Fun Finds: TV Mirror Magazine, January 1977

I'm circling the drain on the Fun Finds I picked up two years ago at Ohio's largest antique extravaganza and the plans I had to go this year fell through when the date conflicted with an event my cohort was compelled to attend. This issue, like one I think I had a while back, actually doesn't feature any of "my" people, but I'm here to service the world at large, not just myself (!), so I present it to you for your own enjoyment or displeasure. Ha ha! Those who enjoy vintage country music and classic daytime TV will probably get the most out of it, but there are other things to take in along the way. Now on we go! 

Do y'all still have your Donny Most records? tee hee! The album did not chart and its single, "All Roads (Lead Back to You)" only reached #97 on the Billboard Hot 100. You can listen to that (rather busy) little ditty on YouTube where some kind soul (actually Donny himself!) has uploaded it.

Henry Winkler's date, Lisa Mordente, is the Tony-nominated daughter of Chita Rivera. This couple was soon to part, though. At the end of 1976, he met the woman who later became his wife in 1978 and they are together still. I straight up thought that Leonard Nimoy was stepping out with Rosemary Clooney! He left this first wife on her 56th birthday in 1987, marrying a second time in 1989. I can recall seeing Farrah Fawcett playing tennis a lot back in the day with Vincent Van Patten (now Vinnie and married to Eileen Davidson.) Her marriage to Lee Majors finally ended in 1982.

Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson stayed married until 1980. He was married four times in all. On a happier note, Monty Hall and his wife were wed from 1947 till her death in 2017! That's an amazing run.

Speaking of amazing runs, famed TV producer Norman Lear turned 100 years old this past July! Laughter must truly be the best medicine. David Soul was often depicted in confrontational situations (my mother couldn't stand him, claiming that he "beat his wife.") What I didn't know before today is that his third wife (of five) had once been wed to his Here Come the Brides costar Bobby Sherman!

 

Needless to say, Robert Blake (who was quite an adorable child) ran into his own share of significant trouble in later life. I have a now-vintage post on this site about Anissa Jones, who was such a precious child actress as well. Funny the things you can discover in these old rags. Dorrie Kavanaugh is someone I'd never heard of. Looking into her further, she was from Cincinnati, where I am imprisoned situated! And her book, "Listen to Us! The Children's Express," was published and seems to mean a lot to those who recall it. She did, however, return to TV before becoming afflicted with cancer and passing away in 1983 at only age 38.

Since I was 9 years-old when it premiered, I never saw (or would have gotten, even if I had seen) Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I also have seen only the teensiest bit of Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, so Joan Darling isn't too familiar to me. You may be surprised to know, though, that she was the first female director to be Emmy-nominated (for the iconic episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Chuckles Bites the Dust.") Now 87, she acted in a short film in 2020.

Dody Goodman was best known to me for her appearances in Grease (1978) and Grease 2 (1982.)

Goodman died on natural causes in 2008 at the age of 93.

As a 10 year-old, I was ALL about Happy Days and well knew the character of Pinky Tuscadero.

Hot for a time (including a starring role in the hooty New Year's Evil, 1980), she was off screen for good by 1983 and ran into a variety of problems with the law by the late 1990s. She's 79 today and out of the public eye.

Meet John-Boy's boy...

Richard Thomas of The Waltons was about 25 at the time of this article. He and Alma would proceed to have triplet girls in 1981, but were divorced in 1993. He rewed his present wife the following year.

Somehow I don't see this article bringing everyone together...!

This marital union ended in 1979. He wed for a second time in 1983 which broke up in 1994. His present wife (since 1998) is actress Rachel Ticotin, who you might recall from Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) or Total Recall (1990.)

It would surprise me if most of you guessed these gals, but startlingly enough I did know them both. The first one from the set of her mouth and the second because she still looked just about like that as an adult.

This is quite a getup on Tanya Tucker. Apparently she was but 18 at the time of this article/photo!

Full disclosure... when I was a youth (and she was conjoined with Glen Campbell), I thought there was simply no one on earth tackier or trashier than Tanya Tucker! LOL But I must admit that the woman has maintained a lengthy career and has even won Grammys in recent years for her music.

For better or worse, Freddy Fender was another performer who just didn't do it for me.

Probably my chief contact with his music came from snippets on those K-Tel compilation commercials.

I had to include this continuation of the article if for nothing else than the ad for research into birth defects in which the graphics resemble a condom! No better way to prevent 'em! LOL

I had to look up The Amazing Rhythm Aces as they weren't familiar to me at ALL. And their songs also didn't seem to ring a bell. (Except for a period between 1981 and 1994, they've still been going and are active yet today!)

Poor Freddy apparently got the ride of his life...!

Wow. Imagine a time when Dolly putting a pin in Lynn's balloons was considered too risque to air on TV! The number "That'll Be the Day" did air, if the popping moment didn't.

