#sheldon leonard

[citizenscreen]

Sheldon Leonard (February 22, 1907 – January 11, 1997), actor/director/producer/writer

He was everywhere and did everything.

[oldshowbiz]

From a Bird's Eye View (1970-71)

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Dick and Mary from the best sitcom ever, from the only ever Christmas episode they did in the five years Carl Reiner and Sheldon Leonard made TV history.

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Street of Chance (1942) Jack Hively

September 29th 2024

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Murder She Wrote guest stars S6 E16 of 'The Big Show of 1965'

Isabel Cooley (character actor in many shows including The Bill Cosby Show, The Mod Squad, Hogan's Heroes, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Cleopatra, Dr Kildare, etc)

Don Most (Happy Days, Star Trek Voyager, Dungeons and Dragons, Teen Wolf, etc)

Donald O'Connor (Character actor in things like Singin' in the Rain, The Nanny, Fraiser, A Time to Remember, The Love Boat, etc)

Anne Francis (character actor in many things, including Forbidden Planet, The Golden Girls, Matlock, Fantasy Island, Charlies Angels, etc)

Connie Stevens (The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Rowan & Martin's Laugh In, Wendy and Me, etc)

Gavin MacLeod (character actor in many things, including The Love Boat, McHale's Navy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show)

Sheldon Leonard (Dick Van Dyke Show, Gomer Pyle, USMC, Andy Griffith Show, The Danny Thomas Show, It's a Wonderful Life)

Episode aired Feb 25, 1990

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Another Thin Man - 1939

Hit The Ice - 1943

It's A Wonderful Life - 1946

I Love Lucy S5E33 Sales Resistance - 1953

Sheldon Fucking Leonard - 1994

[paceypeternathanslawyer]

I watch The Danny Thomas Show every Saturday with my parents and every time I watch it... I can only seem to compare it to The Dick Van Dyke Show in my mind. Pretty much the same production team made both. Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas both produced TDVDS and TDTS. The big difference between the two was that Carl Reiner was the creator of TDVDS and I believe that Danny Thomas created TDTS and that clearly made all the difference in the world.

Today I was watching Season 11 Episode Episode 16 of The Danny Thomas Show called "Kathy, The Secretary" which aired on January 20, 1964 and I was comparing it to Season 3 Episode 22 of The Dick Van Dyke Show called "My Part Time Wife" which aired February 26, 1964. As you can see these two episodes aired within just a little over a month of each other. But the difference in these two episodes are light years away. In some ways they are very similar. Both have to do with the respective protagonist's wives going back to work for a little bit.

The Danny Thomas Show did not deal with this plotline at all well. It starts with the typical old plotline of a wife spending too much money on clothes and hats and whatever she wants and their joint account being overdrawn because the wife can't budget money and only cares about what she can get for herself. This is such an old plotline that was done in I Love Lucy and a billion times after. It's old and it's very much depicted in a sexist nature. After a fight between them she almost on a dare decides to go back into the work force as a secretary for Danny's talent agent. The rest is a typically sexist series of events where the joke is that Kathy is a ditz and bad at her job. At the end of the episode she stops working to continue to be a housewife. I have nothing against housewives, I come from a long of them. My mom was one for a long while. My sister is currently one and honestly if I had kids and my husband had a well paying job where I didn't need to work I would definitely consider being one myself. But back in the days these plotlines were depicted on TV in a very sexist nature in so many ways that I can only begin to describe. For one, women were unappreciated for the work that they did at home. And again women were always depicted as not having the ability to even do that well. Like women were always making their husbands crazy and putting them in the poor house. And raising children was shown to practically be a breeze when they were even shown raising their children.

