#jim backus

[20th-century-man]

Russell Johnson, Tina Louise, Dawn Wells, Natalie Schafer, Jim Backus, Alan Hale, Jr., Bob Denver / 1964 publicity photo for Gilligan’s Island (CBS 1964-1967)

[longbeard2500]

[citizenscreen]

Birthday remembrance - Jim Backus #botd

[mst3kgifs]

Y'know, now I appreciate the quiet dignity of Pat Buttram's performance.

[freetheshit-outofyou]

[lew-basnight]

I love the old movie It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. It was made a long time before I was born but it’s such a big movie, it’s shot big and acted big, and the cast is enormous. Every single actor in the movie is famous. Imagine a really big broad epic comedy that’s three hours long and features Every Single Famous Actor working. It’s not the kind of movie anyone could make now. I mean there are jokes right in the opening credits about how impossible it is to list everyone’s names without offending someone because they’re all so famous

It’s a simple idea; a group of people learn a secret about where a bunch of money is hidden “underneath a big W” and they all scramble to get there first. Hella hijinx ensue. The story fractures and splits more and more until people are involved who don’t even know what they’re looking for. Columbo is in it. The Three Stooges appear in a silent cameo for less than five seconds in one of the best jokes in the film. It’s ultra-wide screen and shot in super technicolor, it’s as rich as eating a whole wedding cake by yourself. It’s perfect for new years day or any lazy decadent day off. A young Johnathan Winters destroys an entire gas station using Phil Silvers as a weapon. Everyone is competing to see whose character can be the most foolish, venal, arrogant idiot, and there is so much mugging and scene stealing it’s almost too much. There have been attempts to remake it but it’s impossible to match the original. I don’t watch it often, I save it as kind of a special treat and today is a perfect time to watch it. Highly recommended

[oldshowbiz]

Ralph Edwards ambushed Jim Backus during his book signing at the Pickwick Book Shop on Hollywood Boulevard for This Is Your Life.

[stone-cold-groove]

From 1974, a TV Guide magazine close up for the ABC network television special, Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.