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RIP
Jul 11, 2009 13:09:15 GMT -5
Post by maherjunkie on Jul 11, 2009 13:09:15 GMT -5
There's the political equivalent-Margaret Thatcher! Steel hair and dry humor. ;D
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RIP
Jul 12, 2009 22:26:49 GMT -5
Post by outerbankschick on Jul 12, 2009 22:26:49 GMT -5
Are You Being Served is so hilarious! I catch it on PBS sometimes. Likewise, the one with Judy Dench, As Time Goes By. I love British comedies. Their humor is so off-color, dry and witty. And sometimes it's so ridiculous that it produces the kind of deep belly laughs that make your sides ache. The only thing that came close to that kind of thing here in the U.S. (IMO) was Frasier, which I absolutely loved!
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RIP
Jul 13, 2009 11:47:08 GMT -5
Post by maherjunkie on Jul 13, 2009 11:47:08 GMT -5
And you are unanimious in that!
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RIP
Jul 13, 2009 13:02:28 GMT -5
Post by bermuda on Jul 13, 2009 13:02:28 GMT -5
Are You Being Served is so hilarious! I catch it on PBS sometimes. Likewise, the one with Judy Dench, As Time Goes By. I love British comedies. Their humor is so off-color, dry and witty. And sometimes it's so ridiculous that it produces the kind of deep belly laughs that make your sides ache. The only thing that came close to that kind of thing here in the U.S. (IMO) was Frasier, which I absolutely loved! I am with you, OBC. British humour is just such a different entity than U.S produced comedy humour. I loved Frasier. Now, that was a good comedy.
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RIP
Jul 13, 2009 13:50:03 GMT -5
Post by Patcat on Jul 13, 2009 13:50:03 GMT -5
FRASIER was brilliantly written and performed. The fact it was so popular for so long gives me hope.
Remember the episode at the ski lodge where everyone was trying to get into everyone else's bed?
Patcat
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RIP
Jul 13, 2009 21:26:16 GMT -5
Post by Techguy on Jul 13, 2009 21:26:16 GMT -5
^^^ Ditto Patcat. And yes, I remember that hilarious Frasier episode very well!
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RIP
Jul 17, 2009 20:18:13 GMT -5
Post by maherjunkie on Jul 17, 2009 20:18:13 GMT -5
Walter Cronkite, LEGEND, passed away today at age 92.
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angua
Detective
Posts: 281
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RIP
Jul 17, 2009 20:28:17 GMT -5
Post by angua on Jul 17, 2009 20:28:17 GMT -5
Yeah, I just heard about that. I was born to late to remember his broadcasts, but my mom always liked him. You watch, a man who made many Americans feel safe will get a lot less coverage than a man who creeped many Amercians out.
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RIP
Jul 17, 2009 20:44:06 GMT -5
Post by Patcat on Jul 17, 2009 20:44:06 GMT -5
It's poetic that Mr. Cronkite passed away while we're celebrating the 40th Andinnniversary of the First Moon Landing. He did a great deal to explain the space program, among his many great accomplishments. I remember his wonderful enthusiasm and joy, tempered by a certain amount of fear, during the night Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon as well as those grainy black and white images.
Patcat
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Irene
Rookie
"You blew your chance."
Posts: 48
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RIP
Jul 17, 2009 21:26:40 GMT -5
Post by Irene on Jul 17, 2009 21:26:40 GMT -5
Just a beautiful post, Patcat. Walter Cronkite was huge influence in my early life. I'll never forget his soothing voice and calming words in the best and worst of times. How can you explain to young people today who can't conceive of what it is to have trust in a journalist, what Walter Cronkite meant to us? Of all the momentous events that he covered, the first moon landing sticks out foremost in my mind as we all waited and watched, with breath held and fingers crossed, praying that the astronauts would make it through their journey safely-- we nearly felt that Walter Cronkite had the power to make it so. Although I would have preferred being "home" in Washington at the National Air & Space Museum party, I'll be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City on Monday, followed by drinks atop Rockefeller Center. My thoughts will be with Neil, Buzz, Michael, and Uncle Walter. Walter Cronkite 1916 - 2009 Read more: www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/cronkite_ambassador_of_exploration.html.
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RIP
Jul 18, 2009 6:19:52 GMT -5
Post by tjara on Jul 18, 2009 6:19:52 GMT -5
Very sad to hear this. As a historian, I worked a lot about the 60s, and Walter Cronkite was an institution!
