Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión
The Paul Lynde Show: “Howie Comes Home To Roost”
The late comic actor Paul Lynde was best known to my generation as the guy who played the lovable prankster Uncle Arthur on the TV show Bewitched so naturally when it came time to give him his own show, the suits made sure to keep him as far away from that type of role as possible. Instead, they gave Lynde the rather thankless role of Paul Simms, a conservative attorney who was always ordering his wife (played by actress Barbara Allen) to make him a martini when not ranting about the troubles of the world in general.
Simms seemed like an odd role for Lynde to play since Lynde seemed far more comfortable with sarcastic quips and what would today be called gay mannerisms than he was with portraying a normal heterosexual father. To his credit, Lynde did his damnedest to fulfill the needs of his role even though his postmortem reputation as a gay icon often made his performances seem a bit surreal to the modern viewer. It didn't help that a key part of the plot involved Simms repeatedly making quips about his daughter Barbara's most recent husband Howie Dickerson (played by John Calvin), a "hippie" character who was usually dressed in shorts, swim trunks or other types of abbreviated clothing. Of course, most of the odd parts of Lynde's performance went right over my head when I first saw this show as a kid. But nowadays, it seemed so obvious that I'm surprised no one older than me noticed.
In any event, the plot of this episode involved Lynde's law firm trying to close down a X-rated movie theatre, only to have their efforts wasted when Howie dropped by Simms' law office and inadvertently gave free legal advice to the owner of the movie theatre. Later on, Howie found a way to fix the mistake and for a while, all was well. But Simms was still not happy with having Howie as a son-in-law and he got even less unhappy when he found out that Howie and Barbara were moving in with them.
Did the TV show improve after this particular episode? Well, it would be nice to say so, but alas...
The Paul Lynde Show: “Howie Comes Home To Roost”
The late comic actor Paul Lynde was best known to my generation as the guy who played the lovable prankster Uncle Arthur on the TV show Bewitched so naturally when it came time to give him his own show, the suits made sure to keep him as far away from that type of role as possible. Instead, they gave Lynde the rather thankless role of Paul Simms, a conservative attorney who was always ordering his wife (played by actress Barbara Allen) to make him a martini when not ranting about the troubles of the world in general.
Simms seemed like an odd role for Lynde to play since Lynde seemed far more comfortable with sarcastic quips and what would today be called gay mannerisms than he was with portraying a normal heterosexual father. To his credit, Lynde did his damnedest to fulfill the needs of his role even though his postmortem reputation as a gay icon often made his performances seem a bit surreal to the modern viewer. It didn't help that a key part of the plot involved Simms repeatedly making quips about his daughter Barbara's most recent husband Howie Dickerson (played by John Calvin), a "hippie" character who was usually dressed in shorts, swim trunks or other types of abbreviated clothing. Of course, most of the odd parts of Lynde's performance went right over my head when I first saw this show as a kid. But nowadays, it seemed so obvious that I'm surprised no one older than me noticed.
In any event, the plot of this episode involved Lynde's law firm trying to close down a X-rated movie theatre, only to have their efforts wasted when Howie dropped by Simms' law office and inadvertently gave free legal advice to the owner of the movie theatre. Later on, Howie found a way to fix the mistake and for a while, all was well. But Simms was still not happy with having Howie as a son-in-law and he got even less unhappy when he found out that Howie and Barbara were moving in with them.
Did the TV show improve after this particular episode? Well, it would be nice to say so, but alas...
Labels: Conservadoras y Conservadores, El Show de Paul Lynde, Estereotipos, Generaciones, Paul Lynde, Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión XIX
posted by Tonio Kruger at 10:14 PM
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