I was reviewing my draft posts recently when I came across a piece from 2009 (!), titled “Ten Favorite TV Characters.” I had only finished the first three and then likely forgot about it.
Peggy Fair, Mannix (Gail Fisher, 1935-2000): Peggy was Joe Mannix’s secretary, and most of the time had little to do but patch up her boss. But about once a year, there was a Peggy story; Peggy wooed by an African prince or some such, and those episodes always showed how utterly underutilized Peggy was.
Subsequently, I wrote about Gail here when I discussed a short film titled “The New Girl,” which Steve Bissette introduced me to. She was one of a relatively few black people on network TV in 1968.
Rob Petrie, The Dick Van Dyke Show (Dick Van Dyke, 1925-): Rob had a talented, beautiful and charming wife, great friends/colleagues, and about as complete a back story as I can remember. He also had a pill for a boss, but no life is perfect.
I wrote about the show in 2012, and how my daughter was turned onto it via our DVD DVD collection in 2013. But I’ve mentioned Dick at least 100 times in this blog.
Boomer
Dr. Jack Morrison, St. Elsewhere (David Morse, 1953-): Jack was, at once, a major screwup – he got through med school at a less-than-credible Caribbean locale, and yet so dedicated to his work that he neglects his marriage. His wife’s death made him a single dad just trying to muddle through. I always related to Boomer, as he was often referred to.
I have the first season of St. Elsewhere on DVD. It wasn’t a gift as such; someone sent it to me to review, which, it appears, I never did. Morse appears on various TV shows and movies; I last saw him in the movie Cabrini in 2024.
Frank Pembleton, Homicide: Life On The Street (Andre Braugher, 1962 -2023): Pembleton was passionate, intelligent (he knew Latin and Greek), focused, and very intense, very successful in eliciting confessions from suspects. But he was also impatient, particularly with his young partner.
I also enjoyed him in a half dozen episodes of Law & Order: SVU as a defense attorney. He was on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I rarely watched, but he was surprisingly funny.
Hawkeye
Benjamin Franklin Pierce, MAS*H (Alan Alda, 1936-): Captain Hawkeye Pierce evolved tremendously, especially after Trapper left and B.J. joined. I wrote about the show in 2015.
I saw Alda most recently in the movie Marriage Story in 2020, just before COVID.
Kermit the Frog, Sesame Street/Muppet Show (self). The frog was the relatively rational center amidst chaos. And he’s green, which, I can tell you from personal experience, is not easy.
Frasier Crane, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer, 1955-) Frasier was even more arrogant on his own show than on Cheers, and therefore even more oblivious. His cop father was smarter than he was. Frasier was unaware of his brother’s great infatuation with a woman staying in Frasier’s home.
He just turned 70.
Bob Newhart Show or Newhart?
Emily Hartley, from The Bob Newhart Show (Suzanne Pleshette, 1937-2008), was very smart – a third-grade school teacher and later an assistant principal – sarcastic, and a good sounding board for her psychologist husband, Bob.
This season’s final Celebrity JEOPARDY! Final JEOPARDY clue: “In Memoriam 2024” category: “This comedy legend always credited his wife, Ginnie, for the idea behind what is still called one of the greatest finales in TV history.” The response is Bob Newhart. The classic ending of his Newhart show, which has its own Wikipedia page, can be seen here.
Sue Ann Nivens, The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Betty White, 1922-2021) – she was the perky star of The Happy Homemaker on WJM, whose TV persona did not match the backbiting, snarky, sexually obsessed real Sue Ann.
Famously: “On The Golden Girls, debuting eight years later, White was cast as man-hungry Blanche Devereaux, with Rue McClanahan, the befuddled Vivian Harmon on Maude, cast as naïve Rose Nylund. The two actresses realized how similar their new roles were to their previous ones and, at the suggestion of veteran comedy director Jay Sandrich, approached the producers about switching roles. (White quotes Sandrich as saying, ‘If Betty plays another man-hungry neighborhood you-know-what, they’re going to equate it with Sue Ann and think it’s just a continuation of that.’)“
