Thoughts on Newhart and 227

 

Courtesy YouTube/Sony Pictures Television

"Well, I guess the burden does fall on the more advanced and developed of us to overlook the shortcomings of others. Besides, who am I to deprive you of me?"

Today, the spotlight is on two characters who would be mighty upset that it took this long to get a write-up, Stephanie Vanderkellen (Julia Duffy) of Newhart and Sandra Clark (Jackée Harry) of 227. They wouldn't be thrilled about sharing a day, either. To the best of my knowledge, Julia and Jackée have acted together only once, under presumably awkward circumstances. It was "Shades of Vanessa," which turned out to be Julia's last Designing Women episode and one that clearly was testing Jackée's chemistry opposite the cast members who would be coming back in the fall. But let's forget about all that and remember these ladies in their comedic prime. It really takes talent to make shallow twits appealing, and the Js rose to the occasion.

"Daryl, I'm going to tell you something about myself that not even Michael knows. But it can't leave this room. ... There are times when I can be just the tiniest bit self-centered. ... No, really, it's true."

I tried to pick two Newhart episodes that would show off Stephanie and two that would show off Joanna (Mary Frann). The ratio is closer to 1:1:1:1, since my episodes had good female guest stars. Julie Brown is back as Buffy Denver in "A Friendship That Will Last a Lunchtime." Twinkie meets and hits it off with Cupcake, until Buffy hurts Stephanie's feelings by cancelling a lunch date. "Is this what they call ... 'being stood up'? ... Oh my god. You hear about it happening to other people. You even do it to other people. But you never think it's going to happen to you." Dick, who hated the girls together, is still decent enough to help them patch things up. He's rewarded by being considered a possible freakazoid who wants to watch them put on makeup. In "This Blood's For You," the blond Daryl (John Voldstad) is rewarded for having been the right donor for Stephanie -- the only other person in town with AB negative blood; Larry (William Sanderson): "Cool gift, huh?" -- with her freak out. She's upset that an appendectomy left her with a scar (Dick: "An appendix isn't the kind of thing that you can suck out.") and that she's now no longer a blue blood. Why, horrors, Stephanie even forgets to use a knife and fork for her toast! Larry selflessly collects a bucket full of leaches to undo the transfusion, but that won't be necessary. Stephanie makes up with Larry. She offers to do something for him. He collects on this by asking for and receiving two of her muffins.

"Joanna, believe me. You and I both have what we want. I have an exciting new life. A fabulous career. And you've got Dick!"

Mary Frann's most notable episode is "I Married Dick," where Joanna fears that after 18 beautiful years, the Loudons' marriage has gone stagnant. Dick reluctantly agrees to see Dr. Mary Kaiser (Melanie Chartoff). Her patients include a verbally abusive man (Jack Riley) previously treated by "some quack in Chicago.*" Even leading the episode, Frann still takes a side seat to Duffy. "Chuck and Dawn" are in Kaiser's therapy group because Stephanie can't cope with Michael (Peter Scolari) having been born with big ears. Stephanie's fear of birthing an ugly child is resolved when Kaiser suggests the obvious, plastic surgery if necessary. The group's other couple, hicks Tommy Lee and Tish Holliday (Jack Kehler and Lela Ivey), also soon make up. After Joanna bores Kaiser with the long story of her marriage before struggling to imagine a life without Dick, the doctor has more obvious insight. The Loudons are comfortable. "Dick ... Oh baby, we got a good life, too." "Yew bet." Joanna shares the B plot of "Draw Partner" with George (Tom Poston), Stephanie and Michael. While the Stratford awaits its 5,000th guest, Dick works with illustrator Corinne Denby (Eileen Brennan). You know what they say about working with your idols. Corinne and Dick realize they work best when hostile. I actually preferred the scene with their studied amicability, including Corinne exhaling cigarette smoke into her purse. At the end, because the airport is fogged in, and Corinne has already checked out, she has to check in again. This earns her the 5,000th guest honor and accompanying confetti shower.