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RIP
Jul 18, 2009 6:46:19 GMT -5
Post by DonnaJo on Jul 18, 2009 6:46:19 GMT -5
Who can ever forget Walter's emotional announcement that President Kennedy had died ? Seeing that tough, consummate professional tear up, taking his glasses off. Then go right back to giving us the news. No one today has the class to handle an event like he could.
Condolences to his family. RIP to a legend that we will never forget.
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RIP
Jul 18, 2009 7:05:08 GMT -5
Post by jeffan on Jul 18, 2009 7:05:08 GMT -5
Well said Donnajo -
the consummate professional broadcasting live during world-changing events.
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Jul 18, 2009 7:32:16 GMT -5
Post by caitlen on Jul 18, 2009 7:32:16 GMT -5
Great photo Irene, and post, he certainly had a good long life.
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RIP
Jun 3, 2010 14:34:51 GMT -5
Post by maherjunkie on Jun 3, 2010 14:34:51 GMT -5
'Golden Girl' Rue McClanahan Dies By Associated Press | Thursday, June 3, 2010, 9:18 AM
Rue McClanahan at the 2008 TV Land Awards AP Photo/Matt Sayles, fileNEW YORK – Rue McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 76.
Her manager Barbara Lawrence said McClanahan died Thursday at 1am of a stroke.
She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on "aging gracefully." In 2009, she had heart bypass surgery.
[See photos of Rue McClanahan over the years.]
McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the hit series "Maude," starring Beatrice Arthur.
But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White, and Estelle Getty in "The Golden Girls," a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging — and frequently eccentric — women living together in Miami.
[Check out photos from "The Golden Girls."]
"Golden Girls" aimed to show "that when people mature, they add layers," she told The New York Times in 1985. "They don't turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us."
Blanche, who called her father "Big Daddy," was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose, and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, "Your life's an open blouse."
McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987. In an Associated Press interview that year, McClanahan said Blanche was unlike any other role she had ever played.
"Probably the closest I've ever done was Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at the Pasadena Playhouse," she said. "I think, too, that's where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy."
Her Blanche Devereaux, she said, "is in love with life and she loves men. I think she has an attitude toward women that's competitive. She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think basically she's insecure. It's the other side of the Don Juan syndrome."
After "The Golden Girls" was canceled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, "Golden Palace."
McClanahan continued working in television, on stage and in film, appearing in the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle "Out to Sea" and as the biology teacher in "Starship Troopers."
She stepped in to portray Madame Morrible, the crafty headmistress, for a time in "Wicked," Broadway's long-running "Wizard of Oz" prequel.
In 2008, McClanahan appeared in the Logo comedy "Sordid Lives: The Series," playing the slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen.
During production, McClanahan was recovering from 2007 surgery on her knee. It didn't stop her from filming a sex scene in which the bed broke, forcing her to hang on to a windowsill to avoid tumbling off.
McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Oklaholma, to building contractor William McClanahan and his wife, Dreda Rheua-Nell, a beautician. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts.
McClanahan's acting career began on the stage. According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times profile, she appeared at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse, studied in New York with Uta Hagen and Harold Clurman, and worked in soaps and on the stage.
She won an Obie — the off-Broadway version of the Tony — in 1970 for "Who's Happy Now," playing the "other woman" in a family drama written by Oliver Hailey. She reprised the role in a 1975 television version; in a review, The New York Times described her character as "an irrepressible belle given to frequent bouts of 'wooziness' and occasional bursts of shrewdness."
She had appeared only sporadically on television until producer Norman Lear tapped her for a guest role on "All in the Family" in 1971.
She went from there to a regular role in the "All in the Family" spinoff "Maude," playing Vivian, the neighbor and best friend to Arthur in the starring role.
When Arthur died in April 2009, McClanahan recalled that she had felt constrained by "Golden Girls" during the later years of its run. "Bea liked to be the star of the show. She didn't really like to do that ensemble playing," McClanahan said.
[PHOTOS: Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White reunite to accept The Pop Culture Award at the 2008 TV Land Awards.]
After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on "Mama's Family" in 1983.
McClanahan was married six times: Tom Bish, with whom she had a son, Mark Bish; actor Norman Hartweg; Peter D'Maio; Gus Fisher; and Tom Keel. She married husband Morrow Wilson on Christmas Day in 1997.
She called her 2007 memoir "My First Five Husbands ... And the Ones Who Got Away."
Rue McClanahan talks about her first reading of the "Golden Girls" script:
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