"Mid-Century Modern" Could Become "The Golden Gays" Sitcom Viewers Have Been Awaiting Since Bea Arthur Left The Sitcom "The Golden Girls" in 1992

From left: Matt Bomer, Nathan Lane, Nathan Lee Graham and Linda Lavin in 'Mid-Century Modern'
Photo: Disney/Chris Haston

Short Version:

A Potential "The Golden Girls" Successor: "Mid-Century Modern" (which arguably could be called "The Golden Gays") in production for Hulu

Similarities to "The Golden Girls"

• Premise: Both shows feature older housemates sharing their lives. "Mid-Century Modern" has three gay men and one of their mothers living together in Palm Springs, while "The Golden Girls" had four widowed women (including a mother and her daughter age 55+) in Miami.
  
  
• Characters: Nathan Lane will play the character most similar to "Dorothy Zbornack" on "The Golden Girls"; he will be the homeowner named Bunny Schneiderman who lives with his mother in Palm Springs. Also, like Sophia Petrillo in "The Golden Girls," Sybil Schneiderman (played by Linda Lavin) is the mother figure in "Mid-Century Modern." Matt Bomer's character Jerry Frank might fill a similar role to the naïve "Rose Nylund", but the other character appears less directly comparable at this time.
  

The Cast and Creative Team

• The series stars Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham, and Linda Lavin.
  
  
• It's created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan (perhaps best known for "Will & Grace") and executive produced by them along with Ryan Murphy and James Burrows.

• 20th Television is the studio behind the show.

The Premise

• After a friend's unexpected death, three gay men "of a certain age" decide to live together in Palm Springs, along with one of the character's mother.
  
  
• The wealthiest of the men (played by Nathan Lane) is the homeowner Bunny Schneiderman who happens to live with his mother Sybil (played by Linda Lavin) in Palm Springs.
  
  
• Matt Bomer portrays a character named Jerry Frank who is somewhat similar to Betty White's ditsy Rose Nylund from "The Golden Girls." Variety reported "Jerry left the Mormon Church and his marriage in his early 20s after his wife informed him and the rest of the congregation that he was a homosexual. Now a latter-day saint in the literal sense of the term, Jerry is pure of heart. He is also hard of body and soft of head."
  
  
• Perhaps the least developed character, Arthur (played by Nathan Lee Graham), will have his backstory fleshed out by the writers.

Production Status

• Hulu has ordered a full season of the show.
  
  
• Filming for the pilot episode has been completed.
  
  
• "Mid-Century Modern" is set to release in 2025, and since it's on a streaming platform (Hulu), it's likely only going to have 10 episodes in its first season.

Context

• "The Golden Girls" was a groundbreaking sitcom featuring older women. "Mid-Century Modern" has the potential to be similar for a gay audience.
  
  
• Streaming services like Hulu offer more freedom in terms of content compared to network television.

Open Questions

• The show's premiere date is yet to be announced.
  
  
• The role of the "naked Gen Z housekeeper" named for the show has not been identified.
  
  
• Overall, "Mid-Century Modern" appears to be a promising new sitcom with a talented cast and experienced production team. Whether it captures the magic of "The Golden Girls" remains to be seen, but it certainly has the potential to be a success on Hulu.

The More-Detailed Story

When Variety first reported (see https://variety.com/2024/tv/columns/matt-bomer-nathan-lane-golden-girls-ryan-murphy-1236041246/ for details) that the streaming TV network Hulu had ordered a pilot episode of "Mid-Century Modern" produced as a multi-camera sitcom series to be executive produced by Ryan Murphy and "Will & Grace" creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan via their KoMut Entertainment business, there were instant comparisons made between the new show and an earlier sitcom known as "The Golden Girls". Like many people, when I heard that a pilot was ordered, I was both hopeful (if somewhat skeptical) because we've been teased with similar efforts over the years, and for one reason or another, none ever came to fruition.

Two months after reporting that the cast for a pilot had been identified, Variety subsequently reported (see https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/hulu-comedy-mid-century-modern-nathan-lane-matt-bomer-nathan-lee-graham-linda-lavin-1236105352/ for the article) that Hulu had ordered a full-season of "Mid-Century Modern", and actress Linda Lavin (perhaps best remembered as the star of the seventies sitcom "Alice") had shared some photos on social media that the actors had just finished recording the pilot episode of the show.

"Hulu has given a series order to the comedy 'Mid-Century Modern,' Variety has learned." In other words, the streaming platform had ordered a full season of the proposed sitcom. Variety also reported "The series was created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, with both also executive producing. [Nathan] Lane and [Matt] Bomer are also executive producers, along with Ryan Murphy and James Burrows, with Burrows having directed the pilot. 20th Television is the studio."

Short Back Story of the Predecessor "The Golden Girls"

"The Golden Girls" was a TV sitcom created by Susan Harris and ran on the NBC broadcast television network from 1985 to 1992. That show became one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, chronicling the story of four widowed, aging women who share a house together in Miami. Looking back, it's helpful to understand how "The Golden Girls" came to fruition. On August 24, 1984, two actresses "of a certain age," each then acting on a hit NBC show (Selma Diamond was a regular on NBC's Thursday night sitcom "Night Court", while Doris Roberts was on NBC's "Remington Steele"), stepped onstage at the network's Burbank headquarters as presenters at the NBC's fall preview special. 

The two actresses traded scripted patter from a teleprompter, and in the process, they also did more than a little ogling of the [new] male leads in one of the peacock network's more promising new dramas of that era: "Miami Vice". But the way those two actresses delivered that dialogue proved to be quite entertaining. The object of their affection? None other than Don Johnson, who was about to debut in the fashion- and decade-defining hit "Miami Vice". And the gawking [older] gals, whose performance that night inspired then-NBC president Brandon Tartikoff to commission a sitcom about the active lives (and loves) of the over-sixty set. 

Below is a clip of that Selma Diamond and Doris Roberts interaction from that 1984 NBC fall preview (or at https://youtu.be/b0RSJpV-ZE4?si=UVtyTU11vAP7HD2C if you are reading from a mobile device) which some believe was the place where the idea for "The Golden Girls" actually emerged.

The cast of "The Golden Girls" included Bea Arthur (who played the sarcastic Dorothy Zbornack), Rue McClanahan (who played the sexy Southern belle Blanche Devereaux), Estelle Getty (who played Dorothy Zbornack's wisecracking but also wise mother Sophia Petrillo), and Betty White (who played the ditsy Rose Nylund), and the show remains an often-quoted and rewatched series even today in spite of the last episode having aired more than 30 years ago (as of 1992).

"The Golden Girls" was an unlikely hit — and kind of a lucky accident. Originally proposed as a joke at NBC, it only came to life thanks to a network executive who realized the concept was so crazy that it just might work; and a groundbreaking, boundary-pushing producer helped bring it to life. On paper, the concept seemed like it could never attract a mainstream audience: four ladies of advanced age, sharing a house in Miami and lusting after men. But the concept of older women, which aired on Saturday evenings, became a top hit, and part of NBC's "Must See TV" lineup during that era. And it starred legendary TV sitcom veterans (Estelle Getty being the notable exception having extensive stage experience, but marginal TV experience) to boot, which helped to cement the show's iconic status. 