*Riley's appearance is fun both for the shout out to The Bob Newhart Show and the foreshadowing of his and Chartoff's future pairing on Rugrats.

"My own show, oh! Look out Oprah Winfrey, here comes Sandra Clark."

"The Talk Show" is the only Sandra-centric episode of my 227 quartet, but like Stephanie, she's never too far from the action. Sandra goes into broadcasting in "Talk," first delivering the weather report on extremely low-budget, limited airtime station Channel 87. As owner, news anchor and janitor Mr. Grant (Flip Wilson) says, "This ain't NBC." Six of the eight non-227 residents who turned in hated Sandra, but any response is a good response for Grant. He gives Sandra her own show, not explaining that her responsibilities include booking guests. As a result, Mary (Marla Gibbs), Lester (Hal Williams), Rose (Alaina Reed-Hall) and Pearl (Helen Martin) are the panelists for "Sex in the '80s: Does It Still Sizzle?" "This is Lester and Mary Jenkins, who will talk about sex from the married point of view." "I will not!" "That sounds familiar." Channel 87 can't pay its bills, so Sandra's show ends abruptly. She and the Jenkins get another chance to be on TV, this time with Dr. Ruth. Both Dr. Ruth and Oprah are also mentioned in "Best Friends," featuring Roxie Roker as Mary's successful classmate, Dr. Thelma Butler. Thelma's wisdom includes something Mary said as a girl. "You've got to take the good with the bad, roll it up, put it in the oven and it all comes up cupcakes." Sadly, I have no problem believing that as successful psychobabble. Anyway, Mary daydreams being a big star, then of Lester, Brenda (Regina King) and Sandra having a tawdry life without her. Mary and Thelma have it out over the former's jealousy. Names are called ("Cross-eyed cow?!"), a miniskirt is torn and the gals make up.

"... Emma, you know you've never directed anything."

"I'll have you know, in my '20s, I directed Caesar and Cleopatra."

"Really? Was she as pretty as they say she was?"

I'm always amused when sitcoms have the characters appear in established musicals. Inevitably, liberties are taken. Like Designing Women implying that "Bosom Buddies" was the first song in Mame(d). "The Whiz Kid," which introduces pre-teen college student Alexandria (Countess Vaughn), has The Wiz with Dorothy (eventually Alexandria) singing "Believe in Yourself." Alexandria first understood the sentiment when Mary helped her realize she didn't have to act like an adult all the time. It's a good thing for Alex, since her uppity behavior quickly ran its course. "(Madame Curie won the Nobel) for the betterment of mankind." "Oh, gee. We both work for the same cause." Sandra's antics include trying to overshadow Mary, the director, as they try selling Pearl on the merits of "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News". Finally, "And the Survey Says ..." has the 227 residents, plus Lester's dad Milton (George Kirby) and the mailman (Reynaldo Rey), vying for the $10,000 grand prize on Family Feud. It's another one of those oddities. I can't stand Feud, but I don't mind when sitcom characters appear on it. Most of the fun in "Survey" comes with the characters acting like themselves (proud, sassy, etc.) while on the air. There's also a firing of Chekhov's gun. It turns out that more people said a condemned man would ask for a home-cooked meal over a cigarette. Lester, at home, figured the meal would be the right choice. On air, he went with Mary's choice, the cigarette, and only scored 199 points during Fast Money. Hey, he did better than Sandra. Her pointless round is still the episode's highlight.

"Name something you must have in order to live." "A man."

"One of the Seven Wonders of the World." "A rich man."

"Something that improves with age." "A young man."

"A Christmas present you'd exchange." "An old man."

"A condemned prisoner's last request." "Any man."

