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| The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 12:09 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| It's nothing new, but I have been watching episodes of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW and RHODA this morning and in the MTM episode, Bert Convy and Beth Howland played married friends of Mary's who were splitting up and Bert was putting the moves on Mare. Rhoda gets roped into going out for dinner with them and I remembered that both Valerie Harper and Beth Howland were in the ensemble of L'IL ABNER together (any other shows?) and that Beth would have been coming off her performance in COMPANY in 1972 (which I think she did in London as well as NYC?). Convo, of course, premiered two major roles in FIDDLER and CABARET and would go on to replace Raul Julia in NINE once he was a major personality from MATCH GAME. On the episode of RHODA- which guest-starred Anne Meara and Richard Masur, who is wonderful- I noticed a poster of DEAR WORLD hanging on Rhoda's kitchen wall! So many of the stars of my 1970's childhood had started in musical theatre: Florence Henderson, Cloris Leachman, Linda Lavin, Hal Linden, Alan Alda, Jean Stapleton, Carol Burnett (-ish), Beatrice Arthur, Adrienne Barbeau, Nancy Dussault and the list goes on. I suppose 'twas ever thus: in the '30's and '40s they shifted to Hollywood and films and then in the Golden Age of sitcoms, they filled the ranks there. |
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| re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. | |
| Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 12:30 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
| In reply to: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. - portenopete 12:09 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| I posted a rather naive (or just plain ignorant) question here, about a year ago, asking if the recent crop of musical theater stars transitioning to TV / film success marked a kind of high water mark, thanks to the spillover from Broadway musical casts into the TV casts of "Glee," "Supergirl," "The Flash," "Younger," "Smash," and the trajectories of James Corden, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hugh Jackman, Anna Kendrick, all in mind... ... and I pretty much got a smackdown from people who named countless figures from the 70s and 80's who got their start in Broadway musicals. To me, I'm almost more baffled lately about which Broadway stars *don't* seem to become TV or film stars. Audra, most glaringly. Her roles in TV ("Private Practice"), film ("Ricky and the Smash") haven't seemed to net her extra star wattage compared to what she earns in a live theater. - GMB |
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| re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. | |
| Posted by: schlepper 12:55 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. - GrumpyMorningBoy 12:30 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| Audra has been a regular on THE GOOD FIGHT for the last 2 seasons and is going into her third next year. It seems that every episode of that series is chock full of theatre people. | |
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| re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. | |
| Last Edit: JereNYC 02:25 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 02:25 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: The Presence of Musical Theater Performers and Ephemera in 1970's American Situation Comedies. - schlepper 12:55 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| Audra McDonald actually joined THE GOOD FIGHT in season 2, reprising a role that she'd originally played as a guest star on THE GOOD WIFE. She was not in season 1 at all. She's terrific on the show, but I was curious about why the show basically ignored the strong, black, female character in the cast during the first season, only to replace that character with McDonald's, another strong, black, female character in season 2. McDonald quickly became a focus and held her own with the show's other leads, but the original actress was never even given a shot at half the material that McDonald got. In any case, THE GOOD FIGHT has, so far, been McDonald's strongest work in film or television to date. I hope it gets her some attention, while also hoping that she's able to come back to the stage every couple of years or so. |
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