Success for "The Golden Girls"

In fact, during its original run, "The Golden Girls" was nominated for a total of 58 Primetime Emmy awards, winning eleven including the award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1986 and 1987. Also, all four principal stars of "The Golden Girls" won an Emmy Award for their performances, which is an accomplishment relatively few sitcoms have since replicated. All around, "The Golden Girls" show quickly became a sitcom hit, which ran for a now-unfathomable seven seasons and won numerous awards during its seven-season run. 

The very notion of older women spending their retirement years together with a "chosen family" also resonated strongly with gay and lesbian audiences, who were often forced to live with chosen families by necessity because some of their own families had disowned them for being gay. Ironically, "The Golden Girls" was also uncharacteristically gay-tolerant on broadcast television during a period of time when the AIDS epidemic was happening, while an indifferent Reagan administration in office sat by and did little other than to help foster general societal homophobic attitudes in its thinly-veiled efforts to try and cement votes by pandering to socially conservative voters. 

While the team bringing "Mid-Century Modern" to TV today might dispute the notion of their show being simply a modern reboot of "The Golden Girls", the press certainly has been willing to suggest that it has potential to be just that. Perhaps it's best to leave the conclusion to you once "Mid-Century Modern" premiers.

Following The Rule of Four

Many of Hollywood's most enduring movies and TV shows tend to consist of four primary lead characters. Perhaps that's because it allows writers to explore four unique character archetypes and how they play-off one another in a group dynamic. Regardless, groups of four main characters in entertainment have, over time, made for some of the most memorable entertainment teams of all time. For example:

1. In the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz", a foursome consisting of the characters Dorothy (Judy Garland), the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger). the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) helped drive that movie into longevity 
   
   
2. On television, not only did we have four central characters on "The Golden Girls" during the eighties, but we had earlier precedent with such legendary sitcoms with cast foursomes in the smash fifties TV sitcom "I Love Lucy" which was focused primarily on Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), Ethel Mertz (Vivan Vance) and Fred Mertz (William Frawley) 
   
   
3. That dynamic was later replicated with such shows as "Seinfeld" with Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards), George Castanza (Jason Alexander), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and of course Jerry Seinfeld (played by Jerry Seinfeld) as its four main characters. 
   
   
4. More recently, we've had shows with four main characters, such as on "Sex and the City" with the characters of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) 
   
   
5. On the long-running Chuck Lorre-produced sitcom "Big Bang Theory", which had Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) and featured four central characters. 

There are, of course, other examples, but those are some prominent ones which come to mind.

"Mid-Century Modern" Could Become a 21st Century Version of "The Golden Girls" (or maybe more accurately, "The Golden Gays")

TV Line featured a nice overview of the Hulu decision to order "Mid-Century Modern" at https://tvline.com/lists/nathan-lane-matt-bomer-mid-century-modern-cast-release-date-trailer-hulu/ and included the following video clip below (or found at https://youtu.be/l2sE080mVOo?si=Nj1yxBoQ9934dc8- if you're reading from a mobile device) which can be seen here.

"Mid-Century Modern" Cast Summary 

• Nathan Lane: The homeowner Bunny Schneiderman who lives with his mother Sybill in Palm Springs. Bunny is a successful businessman with one foot in retirement, and is forever in search of love, but he first has to be convinced he's worthy of it.
  
  
• Linda Lavin as elder Sybil Schneiderman. Like her son, Sybil's strengths are her weaknesses: wise, caring, and iconoclastic – which sometimes means she's critical, smothering and amoral. 
  
  
• Matt Bomer: Jerry Frank, an ex-Mormon who was outed to his entire Congregation by his ex-wife, he's "hard of body" and "soft of head" 
  
  
• Nathan Lee Graham: Arthur, a dignified, elegant, longtime member of the fashion industry who believes that life will never quite match the grace and panache that would exist if only he were in charge. This description sounds like it could be incredibly funny. The actor's prior TV roles consisted of a host of episodic roles (including on such comedies as "Absolutely Fabulous"), as well as being a regular on the sitcom "LA to Vegas" in which he played Bernard Jasser, a flamboyant male flight attendant.
  
  
• Of note is the fact that on the original sitcom "The Golden Girls", actress Rue McClanahan was only age 51 in 1986 when "The Golden Girls" began (just five years older than Matt Bomer is in 2024), while Betty White was age 63, Bea Arthur was also age 63, and Estelle Getty was age 62. By comparison, Matt Bomer is age 47, Nathan Lee Graham is age 55, Nathan Lane is age 68, while Linda Lavin is 86 in 2024.

Deadline Hollywood described the situation this way (see HERE):

The very quick decision-making — especially by Disney standards — is not that surprising. In addition to an A-list creative team in front and behind the camera, the pilot has been enjoying a very strong word- of-mouth internally that kicked into high gear after the table read.

Cast's Previous Relevant Work for "Mid-Century Modern"

As for casting of "Mid-Century Modern", already acknowledged was Nathan Lane, whose big-screen portrayal of the gay character Albert Goldman in the 1996 big screen movie "The Birdcage" (which was the American movie adaptation of the 1978 hit French film "La Cage aux Folles"). In that movie, Nathan Lane played the life-long same-gender partner of the Robin Williams character Armand Goldman and also as the drag queen Starina in their drag club known as "The Birdcage". That alone suggests Nathan Lane will be well-suited for his new role as Bunny Schneiderman. His prior role as Albert Goldman proves his well-practiced comedic timing. Again, Variety described Nathan Lane's character in "Mid-Century Modern" as "a successful businessman named Bunny Schneiderman who's forever in search of love but needs to be convinced he's worthy of it." 

Robin Williams (left) and Nathan Lane (right) in "The Birdcage"

Nathan Lane will co-star with Matt Bomer, as well as Nathan Lee Graham (all three openly gay actors in real-life) and Linda Lavin on "Mid-Century Modern". The fourth character played by Linda Lavin, aside from being a Tony and Golden Globe award winner herself, she was also nominated for a number of Emmys for her TV role as Alice Hyatt on the TV sitcom "Alice" which ran for a total of nine seasons between 1976 and 1985. There is no denial that Linda Lavin is a sitcom veteran.

Ms. Lavin will step into the role of Sybil Schneiderman on "Mid-Century Modern" as the Nathan Lane character Bunny Schneiderman's mother who lives with her son in Palm Springs. On the sitcom "The Golden Girls", Estelle Getty played the comparable role of Sophia Petrillo. Linda Lavin brings a wealth of acting experience to the role, not only for her portrayal of Alice Hyatt on the long-running TV sitcom "Alice", but also having more recently starred in such short-lived TV sitcoms such as "9JKL" and "B Positive."

Matt Bomer will play the character most akin to Betty White's ditsy character Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls" and he will be known as Jerry Frank on the new series. The character of Jerry is described as "pure of heart, hard of body and soft of head." The show notes also describe Jerry as a former Mormon who left his marriage in his 20s after his wife told him and the rest of their congregation that Jerry was gay. Bomer previously starred in the TV drama "White Collar" as a con-man and forger on that show.

Perhaps the least fully-developed character on "Mid-Century Modern" will be the character of Arthur (to the best of my knowledge, no surname for Arthur has yet been revealed), who will be played by actor Nathan Lee Graham. There was considerably less back-story about the character of Arthur when "Mid-Century Modern" actually premiers, although the show's writers will be able to fill in those blanks for viewers. What we know about Arthur is described in the show notes as "a dignified, elegant, longtime member of the fashion industry who believes that life will never quite match the grace and panache that would exist if only he were in charge". 

