RIP Linda Lavin

I think she had a brief turn as a uniformed cop in "Barney Miller," too.

EDIT: Yeah, it's right there in the obit link: A native of Maine, Lavin had recurred as feisty Det. Janice Wentworth on the first two seasons of ABC’s Barney Miller when she was hired in 1976 to topline Alice, created by Robert Getchell.

I think she entered the role as a uniformed officer, though.

 

Yeah, well, there was this one show where a guy found a genie in a bottle.
And he was an astronaut! And her name was ... wait for it ... ... ... Jeannie!!!

And this other show, guy's wife could twitch her nose back and forth and do magic stuff!

And this other show, a guy had a talking horse!

 

"Alice" was adapted from the Martin Scorsese directed film "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore."

Only Vic Tayback continued in the role of Mel from the movie. Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn didn't want to do the series, opening the way for Lavin. Diane Ladd played Flo in the movie.

 

THERE WAS A CAR!

AND IT WAS THE MOM!

 

Yeah, but she couldn't take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.

 

She married Barney Miller.

 

"A 1928 Porter, that's my Mother Dear,
She helps me through everything I do and I'm so glad she's here."

A veritable fountain of useless knowledge, that's me.

My Mother the Car was a really bad show, but it was a special effects pioneer. When Mother talked, her radiator would light up as she spoke. Twenty years later NBC moved this groundbreaking effect to Kitt's dashboard for Knight Rider.

 

Vic Tayback was one of a kind.

 

A millionaire couple, a movie star, a professor and a farm girl take a boat ride …

 

What was the line of demarcation where TV largely abandoned fantasy-based sitcoms for the realistic style? Rural Purge? (Even though Green Acres and TAGS didn’t have anything like that.)

 

This is from the Wikipedia page on Paul Henning, who created the entire Hillbillies/Green Acres/Petticoat Junction package (and whose daughter, Linda Kaye, was Betty Jo Bradley):

And of course, Henning was the reason Frank Cady was the only person to portray the same character on three sitcoms -- Sam Drucker.

That "rural purge" Wikipedia page is very interesting.

 

“CBS canceled everything with a tree in it — including ‘Lassie.’ ”
— Pat Buttram, Mr. Haney from “Green Acres.”