GUEST COLUMN | A cast of characters

We need more Archie Bunkers and Fred Sanfords today.

One morning as I was watching TV, I tried to think of one television character we have today that has anywhere close to the same level of notoriety of any of the ones with which we grew up.

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I couldn’t think of one.

Today, there’s no Archie, Fred, Andy, Barney, Fonzie, or anyone else even close.

I set my DVR to record All In The Family, Highway Patrol, Dragnet, and many other classics. But very few of the new shows get any digital time on my recorder.

The reason is simple. There just isn’t much out there that is worth committing time to. If there’s a good program that I should know about that I’m missing, I’d be more than happy to give it a go. But Must See TV seems to have faded into, I Can Take It Or Leave It TV.

Mostly, I leave it.

Even commercials have a lack of connection. My wife and I will see a commercial (often it’s an ad for some type of perfume), and when it’s over we look at each other and ask, “What was that about?”

It’s as if the people who made the perfume commercial were snorting it instead of wearing it.

But, I digress. Back to the TV characters.

Now I realize that we have more than three networks now and that with more shows being produced, it dilutes the ability of any given show to attract much of the top talent.

For example, a great show like The Andy Griffith Show or M*A*S*H could pick and choose who they wanted for writers and actors because the popularity of the program had both knocking at the door to work there.

But I’m referring more to the characters of a given show that became such a breakout star that you never wanted to miss an episode. If you did, you’d be the only one at the water cooler the next day who couldn’t discuss what had happened on the show the night before.

The Andy Griffith Show wouldn’t have been what it was without Don Knotts. Alan Alda was so synonymous with M*A*S*H that an episode without him would almost have been like a different program.

Another who made his show great was Redd Foxx. The writing on Sanford and Son was extremely basic. If you watch it now, it’s easy to see that each line from the other actors was just a setup for Redd to drop one of his jokes. But the setup was so worth the wait.

Fred Sanford’s abuse of his son Lamont, and especially the character of Aunt Esther, was television gold. You truly believed that Fred was as miserable as he seemed, and that he detested Aunt Esther.

The truth is that in real life, Redd Foxx and LaWanda Page (the actress who portrayed Aunt Esther) were good friends. She was the only one he ever considered for the role.

Also, she was not a Bible-toting person in her stage act like she was in her television role. In real life, she and Redd Foxx did nightclub acts that were quite blue.

But the point is that they were so good at their jobs that we had no idea about what they’d done before. We believed that Fred owned a junk shop and Aunt Esther was his scripture-quoting sister-in-law who couldn’t stand him.

That’s good acting.

We also totally believed in Andy and Barney. Sheriff Taylor ruled Mayberry with a light fist and kept Barney Fife from hurting himself or someone else with that one bullet in his pocket.

Floyd was a real barber, Ernest T. Bass was really a bit touched in the head, and Otis always walked around with a snoot full.

A friend of mine once pointed out that Otis stayed drunk and he was the only married person on the show. I’ll just leave that right there.

Even shows that obviously couldn’t be real were filled with actors who endeared themselves to us. Bewitched had Elizabeth Montgomery and I Dream of Jeannie had Barbara Eden. Bob Denver was believable as Gilligan and Alan Hale, Jr. couldn’t be anyone else other than the Skipper.

One of my favorites still today is The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling did other things during his career, but he was and still is the gatekeeper to The Twilight Zone. It comes on MeTV daily and I try not to miss it.

Many of the old shows have never left the air since they were canceled. And there’s a reason for that. They’re good. We like them.

When I was young, I used to marvel at older folks. They hung on to their music and entertainers as if their existence depended on it.

Now I know why.

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John’s latest book, “Puns for Groan People,” and volumes 1 and 2 of his series “Write of Passage: A Southerner’s View of Then and Now” are available on his website, TheCountryWriter.com, where you can also send him a message and hear his weekly podcast.

©2022 John Moore