Life After "Will & Grace" on TV

The TV sitcom "Will & Grace" was one of the most successful television series with gay principal characters and aired between 1998 to 2006 (which returned for a single season in 2017). Max Mutchnick and David Kohan created "Will & Grace" which focused on the friendship between best friends Will Truman (Eric McCormack), a gay lawyer, and Grace Adler (Debra Messing), a straight interior designer. Alongside them were their friends Karen Walker (Megan Mullally), a demonically alcoholic socialite, and Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes), a gay neighbor and sometimes actor. Those four cast members were the core cast of "Will & Grace", which was the most successful television series with gay principal characters. "Will & Grace" ran for eight seasons, although as noted, the show was brought back on television with a ninth season which aired during 2017–2018.

In 2012, during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," then Vice President Joe Biden said "I think 'Will and Grace' probably did more to educate the American public [about what gay individuals are actually like] than almost anything anybody's ever done so far."

In more recent years, we have enjoyed some ground-breaking TV sitcoms (many on paid streaming platforms) with openly gay characters, including the original Netflix series "Grace & Frankie" which was about two senior women whose husbands leave them (for men, specifically each other's husbands). That Marta Kauffman-created series co-starred the legendary Lily Tomlin (herself a lesbian) and Jane Fonda, along with their recently-out gay ex-husbands on the show played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterson. Tomlin and Fonda are perhaps best remembered for their blockbuster eighties feminist comedy movie "Nine to Five". In "Grace & Frankie", the two actresses ended up creating comedic gold aimed squarely at an older, and decidedly gay-friendly audience. 

But all good things must eventually end, and "Grace & Frankie" enjoyed an impressive seven season run in the modern media environment, becoming the longest-running original series on Netflix. Now, "Grace & Frankie" now enjoys a dedicated subchannel on free ad-supported streaming TV apps including on the Roku Channel and on Plex, where the un-edited show now streams continuously on a loop (and it's available for no subscription charge!).

Still, "Grace & Frankie" was about two older, heterosexual women living together (their ex-husbands were gay, and were recurring characters on the show, although those characters were more about setting the show's basic premise of older women learning to live life after their husbands leave them for each other's husband, rather than the show being specifically about the gay couple specifically.

That's why "Mid-Century Modern" reads as something of a gender-swapped interpretation of "The Golden Girls" with a slight twist in that the character of Sybill Schneiderman is also a mother like Estelle Getty's character on "The Golden Girls" known as "Sophia Petrillo" was, and the mother character on "Mid-Century Modern" will be played by Linda Lavin. But, aside from "Grace & Frankie", we haven't really had much on television which had both the older-age angle, along with a particular gay sensibility. Really, "The Golden Girls" set a modern gold standard which so far, has proven quite hard to replicate with such a legendary cast and consistently exquisite writing and producing. 

Certainly the cast, and the creative and production talent behind "Mid-Century Modern" all suggests this show is likely to be successful. Officially, there is no word yet on when the show expects to be introduced.

In other words, the new show looks somewhat like a modern-day reboot of "The Golden Girls" featuring three gay men, along with one of the character's mother, all sharing a house together. "Mid-Century Modern" also reportedly will feature a "naked Gen Z housekeeper" although it's unclear how central to the storyline that will actually be. And while "The Golden Girls" was set in Miami, Florida, "Mid-Century Modern" will be set in Palm Springs, California, those differences are rather minor. Of course, Hulu is not restricted by the federal law which "prohibits obscene, indecent and profane content from being broadcast on the radio or TV" because streaming shows are not governed by the FCC, it is a genuine sitcom with legitimate names and talent behind it, so no one expects it to be filth. 

Nevertheless, the similarities between the two shows ("The Golden Girls" and "Mid-Century Modern") are not hard to notice. For example, one of the characters happens to live with his mother, while two other roommates live with them in the same house. They are all slightly older (although some critics have noted that Matt Bomer is currently age 46, he will likely play a character who is likely age fifty, and it's worth remembering that actress Rue McClanahan was age 51 in 1986 when "The Golden Girls" first began (5 years older than Matt Bomer is in 2024).

"Mid-Century Modern" Production Nuts and Bolts

Kohan and Mutchnick formed company with a name combined from their two last names known as KoMut Entertainment, which helped make such TV shows as "Boston Common", "Will & Grace", "$#*! My Dad Says" and "Partners". In addition to several movies, Ryan Murphy created the FX cable TV drama series "Nip/Tuck", then produced a musical comedy-drama musical series known as "Glee" which ran on Fox for 6 seasons, followed by the anthology series "American Horror Story" which ran on FX for 12 seasons.

But now that the "Mid-Century Modern" series has the go-ahead, it means they just need scripts, then they can record the episodes.

The basic premise of the "Mid-Century Modern" series will be that it follows three best friends — gay gentlemen "of a certain age" — who, after an unexpected death, decide to spend their golden years living together in Palm Springs where the wealthiest one (played by Nathan Lane) lives with his mother (played by Linda Lavin). A less developed fourth character Arthur will be played by Nathan Lee Graham; the fourth character on "The Golden Girls" was Blanche Devereaux (played by Rue McClanahan) who was a sexy Southern belle. We'll wait for the writers to fill-in Arthur's backstory and what his character will be like, but remember: "Mid-Century Modern" will not be exactly like a "Golden Girls" reboot, so we may see certain behaviors exhibited by different characters.

"Mid-Century Modern" will run on the streaming platform Hulu, which is owned by Disney, although Hulu has struggled somewhat to gain a loyal following, lacking any "must-see" comedy sitcoms other than old reruns of old TV shows (including the original version of "The Golden Girls"). Streamers do seem to have considerably more leeway in terms of story lines which network TV has to edit out to avoid FCC charging them with obscenity. Streamers also don't necessarily need to stick to a particular amount of time for a given episode, although most do for consistency and for the benefit of their writers and actors. However, language need not be sanitized unnaturally. Ditto for occasional nudity, although it's not porn. The new series will be set in Palm Springs, California which is known for being home to a large LGBT population. The should already has a core cast, a director, writers, producers, etc. James Burrows is directing the pilot. Max Mutchnick, David Kohan, Burrows, Lane and Bomer will also exec produce. 20th Television is the studio. "Mid-Century Modern" is set to release sometime in 2025, and since it's on a streaming platform (Hulu), it's likely only going to have 10 episodes in its first season.

20th Television is the television production division of 20th Century Studios. It was known for a while as 20th Century Fox Television until it adopted the 20th Television name in 2020. The original 20th Television was the studio's television syndication division until it was folded into Disney-ABC Domestic Television in 2020. The creators and producers are well-established in Hollywood. 

Related Story Links:

https://variety.com/2024/tv/columns/matt-bomer-nathan-lane-golden-girls-ryan-murphy-1236041246/ 

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/hulu-comedy-mid-century-modern-nathan-lane-matt-bomer-nathan-lee-graham-linda-lavin-1236105352/ 

https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/television/2024/06/19/mid-century-modern-hulu-show-palm-springs-nathan-lane-matt-bomer/74149021007/ 

https://screenrant.com/mid-century-modern-show-sitcom-matt-bomer-nathan-lane-ryan-murphy/ 

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/01/18/65092818/why-do-gays-love-the-golden-girls 

Brooke Shields Could Have Turned Into Another Child Star Gone Bad, But She Turned Out OK In Spite of Odds, Which Were Stacked Against Her

Back in April/May 2024, Brooke Shields was featured on the cover of AARP magazine. 

