15 minutes ago, Khan said:

Just the thought of "Etta Plum" gettin' horizontal with "Mr. Edwards"....!

Etta Plum? 🤔

Don't you mean Miss Beadle?

23 hours ago, Khan said:

"Carol & Company" had a really novel premise, but I could see why Carol herself elected to end it.

The show debuted high, but fell out of the top 30 after the initial episode order. That's why it ended. That Carol herself wants to save face and claiming she choose to end it is another matter...

4 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

Etta Plum? 🤔

Don't you mean Miss Beadle?

My bad! I got the characters' names mixed up. Still, it's a pretty wild image to have inside one's head. ("Tonight, on a very special LHOTP," lol.)

17 minutes ago, Vee said:

I would again pop in just to say that 24 (which I know you mentioned) is what put Smart back on the TV map as the drunken, tortured First Lady opposite Gregory Itzin. She was a viral success there, before virality. It's funny what shows do that.

Absolutely, it was an amazing performance.

Joining 24 in season 5 was a great career move:

- Connie Britton went on to Friday Night Lights the next season

-Jayne Atkinson stayed on for a few more seasons then went on to a solid career (House of Cards, Criminal Minds)

-Stana Katic got Castle a few years later

-And the strangest, Brady Corbet who played Britton's son went on to direct the Brutalist

5 minutes ago, Khan said:

My bad! I got the characters' names mixed up. Still, it's a pretty wild image to have inside one's head. ("Tonight, on a very special LHOTP," lol.)

Mr Edwards and Miss Beadle is bad enough, but the thought of Etta Plum(!) and Mr Edwards doing the nasty is.... nasty! 😱

7 minutes ago, Khan said:

My bad! I got the characters' names mixed up. Still, it's a pretty wild image to have inside one's head. ("Tonight, on a very special LHOTP," lol.)

Harriet: Oh my gracious. I cannot see what Miss Beadle would see in that great big, uncouth varmint but I suppose some women have limited options.

Nels: Now see here, Harriet. It is none of Mr. Edwards and Miss Beadle want to see each other.

Harriet: It is too my business! She is suppose to set an example for the children. Do you want Nellie to grow up and marry a stray like Isaiah Edwards?

Edited November 25, 2025Nov 25 by ReddFoxx

Then things get REALLY interesting when the people of Walnut Grove learn Mr. Edwards has also been seeing Hester Sue!

😄

6 hours ago, Khan said:

IMO, Jean Smart's departure was a much bigger blow to the show than Delta Burke's. You could have spun off Delta/Suzanne or just wrote her out altogether, as they did, and the show would've been fine.

The truth is as much as I am a fan of the chaos Suzanne brought to the show, I think Jean staying for another year would have been more successful than Delta staying for a season without Jean. But the one two punch was just deadly.

Unlike other shows that lost a major star but found new or continued life, Designing Women’s format was really curated with those four women, and Anthony later fit in beautifully. Bernice was fun but not the same weight. Much like Golden Girls- you take out one of the core and the balance is off. This wasn’t Cheers, where you had a larger supporting cast ready to be expanded in telling the jokes to help things settle down after Diane left. Same with the Cosby show and A Different World without Denise- others picked it up and ran with it. Mary Tyler Moore weathered the loss of her non work friends by centering more at the station. I also cannot imagine Living Single if one of the four ladies was gone, although Kyle being gone was also a huge blow.

Edited November 26, 2025Nov 26 by titan1978

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

The truth is as much as I am a fan of the chaos Suzanne brought to the show, I think Jean staying for another year would have been more successful than Delta staying for a season without Jean. But the one two punch was just deadly.

IIRC, Jean Smart was supposed to return to DW from time to time. For whatever reason, though, that never happened. (Of course, that could've been just the "party line" to placate viewers who'd be upset by the loss of one-half of the show's original cast).

I think Betty White said it best in her Emmy acceptance speech: she, Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan (or "McCallahan," as Howie Mandel still pronounces it) were a matching set, you couldn't split 'em up. Even if they had replaced Bea/Dorothy with another actress with similar energy, it would not have been the same as having those four ladies sitting around in that kitchen, discussing their romantic and other dilemmas over a cheesecake.

Debbie Reynolds was definitely tested as a possible replacement in the episode where Dorothy tried to remarry Stan. But the way Debbie played Truby she almost rivaled Blanche more so than a replacement for Dorothy. There was no replacing Arthur or Dorothy anyway.

Back to actors having misses, just before "The Golden Girls" Bea had a terrible flop with "Amanda's" which was an adaptation of "Fawlty Towers". Oddly enough, Betty White did a failed pilot for show that was the first attempt to adapt that show. "Amanda's" flopped but managed to produce one episode than "Fawlty Towers" although only 10 aired. Not much a flex though since US sitcoms were expected to last longer than that.

Betty White had a few missteps in between MTM & Golden Girls and in between Golden Girls & Hot in Cleveland (which she was the weak link in).

The Betty White Show where she played a Sue Ann Nivens like character and it showed that she couldn't lead a show playing such a vile character.

Mama's Family - Recurring character.. another Sue Ann Nivens type

Maybe This Time - She and Marie Osmond were a good balance for each other, but bad timeslot killed the show.

Hello George - Show set to go into production where she played Melanie Griffith's mom.. but it fell through.

Ladies Man - Standard sitcom.. bad writing

11 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Betty White had a few missteps in between MTM & Golden Girls and in between Golden Girls & Hot in Cleveland (which she was the weak link in).

The Betty White Show where she played a Sue Ann Nivens like character and it showed that she couldn't lead a show playing such a vile character.

Mama's Family - Recurring character.. another Sue Ann Nivens type

Maybe This Time - She and Marie Osmond were a good balance for each other, but bad timeslot killed the show.

Hello George - Show set to go into production where she played Melanie Griffith's mom.. but it fell through.

Ladies Man - Standard sitcom.. bad writing

I'd never heard of her almost doing a show with Melanie Griffith. Hard to imagine Melanie on a sitcom.

Betty was also in the very short-lived second season of Bob, Bob Newhart's ill-fated early '90s sitcom.

Following Maude, Rue had the short lived flop Apple Pie with Dabney Coleman and then it was guest shots till GG.

Her only other network series was an 11 episode stint on Safe Harbor.

Speaking of Dabney, he had several attempts at finding a hit.

He was a regular on Mary Hartman/Forever Fernwood 76-78

Apple Pie 78

Buffalo Bill 83-84

Slap Maxwell 87-88

Drexell's Class 91-92

Madman of the People 94-95

None of those sitcoms worked.

The Guardian 2001-2004

Back to sitcoms with Courting Alex 2006

And finally Boardwalk Empire on HBO 2010-11

10 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Following Maude, Rue had the short lived flop Apple Pie with Dabney Coleman and then it was guest shots till GG.

Rue also had a thankless role on Mama's Family for two seasons, which she did well with. I've sometimes wondered if there was any spite toward her for not returning when the show went into syndication, based on the way they killed Aunt Fran off.