When it came to her love life, hell even her life, Tammy Wynette's unfold like, well, a country song...!

Reportedly this husband (her fourth of five) was a big spender on the surface, but had no real money in reality and would rent things that appeared to be his own... Wynette had a lot of heath problems and died at the age of only 55 in 1998.

I'm sure these color, shirtless photos of then white-hot John Travolta made this magazine fly off the shelves. My God, that putrescent goldenrod color that was also big at the time...!

That's a great headshot, upper-left, which really makes his eyes stand out. His sister Ellen, in the shot below that one, really did resemble Lily Tomlin (his costar in the lamentable Moment by Moment, 1978.)

I didn't know that he'd done Bus Stop on stage with Anita Gillette. In keeping with the theme of this issue of TV Mirror, I have a very low tolerance for her, too...! LOL

Man... I like to think I'm up to snuff on classic daytime performers, but I have no memory of this person. And she was reportedly written to by more teens than any other daytime performer during this period on One Life to Live. By 1980, she'd exited the biz, concentrating more on her husband and family (of two children.)

Are you able to recall which one of John Aniston's children could claim Telly Savalas as a godfather? Shouldn't be too difficult. Michael Nouri's secret, sudden marriage was kaput by 1978. A second marriage from 1986-2001 fared better. Fun to see Ruth Warrick and Debbie Reynolds in a candid shot!

Kind of condescending to suggest that Morgan Fairchild could only get a job on Kojak thanks to dating Barry Newman...! Fairchild was very successful on TV no matter what. The movie Frances Heflin appeared in was released as Mr. Billion (1977) and costarred Terence Hill and Jackie Gleason, among others. And there is Telly with Jennifer's father John Aniston (misspelled in print.)

Geesh... I had no knowledge of this actress either! I guess I need to get out more (or stay in more - ha ha!)

The Edge of Night was cancelled in 1984 and Cook went on to success with Loving in 1988 (until 1994.) She later segued into ADR voiceovers (folks who provide background dialogue and reactions in movies.) Sadly, she passed away of breast cancer in 2012 at age 63.

I would have been hard-pressed to name this actress, but I certainly knew her face. She was the first one to play Bea Arthur's sister Gloria on The Golden Girls. But she was known for more prominent projects than that. Apart from an extensive resume on soaps, she also did several movies, including playing a brittle soap opera producer in Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie (1982.) And she for worked more than a decade as a recurring no-nonsense judge on a couple of the Law & Order series.

Belack's husband, Philip Rose, was a well-respected Broadway producer-director whose shows included A Raisin in the Sun, The Owl and the Pussycat, Purlie, Shenandoah and others. The couple was wed 65 years, dying four months apart in 2011.

It doesn't matter how many times I am reminded of it... I cannot wrap my mind around Emily McLaughlin having been married to Jeffrey Hunter! (I had no recollection of General Hospital being a 45-minute show, which is was from 1976-1978, before going to an hour!) As for Michael Gregory, he apparently remained "VERY single" to this day. He actually enjoyed a very lengthy and busy career as a character actor (and pops up as a member of SWAT in Two Minute Warning, 1976.)

Denise Alexander so resembled my mother when I was a kid watching GH that it boggled my mind. I used to wonder how someone could look that much like a parent of mine and be on TV. But there was no chance whatsoever of them having been related in any way. You might recall Don Matheson from his role on Land of the Giants. Patsy Rahn only played Monica from 1976-1977, when the more familiar Leslie Charleson took over the part (and plays it still today!)

Dan Hamilton (surprise!) was unfamiliar to me. He later segued into soap opera directing in the 1990s. Prior to his roles on daytime, he has the distinction of having played one of the Greek gods in the notorious Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Hercules in New York (1970!)

His wife Stephanie Braxton later became a successful soap opera writer. Their son, Josh Hamilton, grew up to be a busy TV actor with American Horror Story, Madame Secretary 13 Reason Why and The Walking Dead among his credits.

This is Rita McLaughlin, whose grade school photo was depicted in an earlier page. She married a Reverend in 1976 and after departing As the World Turns in 1982 retired for the most part (and goes by Rita Walter.) Trivia Tidbit: From 1963-1966, she played the "other" Patty Duke on The Patty Duke Show, which featured identical cousins, both played by the Oscar-winning child star.

The actor she mentions, Stephen Bolster, did appear on ATWT, but was far more associated with Another World. And it's not the man she wound up marrying. In the Travolta section, note the mangling of Saturday Night Fever's (1977) initial title, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night."

Finally, I give you this ad for the once-everywhere Frederick's of Hollywood catalog. My stepdad used to make references to "two-dollar whores" (!) and this ad reads, "I did it for $2 and I'm glad." Alrighty then....!

:::BONUS PIC:::

Dan Hamilton appearing alongside Arnie as Mercury in Hercules in New York. In the upper left photo, he's wisely situated behind some branches!