I recall growing up and my parents used to comment that they felt Brooke Shields' mother was essentially pimping her daughter out by having her star in sexualized movie roles, most notably when she starred in the movie "Pretty Baby" in which she was raised in a brothel as a child prostitute, but beyond that, in her early roles as a child star, she was frequently naked on camera. That would be the first of a number of starring roles and risqué magazine covers were far more mature than she was as a child star which her mother arranged on her behalf. That's the short version of the story, but the truth was that Shields has made no secret of the fact that she had a "very complicated" relationship with her mother.

The April/May 2024 AARP magazine cover wasn't even the former child model-turned-actress' first cover for the senior magazine, although it was followed by an announcement that she had just been elected as the next president of the Actors' Equity Association, the labor union representing stage actors and stage managers. Back in 2015, she also appeared on the cover of AARP magazine because she had just turned age 50 at the time, and AARP always tries to make aging seem normal (which it is, except in the entertainment industry which is notoriously ageist, especially for women). But in recent years, some comparably-aged actresses in particular (notably Justine Bateman and Jodi Foster) are among a growing roster of female Hollywood stars who have publicly stated that they have no intention to get plastic surgery as some of their older peers did, and hopefully that trend will continue. 

Brooke Shields' Ivory Snow ad

But Brooke Shields is kind of having another moment in public these days. She appeared on the cover of AARP magazine in April/May 2024 (her second cover since appearing in 2015 when she turned age 50) and in 2023, she had a successful autobiographical two-part series which aired on Hulu, and later on ABC, and this year, she also co-starred in a small part for the recently-released original Netflix movie "Mother of the Bride".

Brooke Shields' 2023 original two-part documentary which aired on Hulu (and later on ABC) entitled "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" which essentially borrowed the title from the 1978 movie named "Pretty Baby" which she starred in as an 11 year-old in which she portrayed a 12-year-old girl being raised as a prostitute in a brothel in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans, by her prostitute mother. "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" was a very telling documentary from Shields from her own perspective. At the time of the 1978 movie with the same title, it was just a film role, but critics felt the story was a little too close to reality since Shields was, in the view of some, being pimped-out by her mother as a child model and occasional actress. 

Her daughters Rowan and Grier told People in an interview that they really did not like the 1978 film "Pretty Baby". For example, daughter Grier, now age 18, said "I don't like this movie. I've seen enough of it on TikTok. I would prefer not to watch my mom being sold, as an 11-year-old prostitute. I'd rather watch the funny and happy ones." She added about her mother playing a prostitute with an older man "That’s weird. She had to kiss someone [over] twice her age." 

Sister Rowan, now age 21, argued her mother's "stage kiss does not count as a real kiss." Rowan went on to share that she's not "purposefully avoiding" watching her mom's movies. "It's more like it never really crossed my mind to say, 'Movie night, let's watch 'Pretty Baby.' She added that "I loved 'Mother of the Bride' and 'Castle for Christmas'." 

Brooke Shields was first put in the spotlight at the age of 11 months in an advertisement for Procter & Gamble's Ivory soap, and later became famous as a 15 year-old teen model in ads for a then-new designer named Calvin Klein which was considered, at the time, scandalous with a tagline asserting "Nothing gets between me and my Calvins" (see some coverage of that at https://www.vogue.com/article/behind-the-moment-brooke-shields?utm_source=VOGUE_REG_GATE for more). 

Many of her early TV commercials were considered sexually suggestive with a minor, so much that the Calvin Klein commercial was banned by ABC and CBS, but Calvin Klein saw the negative publicity raise his company's public image and the clothing even more than the commercials did by themselves, so he was fine with it. Meanwhile, Shields' mother also pushed her daughter to star in such big-screen movies as "Pretty Baby", "The Blue Lagoon", and "Endless Love" and most of the early films featured on-camera sexual acts and nudity for the young model/actress. 

None of her early movies were really award-worthy, but at least a few were commercially successful thanks, in part, to the scandal. Shields and her mother had learned to leverage scandal successfully.

Sheilds' Cavin Klein jeans ad

While Brooke Shields never earned critical accolades for her acting ability (she was OK, but no critic ever said she was Oscar-worthy), her stage mother was actively commercializing and selling her young daughter. Shields, while attractive, also wasn't (in real-life) a young sexpot as the roles she was playing on-screen seemed to suggest that she was. For her, it was nothing more than a job which paid handsomely. 

While many children raised in such an environment have spiraled out-of-control at a young age, becoming troubled former child actors/actresses and descending into drug and/or alcohol abuse (think of tragedies like actress Dana Plato as one example) or entering quasi religious cults (such as Kirk Cameron who now masquerades homophobia which was taught to him by Evangelical Christian ministers, only he believes falsehoods taught to him by preachers) which is says was the reason he avoided fairly common child-star fate, except he was a high-school actor not a child. Today, few in Hollywood seem willing to hire an adult Kirk Cameron, making him unlike peers of the same era, such as Jason Bateman or Leonardo DiCaprio who have managed to avoid child-star tragedy through hard-work without succumbing to religious cults. I think more impressively, Brooke Shields managed to avoid a very similar child-star fate which has destroyed countless other child-stars who were unprepared to handle being discarded like yesterday's trash after their time in the spotlight ended.

In fact, to her credit, Brooke Shields was able to successfully leverage her celebrity status by attending Princeton University from 1984 to 1987 (she majored in Romance language and literature, with a focus on French literature) and she even managed to graduate with honors. Some peers including Jodi Foster (Foster attended Yale between 1980 and 1984) did the same. Yes, their celebrity-status enabled them to attend well-connected, respected private schools, but they were hardly academic prodigies. There is little doubt she successfully leveraged her celebrity status to gain entry into an elite, Ivy-League university, but we know that plenty of others with far less intelligence have used legacy admissions to do the exact same thing. And importantly, Shields has successfully leveraged a key advantage of attending such a university: by networking with others to continue her stardom on her own terms. 

There is no doubt that upon adulthood, Brooke Shields had an overbearing, controlling stage mother. But when her mother Teri died in 2012, in an interview with The Sunday Times (see https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brooke-shields-i-posed-naked-at-ten-now-im-telling-my-story-cqwd0wmkt for the interview), after making the 2023 Hulu documentary "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields", she also revealed: "That made me look at what kind of person I am and to give myself a little credit," she said. "I had to contend with so much at such an early age, and there was resilience, but also I put on blinders as a defense mechanism. But now I can look at that little girl and think, 'She did it, she pulled through.'" However, she also admitted that her relationship with her mother "was complicated". And, she did not go unscathed, for example, her first, failed marriage to Swiss tennis star Andre Agassi ended just two years after the couple was married.

After graduating from Princeton (with the market for Romance language and literature majors being what it is), Shields eventually returned to her career roots (not in modeling, but acting), starring in a television sitcom "Suddenly Susan" from 1996 to 2000 which was reasonably successful. The show ran for four seasons, respectable enough for a TV sitcom at the time. She has acted occasionally and played occasional guest starring roles, such as in the Chuck Lorre sitcom "Two and a Half Men". This year, she even celebrated her 23rd wedding anniversary with Chris Henchy. The couple has two daughters Rowan, 21, and Grier, 18 and the couple is poised to soon become empty nesters over the next five years or so.

