Fun Finds: TV Radio Mirror, January 1976

Okay, kittens... I'm finally back after a lengthy hiatus. Just too, too many things interrupting my usual service to the blog and nothing you'd want to be bored hearing about. After 16 long months, I am now ensconced in the office again. This means I have access to a scanner once more and can share with you some of the Fun Finds I have come across during my time away. Today's find is one of 7 vintage magazines I picked up at a huge flea market for $5.00 total. The cover story on RJ Wagner & Natalie Wood caught my attention. (Oh, and thank you to Mr. Paul Pelasky of Bellefontaine, OH for not throwing this out once he'd read it! Ha)

We start off with a color shot of Miss Valerie Harper of Rhoda fame. If you have the opportunity, I can heartily recommend the Reelz Channel documentary on her: Valerie Harper: Behind Closed Doors.

The story is really more about her husband at the time Richard Schaal. her spouse from 1964-1978, he was appearing on Phyllis at the time (another spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.) His daughter from a prior marriage, Wendy Schaal, later was disastrously cast on Fantasy Island as Julie, a co-host to Ricardo Montalban.

This 1976 magazine reports friction in the Lee Majors-Farrah Fawcett house, though they remained wed until 1982. Oh Lord, I remember my mother going on and on about how Glen Campbell "stole" Mac Davis' wife! As to the photos, I had no clue that one of the Hee Haw Hager Twins was engaged to Karen Valentine. And for those curious, the man in the bottom photo is the father of one Lenny Kravitz.

This is NOT in the magazine, but it seemed an opportune time to remind everyone that at one point during their Hee Haw hijinks, circa 1973, The Hager Twins posed semi-nude for the centerfold of Playgirl magazine! Ha ha!

Here's a version with the creases and staples removed.

Note that the blurb on Jimmie "J.J." Walker spells his name as "Jimmy" in the text! Lee Grant was not pleased about the cancellation of Fay and publicly referred to NBC's "mad programmer." Critics liked When Things Were Rotten (and I loved it as a 9 year-old!), but it was canned due to ratings after just 13 episodes. Dick Gautier's marriage to Barbara Stuart ended in 1979 after a dozen years. And, hey, those towheads in the bottom photo grew up to become the music act Nelson!

Jack Albertson and Sandra Gould were both in Teacher's Pet (1958) and an episode of Ensign O'Toole, but another connection is that Jack's older sister Mabel played Darren's delightfully cranky mother on Bewitched, Gould's popular show! All photos of Robert Conrad should be shirtless (and many were!) Janet Lennon and her husband did divorce in 1976. She remarried later in the year.

Lloyd Bridges died of natural causes in 1998 at the age of 85. About a decade after this, when she'd remarried another man, Valerie Harper did adopt a daughter. George Peppard, while always maintaining a career, managed to piss off scads of people along the way with his attitude, demeanor and demands.

Some folks ask themselves, "What Would Jesus Do?" I suspect that some of you might be more inclined to ask, "What Would Adrienne Barbeau Do?" and now you know...! LOL

David Janssen's marriage to Dani was a happy one, though the workaholic actor and very heavy smoker dropped dead of a heart attack in 1980 at only age 48.

"Who loves ya, baby?" Yep, this is Telly Savalas, enjoying some fan interaction while on location in New York to film parts of his hit series Kojak.

It never dawned on me that Kojak was principally filmed in L.A. with only some exteriors done in NYC. It seemed very gritty for the time.

I noticed when reading this mag that the profiled celebrities seemed to skew older than we may be used to these days (and for quite some time!) I mean, '40s actor Glenn Ford?! It's a testament to his enduring popularity with readers as he was 60 at this time. And, as you may guess, I prefer to read slightly (?) geezer-ish magazines myself these days like Closer and Remind because at least the subjects of the articles are ones I give a hoot about usually.

Ford, who was married four times in all and banged most every gal of note in Hollywood, did marry Cynthia, his third wife, but it only lasted until 1984. A fourth union barely made it from 1993-1994.

Over the last year, I had the chance to (for the first time ever) check out some episodes of The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. He was so amiable and talented and fun. But as the '70s dawned, he began to fall increasingly under the spell of alcohol and drugs and eventually became quite a mess. This wife was his second. He married Mac Davis' ex and that only lasted until 1980. Then came the Tanya Tucker phase, followed by a fourth marriage which he credited with helping to get him turned around again. He died of Alzheimer's disease in 2017 at age 81.

I don't guess "Hollywood" wrecked Robert and Natalie's second marriage, but it was still wrecked when she died tragically at sea in 1981. At this time, Wagner was taking an occasional supporting role in the movies while starring on Switch. Wood had deliberately slowed her career to focus on motherhood, but still enjoyed the occasional TV or movie role.

