucy was able to steadily work in B-movies, and make the occasional A picture. Also Joan Davis made the mistake that so many people who are on hit shows, continue to make, she left the highly rated Sealtest show, to launch her own program, which had one highly rated season and then she never appeared in the radio top twenty programs again.
| by Anonymous | reply 104 | February 8, 2019 4:31 AM |
Very good and astute observations r104 - thank you for that!
| by Anonymous | reply 105 | February 8, 2019 4:42 AM |
Joan had about half of Lucy's comedic talent, and none of her beauty. Joan's skills was limited to her rubber face expressions.
Joan's daughter was slightly prettier than her look-alike mom and is best remembered for a showy role in Some Like It Hot as one of Sweet Sue's band members. She also was Marilyn's roommate at the hotel. She's funny in the upper berth scene with Jack Lemmon as the first girl who crashes his party and later drops an ice cube down his back.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 106 | February 8, 2019 4:46 AM |
I was just watching I Married Joan on Decades TV last night. I used to watch it when I was a very young boy. That's where I first became aware of Jim Backus. One thing about that show: whether you love it or hate it, it has one catchy theme song! Once I hear it I can't stop replaying it over and over in my mind. Ear worm.
| by Anonymous | reply 107 | February 8, 2019 7:49 AM |
Jim Backus' wife on Gilligan's Island, sure was better looking and less annoying. Could you imagine being stuck on an island with Joan Davis, oh the nightmare.
| by Anonymous | reply 108 | February 8, 2019 7:53 AM |
Joan's daughter reminds me of Carol Haney.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 109 | February 8, 2019 8:51 AM |
Here's a fun episode of My Little Margie that features 1950s muscleman and pose model ED FURY as a......... 1950s muslceman and pose model! He wears a very fetching early version of the speedo.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 110 | February 9, 2019 12:26 AM |
R99, I agree about Mr. Honeywell looking like the Monopoly figure! I watched the show as a child and would love to see it again.
| by Anonymous | reply 111 | February 9, 2019 12:57 AM |
Racket Squad.....Beauty For Hire
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 112 | February 9, 2019 3:49 PM |
Wow, I had no idea that woman in Some Like it Hot was Joan Davis' daughter. She sure looks like her only a younger, prettier version. She is adorable in those scenes.
| by Anonymous | reply 113 | February 9, 2019 10:14 PM |
OP - please contact your psychaiatrist asap ... either the medication is all wrong or the dose is too high.
| by Anonymous | reply 114 | February 9, 2019 11:01 PM |
One of my favorite lines in r112:
"After the hook was firmly planted, then came the razzle-dazzle."
| by Anonymous | reply 115 | February 9, 2019 11:10 PM |
Any other fans of DECEMBER BRIDE?
This was another series that I was too young to watch in its original run but caught up with in day time reruns that seemed to go on for years.
So I was super excited to be old enough to catch its spin-off (and it must have been one of the first spin-offs in TV history) PETE AND GLADYS, which revisted the character of the sidekick neighbor Pete, played by Harry Morgan, who always told hilarious tales about his supposedly shrewish, but unseen, wife Gladys on DECEMBER BRIDE.
But in the spin-off Gladys was played by gorgeous redhead Cara Williams, who was being hailed as the second coming of Lucille Ball (the original hilarious gorgeous rehead). I loved the new series but I think it only lasted about a season and a half.
And supposedly, Harry and Cara hated each other. Cara was married to Drew Barrymore's father but before Drew was born. She seemed to disappear after this ended.
| by Anonymous | reply 116 | February 9, 2019 11:59 PM |
PETE AND GLADYS
DL Fave Verna Felton was imported from DECEMBER BRIDE to continue playing loveable battleaxe Irma Kronkite.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 117 | February 10, 2019 12:05 AM |
A good situation comedy rises or falls on the strength of its second bananas.
William Frawley and Vivian Vance were perfectly cast, and their characters had interesting things to do in supporting the leads, but also on their own occasional storylines.
The same is true for Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam, which really helped elevate the Dick Van Dyke show to the top of the heap.
| by Anonymous | reply 118 | February 10, 2019 12:25 AM |
[quote]A good situation comedy rises or falls on the strength of its second bananas.
True.
| by Anonymous | reply 119 | February 10, 2019 12:32 AM |
The "I Love Lucy" set was clean and simple, it was an unobtrusive backdrop for the action. The art direction has aged rather well.
The IMJ set on the other hand is so cluttered and ugly.
| by Anonymous | reply 120 | February 10, 2019 12:42 AM |
She did The Cara Williams Show, r116.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 121 | February 10, 2019 12:46 AM |
Cara refused to rock and roll.....
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 122 | February 10, 2019 12:49 AM |
From the blog at R17. Joan would have been a DLer.
[quote]Backus told us stories of Davis once slapping a little boy at a restaurant only because the child asked for an autograph and that she sued a beauty salon in Hawaii when in a fit of rage she knocked over a bottle of bleach.
| by Anonymous | reply 123 | February 10, 2019 12:51 AM |
r117 J'adore Verna Felton. She's of the same school as Doris Packer, Reta Shaw, Madge Blake, et. al. Love them all!
| by Anonymous | reply 124 | February 10, 2019 2:48 AM |
Verna Felton actually won an Emmy for supporting actress on December Bride. I'm sure that pissed off the show's closeted gay star, Spring Byington. Kinda like Cybill and Baranski 40 years later.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 125 | February 10, 2019 8:03 PM |
Verna Felton also played against type as the cantankerous (not loveable) battleaxe who wouldn't buy a vacuum cleaner from Lucy Ricardo.
And she will always be fondly remembered as the dear neighbor lady, Mrs. Potts, of Kim Novak, Susan Strasberg and Betty Field in PICNIC.
| by Anonymous | reply 127 | February 10, 2019 8:34 PM |
[quote] Backus told us stories of Davis once slapping a little boy at a restaurant only because the child asked for an autograph and that she sued a beauty salon in Hawaii when in a fit of rage she knocked over a bottle of bleach.
Wouldn't the salon be the one with grounds to sue, if Davis knocked over the salon's bottle?
| by Anonymous | reply 129 | February 10, 2019 10:02 PM |
[quote] Backus told us stories of Davis once slapping a little boy at a restaurant only because the child asked for an autograph
I know I'm going to hell for this, but this made me laugh...
| by Anonymous | reply 130 | February 10, 2019 10:06 PM |
"Hold that Ghost" - with Joan Davis - was my favorite Abbott & Costello movie when I was a wee bairn.
Watching it again as an adult, however, I found it very slow-going and not all that funny.
"Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein," on the other hand, was just as hilarious upon re-viewing. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
| by Anonymous | reply 131 | February 10, 2019 10:06 PM |
R126 Did you notice that the butler was played by big queen Richard Deacon?
| by Anonymous | reply 132 | February 11, 2019 3:23 AM |
And what about Spring Byington smearing her face with black shoe polish in the clip at r126? Could that fly today?
| by Anonymous | reply 133 | February 11, 2019 3:30 AM |