The fact that Brooke Shields has managed to successfully age and raise a family speaks more about her as a person and the fact that her mother (in spite of her critics) speaks a lot about her personal character and her upbringing. Brooke Shields has critics, but almost no one can deny that she has managed to make the best of what life dealt her and that she avoided a similar fate of other child stars who were acting when she did as a child.

Popular PBS-Archived Content Emerges on Free, Ad-Supported Streaming TV Platforms

Earlier in 2024, the Public Broadcasting Service's ("PBS") "PBS Distribution" https://pbsdistribution.org/ business unit launched a new free ad-supported channel which it calls "PBS Retro" (for more background on that, see https://www.thewrap.com/pbs-retro-fast-channel-roku-launch/ for the news).

Before I get to that, it is critical to clarify some important things. 

In spite of conservative belief that PBS is a government-funded broadcast network, that is a falsehood. PBS is often mistakenly confused with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which was created in 1967 in order to promote and help support public broadcasting particularly in rural parts of the country. But it is CPB which is government-funded (although it does not receive sufficient public funding to meet its operating expenses, hence it is better described as "quasi-public", and most of what taxpayers fund consists of grants made to local public television stations around the country to help them to pay to actually pay the costs to broadcast their signals in rural areas of the country. Some PBS Stations may also be publicly-funded by state taxpayers, but support varies widely from one state to another with large, rural states tending to have the most coverage gaps and therefore becoming the biggest CPB grant recipients.

By comparison, PBS produces a good portion (not all; some is locally-produced, while other content on PBS comes from third-party sources such as the BBC) which airs on CPB-bankrolled local PBS stations around the country, although PBS itself is funded by a combination of member station dues (it can be said, therefore, that some of that comes indirectly from federal taxpayers), donations from both private foundations and individual citizens, and of course, their annoying pledge drives. And more recently, PBS has added new revenue streams such as PBS Distribution.

Regardless, original PBS-produced content includes such award-winning content as "Sesame Street" as well as PBS Newshour and other widely-watched programs. However, some may recall that in 2019, Sesame Workshop (which was Sesame Street's producer) had signed a contract with (HBO) Max so that starting in 2020, Sesame Street, as well as the show's annual specials, and the show's historic 50-year library would migrate from PBS and instead be available on the subscription-based streaming platform known as Max (which is a business of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment). While old episodes of Sesame Street continue to air free on PBS, the new episodes of the award-winning educational show are available only to paying customers of Max.

Over time, much original PBS content had been archived in film vaults, but converting all of it to digital content had limited access to that content. So, a unit called "PBS Distribution" was created as a joint venture between PBS and GBH Boston (the latter of which receives taxpayer funding from taxpayers only in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but not a penny from federal taxpayers) but digitizing that archived content took time and effort. However, now that a big part of that conversion process is done, it also means that PBS Distribution is now able to reach viewers through transactional video-on-demand (TVOD), subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) licensing, advertising-based video on demand (AVOD), Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST), DVD and Blu-ray, theatrical releasing, educational platforms, non-theatrical and even in-flight sales. All of that is a pretty creative way to leverage existing content which was already created and paid for decades ago and monetize it now.

PBS Distribution currently operates a number of different streaming channels. A decent chunk of its content is available through its PBS Streaming App, and others, some of which are subscription-based. Among its specialty content apps include PBS Masterpiece, PBS KIDS, PBS Living, PBS Documentaries and PBS America, Antiques Roadshow, Antiques Road Trip and Julia Child and the French Chef archives. Beyond those are a number of FAST channels in the U.S. and U.K. Not every channel which PBS Distribution offers airs on every platform (and, as noted, a handful are paid-only). 

But, for example, PBS Distribution collaborated with the nonprofit Fred Rogers Productions to create a dedicated subchannel known as "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" available on the free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platform known as Pluto TV. That was a combination of PBS and Fred Rogers Productions which collaborated on digitizing those programs, and now, Pluto TV is carrying that particular channel. Meanwhile, the Roku Channel carries PBS Retro content (as does Plex). Some of the PBS Distribution channels are available on Hulu+ Live TV, which is a subscription-based service.

In the end, because some lawmakers would prefer that government-funding for broadcasting did not exist at all, and public broadcasting remains subject to desired budget cuts, we have seen entities like PBS turn to more creative outlets to fund its mission. Because PBS has a considerable library of content, we are now starting to see new ways PBS is delivering that content. Now, a good portion of that legendary archived content is available to anyone with a broadband-internet connection, meaning that cord-cutters and occasional streamers alike will have access to some of that content library.

As for archived PBS content available, some of the content available on PBS Retro includes "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", "Reading Rainbow", "Thomas & Friends", "Kratts' Creatures", "Nova", and "Great Performances" to name a few. This list is not all-encompassing, but it demonstrates that even PBS Distribution has been able to successfully mine its archived content in the 21st century.

Celebrities Out Richard Simmons Posthumously

On July 14, 2024, there was news that celebrity fitness guru Richard Simmons had died at age 76 (just a day or so after his birthday). His obituary published in the Los Angeles Times can be viewed.

The Associated Press reported:

"Simmons died at his home in Los Angeles, his publicist Tom Estey said in an email to The Associated Press. He gave no further details.

Los Angeles police and fire departments say they responded to a house — whose address the AP has matched with Simmons through public records — where a man was declared dead from natural causes."

  

 

We learned more in a statement from a spokesperson for Richard Simmons' family, Tom Estey, provided a statement to ABC News confirming the death was "accidental."

Subsequently, we learned "This morning, Richard Simmons' brother Lenny, received a call from the LA Coroner's office," began the statement. "The Coroner informed Lenny that Richard's death was accidental due to complications from recent falls and heart disease as a contributing factor," the statement continued. The statement also said, "The toxicology report was negative," besides the medication that was prescribed to Richard Simmons.

Officially, the official cause of death was classified as an accident according to a report issued by Los Angeles' Medical Examiner. The report listed his cause of death as "sequelae of blunt traumatic injuries" that were caused by a "ground level fall," and added that "arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease" was a "contributing condition."

Richard Simmons was born as Milton Teagle Richard Simmons, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Richard Simmons described himself as a former 268-pound teen. In an interview, he told NPR "I was 200 pounds in the eighth grade. And when I graduated high school I was almost 300 pounds." He used to joke that he grew up in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where, his biography noted, "lard was a food group and dessert mandatory."

In 1974, upon relocating to Los Angeles, Simmons opened his own fitness studio in Beverly Hills that catered to people who wanted to lose weight and get into shape. Once his name had become a household name for fitness, he renamed the studio as SLIMMONS. It even featured one of the first salad bars in the area, called humorously enough "Ruffage." Simmons continued to be a presence there until 2013. Below is a 1982 digitized episode of the "Richard Simmons Show" (or you can visit https://archive.org/details/the-richard-simmons-show-with-louis-perry to see it):

During his career, Richard Simmons became a master of many media forms, sharing his hard-won weight-loss tips as host of the Emmy-winning syndicated daytime television show known as the "Richard Simmons Show" which earned two Daytime Emmys for best direction and best talk show. Simmons was beloved for his upbeat and goofy personality and for connecting with regular people who wanted to get fit using his unintimidating workout routines. 

