Posted on 08/24/2009 8:58:32 PM PDT by tlb
For years, millions of people were enamoured of the anthropomorphic antics of our title character, a bottle-nosed female dolphin named Flipper. Everyone, that is, except the talented though hapless actor who played the father of the boys.
He began to phone me, usually after midnight.
“Why do they make me out to be a blithering idiot? An incompetent? Why do I always have to be a boob, huh, tell me that?"
“I've kept track," he wailed. “We've shot nearly a hundred episodes and in 99 per cent of them I have to ask the bloody dolphin, ‘Where are the boys, Flipper?' I mean, what kind of a father have they made me out to be, huh, tell me that? "
“In some shows, I don't even get to talk to my kids. They've gone someplace when I leave for work, they're still gone when I come home and I have to ask the bloody dolphin, ‘Where are the boys, Flipper?' She flips on her tail, chirps and scoots across the water and leads me to where the kids are hanging by their thumbs on a submerged, unexploded mine. Then the fish untangles them, they climb in the boat with me and I say, ‘Thanks, Flipper.'"
“Why don't they wear real clothes like other kids? Why don't they go to school? Why don't they have the kind of problems they have to talk over with me, their father? Why is it that any time they do have a problem, they take it to the bloody dolphin?"
The next day, I sent another note to the writers, but before they could respond, I had a call from a William Morris agent.
“Hey sweetheart," he cooed. “We've just signed your dolphin as a client. Anything you can do to fatten her part?"
(Excerpt) Read more at m.theglobeandmail.com ...
Production Manager:
1. "Flipper" (1964) TV series (executive in charge of production) (unknown episodes)
It's unfortunate the tv star was so emasculated by the dolphin. I really don't think she did it on porpoise.
"WHERE ARE THE BOYS, FLIPPER? THANKS, FLIPPER! CUT! PRINT!"
"Why don't we wear real clothes like other kids? Why don't we go to school?
Why don't we have the kind of problems we have to talk over with our father?
Why is it that any time we do have a problem, we take it to the bloody dolphin?"
Chuck Connors did Shakespear? (heads off to imdb)
If there’s going to be a character portrayed as a bumbling idiot or a clueless moron, it has to be a heterosexual white male. To portray anyone else in such a negative way would be cause for protests and pickets and boycotts.
It sucks, but that seems to be the truth.
On a separate but related note, can you imagine if the Geico cavemen were played by black actors??? I can’t even imagine the uproar over it.
That was hilarious!
That was hilarious!
Remember the white cop that used to show up on “Sanford & Son” every now and then?
Same thing with “That’s My Mama”?
OK, I am dating myself a bit, but what the heck, I barely even remember “Flipper”.
I'm just sayin'.
Probably for the same reason they don't have a TV series about my everyday family life. It's just not good TV.
Those were some hilarious pictures. Back when politics could still be funny.
ping
The guy probably went to the same therapist as some of the leads in “Lassie”...
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