You compare that to the Dick Van Dyke Show and the difference is huge. Firstly the reason that Laura went back to work was different. Sally was working temporarily on another show and as usual the guys in the office were lost without her. Which was actually a pretty ahead of it's time concept. Sally was a career woman and an integral part of her job. She did everything well. She was an amazing TV writer and typist. She could do everything the men could do and then some. Either way Sally was off and Laura offered to help out at least with the typing while Rob and Buddy were writing the show. Where TDVDS really sets itself apart from TDTS was unlike Kathy, Laura ended up being amazing at the job. Not just in typing but she was also coming up with hilarious jokes for the show. Laura came into her husband's job and arguably did it better. Certainly that week she was doing it better. And that was the source of the conflict was that Rob was being a bit insecure about his wife coming into his job and getting bigger laughs than him. Don't let this synopsis fool you though, as insecure as Rob could be he was never as insecure as Danny was. And Rob always appreciated Laura and appreciated what she did. Also there were episodes where Rob helped out with housework like cleaning the dishes and stuff like that. That may sound small and insignificant now but at the time that stuff was considered "women's work." Men brought home the bacon and took the garbage out but women did the housework. So to depict a man who secure enough to help his wife out and to do the housework even when he was teased by his guy friends was really ahead of it's time. Rob and Laura were depicted as a team. It was them against the world and that was so incredibly ahead of its time on TV. But getting back to the main point. Laura was always depicted as being so good at her job and also so good at being a housewife. But it also wasn't shown as being super easy. Back in the day women were shown as never really having emotional breakdowns but Laura was allowed to be messy, sometimes both emotionally and physically. Like there were times when things got difficult. Laura wasn't shown as being emotionally immature but she was also allowed to be vulnerable and messy sometimes... and that's just life.

I really respect how TDVDS strove to push the envelope. How they strove to depict women, black people, and marriages differently and better than it had been in TV. It seems like every show was just trying to be like every other show that had succeeded in the past 10 years just trying to be another I Love Lucy. But even I Love Lucy pushed the envelope in some ways. So they weren't really trying for the spirit of I Love Lucy they just made a bunch of generic watered down versions of I Love Lucy. Carl Reiner went into TDVDS wanting to make something different, wanting to depict marriage in a more realistic way. To depict everything in a more realistic way but also to push the envelope of what was acceptable in some ways. I'm not saying that TDVDS always did things perfectly but I love how they strove for it. How they depicted a married couple (Jerry and Millie) going to couples counseling/therapy. How they depicted the main couple as being sexually attracted to each and depicted them as a team. It really blows my mind that a show like TDVDS existed in the year 1964.

[gatutor]

Jean Gillie-Sheldon Leonard "Decoy" 1946, de Jack Bernhard.

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For our 23rd horror adjacent episode, it's ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (1945)! Directed by Gordon Douglas, the film stars the knock-off Abbott and Costello duo of Alan Carney and Wally Brown, and features a great performance from Bela Lugosi!

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 13:13; Discussion 19:24

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Decoy

If the science underlying Jack Bernhard’s DECOY (1946, TCM, YouTube) were any loopier, the film would be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. High-living moll Jean Gillie comes up with a plan to save boyfriend Robert Armstrong from the gas chamber so she can find out where hid the loot from an armored car robbery. Knowing that methylene blue is an antidote for cyanide poisoning, she seduces gang leader Edward Norris into arranging to have Armstrong’s body stolen after the execution and doctor Herbert Rudley into administering the drug. Miraculously, it not only cures Armstrong but helps get his heart beating again. At one point Rudley injects it into the dead body as if the non-beating heart could circulate it to his failed organs. With skills like these, he could run a YouTube channel for anti-vaxxers. The craziest thing about all this, however, is that the film works. It’s a Monogram picture, so Bernard didn’t have the money for any great photographic effects, but he keeps it moving quickly and gets in some nice character details. And the script — by Nedrick Young from a story by Stanley Rubin — has some fun digressions, like a medical prison orderly who’s reading the dictionary to improve his mind (though he can’t figure out how to pronounce “dichotomy”). It also has Sheldon Leonard as a police detective attracted to Gillie. He has a way of growling out tough-guy dialog so even a howler like “Don’t let that face of yours go to your head” has the ring of authority. Best of all is Gillie, a British actress in her first of only two U.S. film roles. Her Margot is one of the most cold-hearted femmes fatales in the genre, a worthy companion to Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson and Ann Savage’s Vera. The film’s ads warned, “She’s the kind of woman who treats men the way they’ve been treating women for years,” which makes her a murderous Mae West. That’s reflected in the film when Leonard saves a young innocent from a lech pretending to be a producer, and the doctor dumps his nurse (the very good Marjorie Woodson) for Gillie, who really is turning the men’s tactics against them, though in the eyes of 1940s morality, she still has to be punished. As Leonard warns her, “People who use pretty faces the way you use yours don’t live very long anyway.”