Richard Simmons also became an author of several best-selling books, and later selling a successful direct-to-consumer diet plan known as Deal-A-Meal. He starred in many exercise videos which he sold on videocassette formats, including the wildly successful "Sweatin' to the Oldies" line of videos featuring music from the fifties and sixties which sold over 22 million copies and had become a cultural phenomenon. At that time, he had met and bonded with Jane Fonda who had her own workout and fitness line of videos, hence the two had "talked shop" and became fairly close friends.

He told People magazine:

Richard Simmons: "Jane Fonda's studio was about three miles away from me, and I've always been a fan — so I dressed up one day with a brown wig, a mustache, and glasses and a gray sweatshirt and heather-gray pants — and I went to her class. And she never knew it was me. And she was an excellent teacher."

However, as he entered his sixties, and dealt with knee replacement surgery, eventually Richard Simmons grew tired of being the center of a media empire which he had created, and he decided to close his famous Beverly Hills fitness studio SLIMMONS. Because he had become such a fixture in the media for so many years, it led to speculation about the underlying reason for his withdrawal from public life, and even whether he was a hostage to his long-term housekeeper. Indeed, a successful podcast known as "Missing Richard Simmons" was dedicated to that very topic. Those closest to Richard Simmons say that one reason for his recent seclusion was that he had just had knee surgery and he needed time to recover.

In his last interview with People magazine (read the interview at https://people.com/richard-simmons-final-interview-2-days-before-his-death-exclusive-8678205 for more), the magazine asked him:

People magazine: "People say you disappeared, but you really have not. You've still been quietly helping people over the last years."

Richard Simmons: "Well, when I decided to retire, it was because my body told me I needed to retire. I have spent time just reflecting on my life. All of the books I wrote, the videos. I never was like, "Oh look what I've done." My thing was, "Oh, look how many people I helped."

People magazine: "Where did this ethos come from, this need to help others?"

Richard Simmons: "My parents instilled that in me. They did not have a lot of money in New Orleans. They weren't Catholic but I went to Catholic school because it was three blocks away. And I fell in love with nuns. I'd never met a nun in my life. One of the nuns decided to leave the order. And she had nowhere to go. She had a small suitcase with maybe two outfits in it. And where did she go? She went to my house. My mother gave her clothes. My father gave her money for a Greyhound bus ticket to go back home. I was always embroidered with caring for people."

However, recognizing that he had something of an obligation to the loyal, national fanbase he had developed over the years, Richard Simmons eventually went back on television to inform everyone that he had not been kidnapped, and that he was working on some projects such as a biopic about his life and a Broadway show (it's unclear without Simmons if the Broadway show will proceed).

Simmons grew up during a very homophobic era (during the infamous Lavender Scare years), plus he also dealt with weight issues, hence he had been dealt a double-negative hand in life, even if he was later able to make lemonade (low-calorie and sugar-free, of course) out of the lemons life had dealt him initially. In Los Angeles, being gay is certainly no big deal as it might have been in religiously and culturally more conservative New Orleans. But only Simmons had the right to out himself - and only when he was ready. Simmons had gone on the record as saying he was not gay, perhaps in fear that it might damage his fitness businesses among many of the loyal buyers.

However, Richard Simmons was known for, putting it diplomatically, his "flamboyant" personality. In fact, many gay men who grew up watching the Richard Simmons believed that Richard Simmons was one of their own (their "gay-dar" detection systems suggested that to be true), even if he was not out publicly. The gay and lesbian community have long believed that the only person who is entitled to "out" someone is the person being outed. Otherwise, everyone has the prerogative to come out on their own terms - if they choose to come out at all. Not everyone respects that, but within the LGBT community, it is practically sacrosanct.

That said, since Richard Simmons' passing, a number of celebrities including Denise Austin, Ricki Lake, Shaun T., and perhaps most notably, Jane Fonda, who claimed to have spotted him last with a new (male) lover on Instagram (see https://www.instagram.com/p/C9adC5ptced/ for details), took to social media to pay their respects to the late TV fitness personality. 

Jane Fonda, who famously portrayed a senior woman on the series "Grace & Frankie" whose husband on the series (played by Martin Sheen) left her ... for a man. 

On Instagram, Jane Fonda posthumously wrote about Richard Simmons:

"I saw him last when I took him and a boyfriend of his to lunch at the Polo Lounge. The relationship was new and he was proud. I never saw or heard from him again and, like many thousands of others, I've mourned his absence from my life."

But for those who knew Richard Simmons, it appears many now feel at liberty to out him posthumously. Maybe Richard was planning to tell people that in his planned Broadway show. Richard Simmons, in spite of his very public persona, was a very private person. It is unclear how far his Broadway show was in terms of production. Now, it is unclear whether he will be afforded the opportunity to come out to his legions of fans in the Broadway show, a biopic or even whether those projects will ever be completed. But at least a few of his acquaintances have outed him posthumously nevertheless.

Many of Burt Sugarman's "Midnight Special" Performances Released on Dedicated YouTube Channel

In the era prior to the advent of music videos, the only genuine recordings (singles, albums) was often the recorded music itself (artist performances on film did not really exist, and tended to be exceptions). However, television performances on TV variety shows of the era were fairly close. Those recordings represent what we have for musical performances before music videos became routine.

Musical artists regularly guest starred on different variety programs of the day, including the legendary "The Ed Sullivan Show" which ran from 1948-71, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" which ran from 1967-69, "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" which ran from 1969-72, "The Johnny Cash Show" which ran from 1969-71 on a different network, several incarnations of the "Sonny & Cher Show" which collectively ran from 1971-77, "Tony Orlando & Dawn Rainbow Hour" which ran from 1974-76, "The Captain and Tennille Show" which ran for one season between 1976-77, "The Jacksons" which also ran for one season between 1976-77, and of course, the legendary "Tonight Show" starring Johnny Carson which was really more than a late-night talk show. The legendary "Carol Burnett Show" focus was really more on comedy, while musical performances were a secondary program idea.

While Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Tony Orlando & Dawn and The Jacksons all got their start in music, aside from Sonny & Cher, their variety shows were not primarily focused on music. They covered the full entertainment spectrum including TV, comedy and movies as well as music. A relative late-comer to the music-themed variety show scene which ran from 1980-1982 on the NBC television network was "Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters" which was co-produced by Sid and Marty Krofft who were better known for producing odd and vaguely sci-fi children's shows as "H.R. Pufnstuf" and "Land of the Lost". A brief fill-in known as "Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris" ran for just a few months in 2015, but the genre proved far less suitable from a ratings perspective during an era where Americans enjoyed unprecedented access to hundreds of broadcast and cable TV stations (and this happened as even more choices became available with free ad-supported streaming TV ["FAST"] platforms such as PlutoTV had just emerged). 

But in 1972, the U.S. TV business was still dominated by a few major broadcast networks (whose origins were in radio broadcast networks of the same names in the decades before), hence producer Burt Sugarman pitched a unique program which he called "Midnight Special" as a means for NBC to capitalize on a potential audience in a late-night time-slot. Mr. Sugarman said "Our aim was to reach for the 18-33 age bracket, the young married and daters who attend concerts and movies but don't watch much television".

