January 25, 2009

"There's nothing to explain. It's perfectly obvious. She's stoned."

Just a clip from the early 1960s TV show "Pete and Gladys":



I was thinking about this show — not because of the Gladys on the Ellen show — but because the actor who plays the father in the movie "Juno" — which I watched the other day — reminded me of Harry Morgan, who plays Pete. I guess most people remember Harry Morgan from "M*A*S*H," but I never watched that show. That was after my sitcom-watching days. In fact, I thought of "Pete and Gladys" as Morgan's later work. The show was a spinoff of "December Bride." Here are the opening credits to "Pete and Gladys" — retro, unpleasantly retro.

Here's a taste of "December Bride," showing the young Morgan and featuring the surprising line "Ah, Lily, what's an extra bong or two? We'll love it!"



By the way, Morgan, born in 1915, is still alive.

23 comments:

John Kindley said...

Never watched MASH?! Probably the best TV show ever. Loved Juno, BTW. It was definitely pro-life.

William said...

The scene with Lucy is vaguely icky. There was something healthy and genuine about the attraction between Lucy & Desi. Her interplay with the two men in this scene is creepy.

George M. Spencer said...

Harry 'Pismo Beach' Morgan?

Dragnet! Laid it down hard against drugs and guttersnipe punks.

Can't find a clip showing him from the show, but here is Friday. One hard dude, that Friday. (And a bit ahead of his time re: race relations, maybe.)

Morgan played the 'nice guy' cop.

Ann Althouse said...

"Never watched MASH?!"

I saw the movie. I didn't like Alan Alda in place of Elliot Gould. But I just didn't watch TV in those years... just wasn't my life style at the time.

"The scene with Lucy is vaguely icky."

Agreed, including with the notion that it sure looks like Lucy. It's Cara Williams.

Ann Althouse said...

Morgan didn't play the original partner to Friday. He was on the remake, which was post-"Pete and Gladys." Who watched the remake? No one I knew. The original black and white show was the real "Dragnet" and Morgan wasn't on it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Funny.. the actor who plays the father in the movie "Juno" was on the film "Burn after Reading" I watched last night.

This must mean that Althouse ignoring something ;)

jeff said...

So what was the explanation for her being "stoned"? The opening credits clip and the "Japanese" dialogue certainly couldn't make it to the air today. Was the other guy the one from the lucy show years later?

jeff said...

Oh and the first couple of years of MASH were good. Went way downhill afterwords with the over acting and the self righteousness of pretty much everyone in it. The movie was very good. The books are funny as hell.

Chip Ahoy said...

I never heard of these shows, but I have heard of Kellogg's. Does that count?

Ann Althouse said...

"Was the other guy the one from the lucy show years later?"

That's Gale Gordon. He was in everything. That is, everything that David White wasn't in.

SteveR said...

At my age, 51, Harry Morgan was Dragnet not MASH and although he was good in that role (on MASH) it was, as stated before, during a period of the show when it had slipped from entertainment to preaching. History and my dad's personal experience, had told me the Chinese and North Koreans were responsible for the vast majority of horrible things that happened, not bumbling generals.

Yeah yeah, I know it was just a show but it went on too long like that.

joewxman said...

God bless Spring Byington!!! She and Margorie Main made such a lovely couple. And its always fun to see Gale Gordon pre mr mooney and verna felton.

jeff said...

Gale Gorden, right. I couldn't remember his name. I do see him in everything from that era, but I was a kid when the Lucy show was on and my parents watched it and that will always be what I think of when I see him in something. Like people in their 30's thinking Don Knotts was that guy in Three's Company.

American Liberal Elite said...

Wasn't Juno's dad the same guy who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome in The Ladykillers?

Michael Gillespie said...

"Stoned", in this clip, means "drunk". As late as 1968 it still meant that, at least to some folks (listen to the "Sinatra/Basie at the Sands" recording). So when did it take on the alternate and current meaning of "high on something other than alcohol"?

Ron said...

re the MASH TV show...as it went on, they got more coiffed, prettier, and more pompous. So, you start thinking, "Hey, where's the Chinese artillery when we actually need it?"

Larry Linville was always cool though...better than Bob Duvall in the movie.

Ron said...

Here I thought this post was going to be on Diane Sawyer at the Inaug.!

Ron said...

Wasn't Juno's dad the same guy who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome in The Ladykillers?

Yes. More importantly, he was J. Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman movies. (J.K. Simmons)

David said...

Another testament to the brilliance of Lucille Ball.

I watched for a while before I realized it wasn't Lucy. It was a Lucy impersonator, totally unfunny.

What's the difference between Lucy and her impersonator? Only genius.

Ann Althouse said...

Before "Pete and Gladys," Gladys was Pete's wife, but he only talked about her. With the spinoff, we finally got to see her.

rcocean said...

I liked Morgan better in "Dragnet" than in "MASH". And I hated the M*A*S*H the Movie.

MASH's leading men (Gould and Sutherland) came off as smug, and complete A-holes. I especially disliked the scene where they berate a head nurse in Tokyo and tell her to fix them a steak.

Ugh.

Cedarford said...

Ron said...
Wasn't Juno's dad the same guy who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome in The Ladykillers?

Yes. More importantly, he was J. Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman movies. (J.K. Simmons)

Simmons is also a regular on "The Closer", was on Celebrity poker and was hilarious, and also played a convincing evil boss of white supremacists in jail in the HBO series "OZ".

Another in an impressive number of excellent character actors..not quite a Philip Seymour Hoffman, but damn good..

blake said...

I guess we shouldn't refer to Simmons as "that guy who plays the headshrinker in Law and Order" anymore?