[papermoonloveslucy]

TV on TV!

Part 2 ~ The TV Shows of the Lucyverse

Although it may seem redundant, the worlds created by Lucille Ball on radio and television frequently created and mentioned other TV shows!  Here are a few from “The Lucy Show” (1962-1968).

“Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (1962)

When Lucy's TV set doesn't work, she discovers that the antenna has blown off the roof. Refusing to spend extra money to have one professionally installed, she talks Viv into helping her replace it. As the episode opens, Sherman and Jerry are excited that the All-American Football Team is going to be on TV. When the reception is poor, Lucy engages in the old practice of  banging on the side of the set, something she claims she learned from her late husband. 

LUCY: “What did we do before television?”  VIV: “We used to hit the radio.”

With Lucy on the roof, Viv yells up the chimney, “I got carried away watching Art Linkletter. Come on down Lucy. He's about to go through a lady's purse.”  “The Linkletter Show” (also known as “Art Linkletter's House Party”) was seen on CBS from 1952 to 1970. Lucille Ball appeared on the show in February 1965.

“Lucy and Viv Put in a Shower” (1963) 

“Where’s Lloyd Bridges when you need him?” ~ Lucy Carmichael    

Bridges starred “Sea Hunt” from 1958 to 1961, a series about a scuba diver which featured extensive underwater filming, so much so that his name become synonymous with underwater adventures. Bridges was seen in all 155 episodes of the CBS series. He was also mentioned in the same context in “Lucy Buys a Boat” (1963). Lucy says she bought the boat with the hull in the water so she didn’t notice the poor shape it was in. She adds that she didn’t have Lloyd Bridges with her at the time!  

“Lucy’s Sister Pays a Visit” (1963)

Lucy’s son’s lunchbox features images from the television western “Lawman,” which ran on ABC from 1958-1962.  A “Lawman” lunchbox is now part of the collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. The lunchbox shows up again in “Vivian Sues Lucy” (1963). 

“Lucy Gets Locked in the Vault” (1963)

Danfield TV is on the scene when Lucy and Mr. Mooney finally get out of the vault. 

“Lucy and the Safe Cracker” (1963)

Demonstrating how she got locked in the vault for Larry McAdoo (William Woodeson) of Danfield TV, Lucy accidentally locks Mr. Mooney back in the bank vault again!  Taking advantage of the air time, Lucy gets in a commercial for Grandma’s Candy Shop, owned by the safecracker (Jay Novello).   

“Lucy and the Plumber” (1964)

Lucy and her plumber (Jack Benny) appear on the television program “Talent Discoverer's Show”.

Hosted by Greg Gregory (Willard Waterman), the show is sponsored by Kiddie Cookies, baked beans, and varnish! 

Lucy was already on the show once, so this time she disguises herself as Lucretia Carmucci, the talent discoverer of the title, presenting her plumber Harry Tuttle, who plays an arrangement of Donizetti on the violin. 

“Lucy Meets Danny Kaye” (1964) 

Lucy writes away for tickets to “The Danny Kaye Show” but is turned down.