NBC initially rejected the idea. None of the Big Three broadcast television networks had any recurring programming on after 1:00 am ET, and common practice by most network stations was to sign-off after the final program (some local affiliate stations ran old reruns after to entice viewers and advertisers alike). Despite a lack of competition in the late night time-slot, NBC was not interested…initially. 

But the NBC rejection led Mr. Sugarman to instead buy the air time for a premiere on his own as a brokered show, and he managed to persuade Chevrolet to become the show's first sponsor. The show premiered with ratings high enough for NBC to subsequently reconsider its original denial decision, and the network ultimately bought the program.

The Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special's original time slot was on Saturdays from 1:00–2:30 AM in the Eastern and Pacific time zones (Midnight to 1:30 AM Central and Mountain). Midnight Special ran from 1972–1981. By 1981, however, cable television had become commonplace in the U.S., and with it a number of cable-only television stations, including the original iteration of MTV: Music Television which was inaugurated in 1981 (although the cable network later shifted away from music in 1992 to cheap, low-quality "reality" show programming and has since abandoned music content completely). 

One of the things which made Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special is it had musical performances from anyone who was anyone in the music industry between 1972-81. Those musical performances were recorded on film rather than video, meaning the quality of the performances has held up better than lower-quality video recordings of the same era have without digital remastering. 

Alas, due to the many thorny issues with licensing of music, many of Midnight Special musical performances were presumed out of reach. But on YouTube, Mr. Sugarman has released a surprising number of the original Midnight Special musical performances which are worth revisiting (if you saw them originally), or seeing for the first time now because they are a truly unique window into the music of that era.

I have created the following YouTube playlist for a sampling of some of the memorable music performances which aired on Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special. Have a look (and listen!), the list can be seen below, or by visiting https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfSNYYNU6TvEjN7WNM2ktU0Ohf5o-8ZWp&si=ALt_WrVs_uTjh5zd. 

Ford Motor Company 1976 "Starter" Tape (8-Track)

Once upon a time, when you bought a brand new automobile (including cars, trucks, vans, and minivans) from GM or Ford and likely also Chrysler (which was one of the successors to American Motors Corp. best known for its Jeep line of vehicles, preceded by Nash Motors, and as of 2024, was known as Stellantis N.V. which also includes Italy's Fiat, Germany's Opel, France's Citroën and some other auto brands), it was not unusual that if you spent enough money to buy an overpriced sound system from the car manufacturer, the company might also include a "starter" tape (at first they were 8-tracks, and then later, cassette tapes) to accompany their new vehicles in order to show-off their factory audio systems.

Not everyone who bought an auto-maker's sound system received the "starter" tapes, but some did. The starter tapes consisted of licensed popular music for intended for the auto dealers to be able to showcase their sound systems during test drives, and occasionally the auto dealers left the starter tapes in the cars for the new buyers.

Today's post comes from the Internet Archive's audio archive, and it was a "starter" tape from Ford Motor Company in 1976. Apparently, the original tape was found when an heir was clearing out their grandmother's following her death in 1997. The grandmother's husband (the grandfather — had been a salesman for a local Ford, and later Chevrolet dealer until his death in the late 1980's. The Ford "starter" tape was an 8-track from 1976. The music on the tape was classic seventies music (including from stations which played oldies at the time) and a fair amount of this music might have been broadcast on local radio stations at the time.

 

The track listings are as follows:

A1 Hues Corporation*– Rock The Boat
A2 Chet Atkins– Everybody's Talkin'
A3 Harold Wheeler Consort*– Feel Like Makin' Love
A4 Floyd Cramer– Soulful Strut
A5 Doc Severinsen– Touch Me In The Morning
B1 Perry Como– For All We Know
B2 Jack Jones / Susan George– We've Only Just Begun
B3 The Brothers– Never Can Say Goodbye
B4 Ed Ames– This Guy's in Love with You
B5 Henry Mancini– I Can't Stop Lovin' You
C1 Ray McKinley Director, New Glenn Miller Orch*– In The Mood
C2 Ray McKinley Director, New Glenn Miller Orch*– String Of Pearls
C3 Laurindo Almeida– Wave
C4 Perez Prado– Mambo Jambo
C5 Joao Donato*– Samba De Orfeu
C6 Chet Atkins / Arthur Fiedler, Boston Pops*– The Last Waltz
D1 Anita Kerr Singers*– Love Will Keep Us Together
D2 Morton Gould– Guantanemera
D3 Perry Como– The Way We Were
D4 Arthur Fiedler, Boston Pops*– Les Sylphides: Waltz In G-Flat, Op. 70, No. 1
D5 Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch*– (J. Strauss Jr.) Voices Of Spring, Op. 410

Have a listen to the first segment below, or by visiting https://archive.org/details/StereoForToday19768Track 

 

Ode to The Fifth Dimension

As a kid growing up in the seventies and eighties, I was exposed to plenty of Baby Boomer music leftovers. More than a few were force-fed to us, hence I had a feeling of indifference to a lot of that music. I didn't love it, nor did I hate it. It just was. Since a lot of music evokes a feeling, or memories for sense of time and place, I was unable to share those. I was just a kid. Much of the music did not have any underlying meaning to me at the time. But with the benefit of time, I can look back at some of the music with a different perspective. And while the song meaning for a 9 year-old child is never going to be the same as it would be for someone who was, say 18 years of age, and the old songs do evoke a sense of recollection now. There are plenty of old acts I'm still indifferent to (for example, I'm not enamored with the Rolling Stones), but there are others which I remember hearing on the AM radio in our kitchen or in my mother's old car and they now bring a smile.

One late 1960's musical which had a very successful run was the group known as the 5th Dimension. The five original members (hence the name 5th) were Billy Davis Jr., Florence La Rue, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore, and Ronald Townson. The 5th Dimension came to define a musical genre later dubbed "champagne soul", so named because it was soul music that was more relevant to a pop music audience. The Fifth Dimension was from California, and were popular for the strength of their vocal harmonies. There have been some others known for their terrific vocal harmonies. One that comes to mind was a later group from Sweden which came of age in the seventies: ABBA. In 2018, blogged about ABBA (catch my post HERE for more) about that group's more recent plans. Both couples in ABBA were married, which made them a bit unusual.

The 5th Dimension did (sort-of) have a song about a romance between two of the singers in that group (the other group members had no romantic involvements that were public) entitled "Wedding Bell Blues" released in 1969. The single "Wedding Bell Blues" resonated because at the time, 5th Dimension member Marilyn McCoo was then engaged to another member of the group, Billy Davis Jr., although the couple had not decided on an actual wedding date. "Wedding Bell Blues" was not an original work by the 5th Dimension, but a cover of a release that came out from another artist a few years earlier in 1966, although the 5th Dimension modified it slightly in that Marilyn McCoo ads to the lyrics "Will you marry me, Bill?" to their cover. The 5th Dimension's cover did better than the original, as their version of the single quickly soared to #1 on the U.S. pop singles chart, spending three weeks there in November 1969 and also made one of the group's somewhat rare appearances on the U.S. R&B singles chart, where it peaked at #23. Most of the 5th Dimension's other hits were on the pop charts.