Wood's mother was a dominant force in her childhood and attempted to be the same in her adult life. She was a fascinating creature; very dramatic and driven. For once, I went ahead and scanned the whole story because it seemed rare to me that TVRM landed an interview with her and offered up her alleged opinions about her daughter and son-in-law.

Bursting onto the scene in the mid-1950s, Franciosa enjoyed a string of successes (and an Oscar nomination for the film version of his Broadway hit, A Hatful of Rain, 1957, though the award went to Alec Guinness for The Bridge on the River Kwai.) By this time, he'd mostly segued into TV on shows like The Name of the Game (from which he was fired due to his temper) and Search, which floundered.) Matt Helm was likewise washed up after 14 episodes.

Rita was his fourth wife (his second had been one Shelley Winters!), but it lasted until his death in 2006 of a massive stroke. He was 77 at that time. I don't know if he was TV's Sexiest Man, but I like that he could frolic around in an abbreviated swimsuit so comfortably!

This magazine devoted quite a bit of space to daytime TV. Some of the stars mentioned here have been touched on here in Poseidon's Underworld before for one reason or another. In another, prior, Fun Find, there were stories and pics on Kathryn Hays, Susan Flannery and George Reinholt that I went into some more detail about.

Longstanding All My Children viewers will recognize the lady shown here, Mary Fickett, who played Ruth Martin for many years. Fickett held the very unusual distinction of having been granted an Emmy Award for her work on the soap before there was such a thing as the Daytime Emmys! She was tossed into competition with MacDonald Carey, a scenic designer and several directors for a single daytime drama category.

Despite all the demonstrative lovey-dovey, she and this second husband divorced later that year. She wed for a third and final time in 1979.

Fickett passed away in 2011 at age 83 of Alzheimer's complications.

Here's a little manspread on another All My Children star who was once hot in the press, Nick Benedict, who played Phil Brent.

He was the son of busy Italian-born supporting actor Richard Benedict. Phil did marry Michelle, but it was all over and done with during 1976... He proceeded to a long career in various other soaps.

I have never seen an episode of Love of Life, which was really popular in its day. Nevertheless, I always disliked seeing these old warhorses get canceled and this one bit the dust in 1980.

You'll surely recognize young Christopher Reeve, who was soon to take the world by storm as Superman (1978) or perhaps Ray Wise, who made a splash on Twin Peaks. Then in the bottom-middle photo is John Aniston, who went on to a big success with Days of Our Lives (and sired a daughter named Jennifer, who carved out quite a career for herself.)

The successful, but short-lived, star of Chico and the Man, Freddie Prinze.

Prinze had parlayed a stand-up comedy career (and a significant appearance on The Tonight Show) into a starring role on the sitcom. But personal demons such as depression and the overuse of tranquilizers loomed. His wife looks happy enough here, but she was a few months pregnant during the nuptials, which helps explain the rather sudden union. By January of 1977, Prinze had committed suicide by revolver, leaving behind an already estranged spouse and a baby boy named Freddie Prinze Jr. He was only 22 when he died.

Beacon Hill is another show I never saw. An Americanized rendition of the highly-successful British series Upstairs Downstairs, its pilot cost nearly $1 million; a fortune for 1970s TV. And while it had a lot of viewers that first night, it fell off soon and the show was canceled after only a dozen installments. McGuire soon headed back to daytime on a variety of soaps.

Alongside this continuation of the Maeve McGuire piece is a trio of movie reviews. I LOVE Three Days of the Condor (1975) and can never understand how I have resisted profiling it over the last dozen years...!

Finally, we have a story on Alex Rocco, then 40 and playing in what would be yet another failed series that happened to be mentioned in this issue. Three for the Road had him as the father of two young boys (one played by Leif Garrett) who travel all over the U.S. in an RV. You might recall Rocco as one of Bea Arthur's lovers on The Golden Girls. Mr. Rocco passed away in 2015 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 79.

This is a little bit light for a Fun Find, so I'm going to end with a few photos of RJ & Natalie during their relationships, early and later, in which they seem happy.

Showing off the pearl engagement ring she received way back when. Note her slightly deformed wrist, which she always obscured with a thick bracelet of some sort.

The ring (and her freckles) are seen in color here. I love his brush-cut hair at this time (for a movie role.)

The then-stringbean is positively swimming in his tuxedo jacket!

Wood made a brief appearance on Switch in 1975 and again, as seen here in a publicity shot, in 1978. She later popped up for a cameo in the Hart to Hart pilot as well.

I doubt we'll ever know the full extent of what exactly happened on the night of her death. What's certain is that she had many more performances in her that we never got to see (and left behind the daughters she adored so much.)