Kaye offers to give her a walk-on role in the telecast – but Lucy manages to steal the spotlight anyway. In 1962 and 1964 Lucille Ball guest-starred on Kaye’s CBS TV program “The Danny Kaye Show.”  

Kaye telephones Bill Paley to see if he has any spare tickets to give Lucy. William S. Paley (1901-90), was the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.

“Lucy and the Beauty Doctor” (1965) 

When Lucy hears about a $25 beauty treatment, she tells Mr. Mooney the money is for a doctor. When the treatment turns out to be a hidden camera show named “Boiling Point”, Lucy must do whatever she can to stop it from airing and revealing her secret to Mr. Mooney.  

“Boiling Point” hosted by Dick Patterson is modeled loosely on “Candid Camera,” a TV show that started in 1948 and continues (in some form) to this day. Its heyday was from 1960 to 1967, when it was a ratings winner for CBS on Sundays at 10pm.  

“Lucy in the Music World” (1965)

When Lucy takes a job in a music producer's office, she wangles her new neighbor Mel Tinker (Mel Torme) into a gig on the musical variety television show “Wing Ding”.  

“Wing Ding” is hosted by Reb Foster and presents The Six Bare Feet, The Torch Bearers, The DDTs, and The Tear Ducts (Lucy and Mel) singing the plaintive ballad "My Trousseau Just Lies on the Shelf.”

“Lucy Helps Danny Thomas” (1965)

When Mr. Mooney hires Lucy to get some important papers signed at a TV studio, she finds herself dancing on Danny Thomas's TV special instead!   

Although this is not a real TV program, Thomas did host “The Danny Thomas Hour” for 22 episodes in 1967. Thomas was a Desilu regular, appearing in “Make Room for Daddy” (later “The Danny Thomas Show”) as well as doing a cross-over episode with “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”.

“Lucy and Art Linkletter” (1966)

Lucy is picked from Art Linkletter's studio audience and challenged not to utter a sound for 24 hours to win $200. In January 1966, CBS aired new episodes of “Art Linkletter’s House Party” daily at 2:30pm while “I Love Lucy” was in reruns at 10:30am.   

During the 24 hours, Linkletter arranges for a one-armed man to burst into Lucy's apartment waving a gun and say that a guy has been chasing him for three years. This is a reference to the hit ABC series “The Fugitive” (1963-67) on which David Janssen was on the trail of a one-armed man who killed his wife. Three weeks after this episode of “The Lucy Show” was filmed, Doris Singleton (Ruth Cosgrove on “Lucy and Art Linkletter”) guest-starred on “The Fugitive.” The series was a Quinn Martin Production. Quinn Martin was a producer at Desilu and also married Madelyn Pugh, one of Lucille Ball’s longest lasting writers.

“Lucy and the Soap Opera” (1966)

Lucy disguises herself in a number of outrageous get-ups to gain access to the reclusive writer of “Camden Cove,” her favorite soap opera, to learn how the show will turn out.  

Camden Cove is described at “the typical American town” so it was probably inspired by “Peyton Place,” a prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC from 1964 to 1969. Like “Camden Cove,” it aired three nights a week and dealt with the tangled relationships found in a small American town. Danfield was compared to Peyton Place in “Lucy and Joan” (1965).

“Lucy Goes to a Hollywood Premiere” (1966)

LUCY (to Edwards): “Oh, doctor!  Oh, doctor!”

Lucy disguises herself as an usher to meet celebrities. On the reception line, she asks Vince Edwards for his autograph. Vincent Edwards (1928-96) was probably best known as the title character on ABC TV’s “Ben Casey” (1961-66) which was filmed on the Desilu lot. A new episode of “Ben Casey” aired on ABC at 10pm on the night this episode of “The Lucy Show” premiered. It was directed by Marc Daniels, one of the directors of “I Love Lucy” and Jesse Wayne was the stunt coordinator, as he was for “The Lucy Show.”  