Between 1967 and 1973, 5th dimension charted with 19 Top 40 hits on Billboard's Hot 100, two of which – "Up – Up and Away" (#7, 1967) and the 1969 #1 "Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)" — won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. But because the group really hit its success in the late 1960's, their worked and their act successfully carried them into the early-to-mid-1970's where they were contemporaries of the Carpenters, Chicago and the Captain & Tennille. The group's late sixties hits continued to and they received radio airplay into the next decade, but they had a few more chart-toppers then, too, including "One Less Bell to Answer" (#2, 1970), "Never My Love" (#12, 1971), and "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All" (#8, 1972).

By 1975, McCoo and Davis had left the 5th Dimension and began performing as a duo. McCoo and Davis had married on July 26, 1969, and decided it was time to leave the group to do collective and individual projects. The duo had some early success with "Your Love" and a 1977 chart-topper "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)", which won the duo their seventh Grammy award. Both also did solo recordings during that period. Marilyn McCoo was the first artist to record the song "Saving All My Love for You" in 1978, which was later covered by Whitney Houston to considerable success (greater than McCoo's version).

In summer 1977, McCoo and Davis became the first African American married couple to host a network TV series, "The Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. Show" on CBS.

McCoo's "Solid Gold" Gig

But Marilyn McCoo went on to serve a lengthy 1980's stint (she did it from 1981–84, and again from 1986–88; other fill-in hosts of the show included Dionne Warwick, Andy Gibb, a popular syndicated DJ known as Rick Dees [1984–85], original MTV host Nina Blackwood [1986–88], and Arsenio Hall [1986–88]) as host of a syndicated TV show known as "Solid Gold". The show also featured a co-host and puppeteer named Wayland Flowers who joined the series as a secondary comedic act with his puppet "Madame". It is relevant and useful to remember that this was at a time when cable TV had not yet penetrated vast portions of the U.S., so it was pre-MTV.

"Solid Gold" usually aired on Saturday evenings, and "Solid Gold" was one of several shows at the time that focused on the popular music of any given week; others included the long-running "American Bandstand" (hosted by Dick Clark, but the show's popularity was falling by that time) and "Soul Train" which was focused mainly on music from black artists. While "Solid Gold" shared some elements with those two rival programs, such as appearances by performers, it also stood out by including something the others did not: an in-house crew of professional dancers (who became known as the Solid Gold Dancers), and were known for for their disco-inspired outfits which were often metallic with sparkling beads and were sexually risque, that performed routines professionally choreographed to the week's featured songs.

McCoo's gig as host of "Solid Gold" was evidently a lucrative one for her; she hosted the show for 4 years, left the job for 2 years to pursue other solo projects, but returned to the show until it ended in 1988. As a musical performer herself, Marilyn McCoo had a dynamic on-screen presence on the show (frequently performing covers of then-popular songs herself) and came to be closely associated with the show.

By 1988 when "Solid Gold" ended, Marilyn McCoo was age 45, and she pursued acting. She appeared in several movies, including "Grizzly Adams and the Legend of Dark Mountain" (1999), "My Mom's a Werewolf" (1989) and several television movies, often playing herself. She also appeared on stage in productions of "Anything Goes", "A...My Name is Alice", "Man of La Mancha", and the Broadway production of "Show Boat" in 1995 through 1996. McCoo appeared together with husband Billy Davis. Jr. on "The Jamie Foxx Show" as Fancy's parents, the Monroes. Beyond movies and stage, she also appeared on a number of TV shows, including "The Love Boat" (1 episode, 1978), "The Fall Guy" (which was Lee Majors', better known as the "Six Million Dollar Man" follow-up show (1 episode, 1986), soap opera "Days of Our Lives" (various episodes from 1986–1987, and again in 2020), "Punky Brewster" (1 episode, 1988), and "Night Court" (1 episode, 1990).

But the champaign soul genre wasn't the end of the 5th Dimension or Davis/McCoo. They appeared on dozens of TV talk and variety shows of that era, including "Sonny & Cher" and "Donnie & Marie" as well as the daytime talk show circuit including of that era, including the Mike Douglas Show, the Merv Griffin Show and the Dinah! Shore show. I've created the following playlist to give you some idea of their talent.

https://youtu.be/niwt47gHtmM

United Colors of Benetton: A Global Giant in the 1980's Now in Family Hands, But Has Yet to Make Its Comeback

For anyone who came of age during the 1980's, it was kind of hard to avoid a certain Italy-based fashion-brand: Benetton. Benetton was an iconic brand in the 1980's, but since then, its fortunes have fallen and the company has since struggled to regain that position. For example, back in 2000, it ranked 75th in Interbrand's ranking of the best global brands; however, by 2002, Benetton had dropped out of the list. In 2012, Benetton Group was de-listed from the stock exchange and is now a fully owned subsidiary of the Benetton family company Edizione holding.

But back in the eighties, the company had a ubiquitous and controversial ad campaign which became known as "The United Colors of Benetton" and it had retail stores in major shopping malls across the U.S. What made the Italian brand stand out were two elements.


First, Benetton's ads were considered controversial at the time, which generated a lot of word-of-mouth discussion of the brand, and that placed Benetton on the cutting edge of culture. For example, some ads featured a newborn baby with the umbilical cord still intact, or an artistic reproduction of a man dying of AIDS. Benetton's ads also embraced multiculturalism before that was even a thing.

 

 

 

 

 

Some Benetton ads featured a mixed-race lesbian family, or a nun and a priest kissing – which pushed the boundaries of the era before the internet. Remember: at the time, the U.S. and Europe remained predominantly white (in fact, higher birth rates were happening among non-white populations at the time, which meant it was inevitable that multiculturalism would eventually happen, but conservative groups turned a blind-eye to that not-so-little demographic reality).

Second was the clothing itself. 

Benetton's clothing designs had become known for their bright, bold-colored sweaters and they were also very comfortable to wear. The company had particular expertise in knitwear, the original products were fun, easy-to-wear, and distinctly Italian. There was a certain flair to them, and they were soft and touchable in an age of polyester. Dyeing garments at the last minute meant that the company could be flexible and responsive, reacting quickly to changes in demand. If red was selling well, it could quickly ramp-up production of red knitwear. Or blue, green, yellow or any other color. But most importantly, they were colorful.

Also critical to the company's success at the time was its use of sophisticated inventory control and its organization of a network of suppliers, originally located nearby in northeastern Italy. Being able to track stock and know exactly what was selling and where meant that Benetton could plan the flow of supply to stores, while designing and producing clothes consumers wanted to buy.

But those innovations were eventually copied by other retailers and were no longer so groundbreaking by the time the mid-1990's arrived. Benetton eventually closed every store it had in the U.S., which was why when the company reported plans to open a pop-up store in Los Angeles in 2019 (see https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccasuhrawardi/2019/10/29/wondering-what-happened-to-benetton-theyre-plotting-stateside-growth-starting-in-la/ for more), that made news. Only then Covid-19 hit and those plans were derailed.

While the company remains in private hands in 2023, its much talked-about comeback has yet to happen in spite of reports that it was working on plans for doing so. Which means none of the company's revitalization have really succeeded so far. 

But its still worth acknowledging the company's iconic status during the 1980's. It really was everywhere. When the New York Times reported (see https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/25/business/benetton-fashion-s-maverick.html for the scan) on the company on September 25, 1984, Benetton reportedly had 180 stores in North America, including at least one in every U.S. state. Eventually, every U.S. store closed.

To watch one of Benetton's TV ads from the mid-1980's, see below or visit https://youtu.be/xwyIKkV9ZkQ.