See Ya Mr. C

[winston]

Thanks for all the laughs Tom, RIP

[gibsonlp]

I grew up on father dowling, very sad.
May he rest in peace.

[johnallg]

Jeez they all look so young in that cast pic! RIP Mr. C.

[ajish4]

Wow...Mrs Cleaver and Mr. C in one week.

[cjj]

Wow...Mrs Cleaver and Mr. C in one week.

Yeah...

R. I. P to both, we'll miss you...

[rickenbrother]

Wow...Mrs Cleaver and Mr. C in one week.

Yeah...

R. I. P to both, we'll miss you...

+1
Thanks for making the days happy!

[jps]

RIP.

[doctorwho]

RIP.

+1

[johneek]

First "Beaver's Mom", now "Richie's Dad"....on the one hand, just pop icons, but still lots of childhood memories with both of them.....

[jingle_jangle]

I thought Bosley was a terrific character actor, though I never was a fan of "Happy Days", and its lowest-common-denominator sitcom characters, dialogue, and "plotting" really diluted the greatness of its original inspiration--George Lucas' "American Graffiti", which slammed onto the scene in '73 and represented a whole new movie genre--the "celebration" of nostalgia for its own sake, represented by its pop culture iconography. I was 25 at the time, and '62 was the year I entered HS, so it resonated, of course, and gave me my first heavy dose of nostalgia for an earlier time, as a young adult. Now, nostalgia is a cultural disaster and big business, rolled into one.

To think that it represented a time only 11 years prior to its release, and yet orders of magnitude different from '73. I think one reason Lucas picked '62 is that it represented the last year of rock 'n' roll pop culture, before the pre-echoes of the Brit invasion began to infuse our senses.

Having grown up with "The Andy Griffith Show" (Andy began his career doing stand-up "aw shucks" comic observations in the mid '50s, in the same vein as Tom Bodett's "End of the Road" broadcasts in the late '80s), it was a distinct pleasure to see a grown Ron Howard act in "Graffiti", and do a pretty workmanlike job of it, too. We also saw Cindy Williams, Charlie Martin Smith, Paul LeMat, Candy Clark, MacKenzie Phillips, and Harrison Ford (!), get their breakout roles in this single film!

But seeing the whole '60s (usually confused with '50s, too) nostalgia fadism that was in full swing in '74 and '75, and seeing Howard grab at the chance to endlessly reprise his Graffiti character in a watered-down, pale-by-comparison vehicle like "Happy Days", made me lose some respect for him. Then there was "LaVerne and Shirley" and other spin-offs that got worse and worse, (ref: "Arnold's Place") I went back to my own personal reminiscences of those times and split from the phony cultural celebration.

Somehow, Barbara Billingsley's comic reprise in "Airplane" seemed altogether more natural and unforced, though it went completely against character for her.

Yep, it feels strange to see both of these parent figures gone in a single week...anybody remember Hugh Beaumont?

I didn't think so.

[longboard_ric]

Very sad.

Time passes by far too quickly.

Paul,

I remember Hugh Beaumont; he played Ward Cleaver. After a quick check on the net, I was unaware that he had passed away many years ago.

I, like many others my age, grew up on a diet of American TV shows : Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons, Batchelor Father, Ozzie and Harriet, Jackie Gleason, and Jack Benny. And I enjoyed them all. In many respects our society and culture reflected what was portrayed in those shows except we were always about four years behind!!!

Ahh, the good old days, things were so much simpler then.

[johnallg]

...anybody remember Hugh Beaumont?

I didn't think so.

The font of fatherly wisdom in the 60s. Fred McMurray fumbled his way into Hugh's shoes later in the decade.

[beatbyrd]

I thought Bosley was a terrific character actor, though I never was a fan of "Happy Days", and its lowest-common-denominator sitcom characters, dialogue, and "plotting" really diluted the greatness of its original inspiration--George Lucas' "American Graffiti", which slammed onto the scene in '73.

It was a distinct pleasure to see a grown Ron Howard act in "Graffiti", and do a pretty workmanlike job of it, too. We also saw Cindy Williams, Charlie Martin Smith, Paul LeMat, Candy Clark, MacKenzie Phillips, and Harrison Ford (!), get their breakout roles in this single film!

Still one of my favorite movies. Despite the 'name' actors (Ron Howard & Richard Dreyfus), I thought that Paul LeMat, C. M. Smith, and Candy Clark stole the picture. The film resonated with me because I knew a number of real life kids who fit each and every stereotype in the movie (and there were many), including the Pharoahs. I don't think I had ever seen a movie where there were so many subplots that all ended up connecting during the course of the story. The casting was exceptional. BTW, there was no magic in the sequel.

RIP Mr. C., and you too, June.