“Lucy and Bob Crane” (1966)

Crane was best known as the clever Colonel Hogan in the CBS POW camp sitcom “Hogan's Heroes” (1965-1971), which was filmed at Desilu Studios.

In the episode, Crane is making a World War One film. A one-line gag features an appearance by John Banner, who played Sergeant Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes”. He utters his famous catch-phrase from the sitcom. 

SCHULTZ: “I know nothing!”  CRANE: “Schultz! You're in the wrong war!”

Oscar Beregi plays Wolfgang Schmidt the director of the film. Beregi did two episodes of “Hogan's Heroes.” He was probably cast here for his resemblance to Werner Klemperer, who played Colonel Klink on “Hogan’s Heroes” who also wore a monocle.

“Lucy the Robot” (1966)

Jay North plays Mr. Mooney’s spoiled brat nephew Wendell. North was best known as the star of “Dennis the Menace” (1959-1963). During the show's final season, North played opposite Gale Gordon (Mr. Mooney) as John Wilson. 

“You will keep that MENACE subdued for the next eight days!” ~ Mr. Mooney to Lucy about Wendell

“Dennis the Menace” also included a character named Theodore Mooney! 

“Lucy the Gun Moll” (1966)

RUSTY: “So ya see, no one is really untouchable!” 

The episode is a parody of “The Untouchables” (one of Desilu’s biggest hits) starring most of the original cast. Lucy plays a gun moll named Rusty. Robert Stack (who originally played Elliott Ness), agreed to appear as long as the character names were not the same as the original. Stack was joined by Walter Winchell, Bruce Gordon, and Steve London. 

“The Untouchables” started out as a two-part pilot episode of “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” in April 1959. The show was introduced by Desi Arnaz and starred Robert Stack and the voice of Walter Winchell, both of whom were cast in the series, which began in October 1959 on CBS. The final episode was aired in May 1963.

“Lucy Puts Main Street on the Map” (1967)

To bring attention to the plight of the town of Bancroft, Lucy stages a spectacle on Main Street, calling all the television news programs to witness the event. 

Dan McGowan (Dan Rowan) is a TV reporter with the National News Service.

“Lucy Meets Sheldon Leonard” (1967)

Mr. Mooney allows TV producer Sheldon Leonard to film a hold-up scene at the bank. Lucy thinks he is really a gangster and is determined to foil his robbery.  

Over the telephone, Mr. Cheever tells Mr. Mooney that Sheldon Leonard produced “The Danny Thomas Show,” “Dick Van Dyke” and “I Spy.” Leonard himself adds “Andy Griffith” and “Gomer Pyle” to his credits. All of these shows were filmed at Desilu Studios. 

The end of the episode Leonard says:

“I suddenly got this idea for a new television series. It would be about this kooky red headed girl. She works in a bank and she gets into all sorts of impossible situations and... forget it.  Nobody would ever believe it.”

“Lucy Helps Ken Berry” (1968)

A dance instructor (Ken Berry) is about to default on his loan until Lucy arranges for him to be on “Ralph Story’s Los Angeles”, a local television show.  

Ralph Story was well known in the Los Angeles area as a local TV personality as host of “Ralph Story’s Los Angeles” from 1963 until the late 1970s. 

Ken and the his students perform “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” by Irving Berlin. For the finale, everyone sings “Pick Yourself Up” by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.

Stay Tuned for Part 3!  Same Time, Same Station!

[citizenscreen]

Albert Dekker, Lloyd Nolan, and Sheldon Leonard in BUY ME THAT TOWN (1941), directed by Eugene Forde

[oldshowbiz]

The Sheldon Leonard Interview.

[fourorfivemovements]

Films Watched in 2023:

30. Hit the Ice (1943) - Dir. Charles Lamont

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The Gangster (1947) Gordon Wiles

July 27th 2023

[paulgadzikowski]

Fun fact: There was an actor/producer in the middle 20th century, best known for producing The Dick Van Dyke show, named

Sheldon Leonard