Courtesy YouTube/CBS

Thoughts:

-- *Buffy discusses work with Michael* "Now, you know I'm very concerned about the quality of the show. And I think a great way to raise the quality of the show would be to raise the quality of my outfits." "You know, I don't usually get involved in business stuff, but that makes total sense."

-- Today in Classic TV: Milton has been a game show fan since ... "What's My Line??" "*buzzer sound* That's one down and nine to go." ("Survey").

-- Hey, It's 1988!: Dick and Joanna's living room chat with her divorced friend Rhonda (Jesse Welles) includes sentiment previously used by Lowenbrau ("Dick"). Rhonda: "Here's to good friends." Dick: "Tonight is something special." Sandra says that Dukakis took losing better than Mary is ("Survey").

-- Foreshadowing: Rose tells Sandra, who initially doesn't have any teammates, that it would be a different story if the game was Love Connection ("Survey"). Nine episodes later, Sandra did appear on Connection. 

-- Great Moments in Shilling: Lester says that with the weather job, Sandra will be like Willard Scott. "With hair." Later, launching her show, Sandra imitates Johnny Carson's mimed golf swing ("Talk"). Mary's first dream in "Friends" has her sharing a letter from Bill Cosby. He's glad she advised him to become a doctor.

-- Awards Watch: Julia and Jackée were each nominated for the comedy series supporting actress Emmy in 1988. They lost to Estelle Getty for The Golden Girls. While 1988 was Jackée's last year being nominated for 227, she at least received the Emmy the year before. Julia is tied with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss for receiving seven Emmy nominations and no wins as a comedy series supporting actress. Damn you, Rhea Perlman!

-- Buffy Denver was first introduced in "Co-Hostess Twinkie," Newhart's submission for 1987's Emmy for writing in a comedy series. Both "Twinkie" and "Lunchtime" were written by David Mirkin, who continued to work with Julie Brown on projects including The Edge. I'll come back to that one later this month.

-- Speaking of behind the camera, the four Newhart episodes I chose were directed by Peter Baldwin ("Lunchtime," one of 23 total), Dick Martin ("Draw" and "Blood's," two of 33 total) and Lee Shallat Chemel ("Dick," one of seven total). In addition to Mirkin, the episodes were written by Marjorie Gross ("Draw," her last of two), Mark Egan & Mark Solomon (their first) and Shelley Zellman (her first).

-- Over at 227, the off-camera talent included directors Gerren Keith ("Talk," "Whiz" and "Survey," three of 87 total) and Bob Lally ("Friends," his only credit for the show). The writers included Mickey Rose ("Talk," one of two, and both featuring Flip Wilson), Kathleen McGhee-Anderson & Deborrah M. Wilkinson ("Friends," their only episode), Ron Bloomberg & Al Gordon ("Whiz," Ron's last) and Ilunga Adell & Fred Johnson ("Survey," their first as writing partners).

-- Continuity Corner: While the Loudons have been married for 18 years in autumn 1988, the Jenkins presumably celebrated their 21st anniversary that year.

-- Besides their work in "Blood's," Larry, Daryl (Tony Papenfuss) and Daryl made an impact on this batch of Newhart episodes by practicing magic ("Lunchtime") and insisting that primal scream therapy has done them wonders ("Dick"). George's storylines included wanting to see the brothers succeed at magic. He even volunteered Dick for the saw the man in half trick. "There's a trick?" In "Blood's," he's trying to lower his cholesterol. It's on the advice of "Old Doc Winslow Jr."

-- Castmember Connections: Roxie Roker was the last of The Jeffersons' leading actors to guest on 227, both in general and in 1988. The others were Sherman Hemsley and Franklin Cover. The 1989 episode "Mary's Cookies," the last with Flip Wilson, also included Ned Wertimer.

-- *Sandra waits at Mary's for Thelma* "I want to talk to her about my inhibitions." "Sandra, you don't have any inhibitions." "I know. That's what I wanna talk to her about."

-- Next: Who's the Boss? On deck: Moonlighting.