Polly Dean Holliday was an American actress who appeared on stage, television, and in film. She was best known for her portrayal of sassy waitress Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry on the 1970s sitcom Alice, which she reprised in its short-lived spin-off, Flo. Her character’s catchphrase of “Kiss my grits!” remains the most memorable line associated with the series Alice.
Everyone CAN now kiss her grits!
Posted in Because I Can, News, The Little Screen (Television)
Star Trek is an American media franchise originating from the 1960s science fiction television series Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry. That series, now often known as “The Original Series“, debuted on September 8, 1966, and aired for three seasons on NBC. It followed the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise, a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”. In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and television westerns such as Wagon Train.
Posted in Events, The Little Screen (Television)
From Wikipedia:
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and distributed by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. Widely considered to be one of the greatest films in cinema history, it is the best-known and most commercially successful adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left the production to take over the troubled Gone with the Wind), the film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale alongside Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr.
Characterized by its legendary use of Technicolor (although not being the first to use it), fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters, the film has become an American pop culture icon. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind, also directed by Fleming. It did win in two other categories: Best Original Song for “Over the Rainbow” and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. While the film was considered a critical success upon release in August 1939, it failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, not including promotional costs, which made it MGM’s most expensive production at that time.
The 1956 television broadcast premiere of the film on the CBS network reintroduced the film to the public; according to the Library of Congress, it is the most seen film in movie history. It was among the first 25 films that inaugurated the National Film Registry list in 1989. It is also one of the few films on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The film is among the top ten in the BFI (British Film Institute) list of 50 films to be seen by the age of 14.
The Wizard of Oz is the source of many quotes referenced in contemporary popular culture. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but others made uncredited contributions. The songs were written by Edgar “Yip” Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music). The musical score and the incidental music were composed by Stothart.
Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor, voice actor, and stand-up comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy (1978-1982), Williams went on to establish a successful career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. His film career included such acclaimed films as Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), and Good Will Hunting (1997), as well as financial successes such as Popeye (1980), Hook (1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Night at the Museum (2006), and Happy Feet (2006).
Posted in Humor, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
On July 25, 1946, Martin and Lewis took the stage at Atlantic City’s Club 500 to create one of the most celebrated unions in comedy history.
*Note – The video (part 1) says they were “born July 26, 1946”, but several other references say July 25, 1946. “The world may never know.”
Posted in Humor, On This Day, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Andy Griffith was an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan’s epic film, A Face in the Crowd (1957) before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead characters in the 1960–68 situation comedy, The Andy Griffith Show, and in the 1986–95 legal drama, Matlock. Griffith was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President George W. Bush on November 9, 2005. Griffith died on July 3, 2012 at the age of 86.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)
Mel Blanc (born Melvin Jerome Blank, May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality. After beginning his over-60-year career performing in radio, he became known for his work in animation as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and most of the other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons during the golden age of American animation.
He later voiced characters for Hanna-Barbera’s television cartoons, including Barney Rubble on The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons. During the golden age of radio, Blanc also frequently performed on the programs of comedians, including Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, The Great Gildersleeve, and Judy Canova.
Blanc was nicknamed “The Man of a Thousand Voices”, and is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice acting industry.
Posted in Because I Can, The Little Screen (Television)
George Robert Wendt Jr. was an American actor. From 1982 to 1993, Wendt played Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom Cheers, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News, The Little Screen (Television)
George Lucas is an Academy Award-nominated American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic Sci-Fi franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones.
Posted in The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Hawkeye: I’ll carry your books, I’ll carry a torch, I’ll carry a tune, I’ll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash-and-carry, carry me back to Old Virginie, I’ll even ‘hari-kari’ if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun.
Posted in Because I Can, Humor, Quotations, The Little Screen (Television)
Posted in Because I Can, Humor, Music, The Little Screen (Television)
George Richard Chamberlain was an American actor and singer who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare (1961–1966). He subsequently earned the title “King of the Mini-Series” for his work in several TV miniseries such as Centennial (1978), Shōgun (1980), and The Thorn Birds (1983). Chamberlain also performed classical stage roles and worked in musical theatre.
Chamberlain played the role of Aramis in the film trilogy The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), and The Return of the Musketeers (1989); portrayed Allan Quatermain in both King Solomon’s Mines (1985) and Lost City of Gold (1986); and was the first to play Jason Bourne in the 1988 television film The Bourne Identity.
Posted in Because I Can, News, The Little Screen (Television)
50 years ago today, March 18, 1975, McLean Stevenson’s character Col. Henry Blake dies in the M*A*S*H episode “Abyssinia, Henry”, its third season finale. Out of all the main characters on the show, Henry Blake was the only one to have been killed off.
In order to evoke genuine emotions of shock and sadness from the actors, the final O.R. scene was kept a secret from the cast, with the exception of Alan Alda, until immediately before filming; only then was the last page of the script handed out.
Posted in Because I Can, The Little Screen (Television)
On this day in 1965, The Sound of Music was released in the United States.
Posted in The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
