To Absent Friends - Shelley Fabares

 

I admit to feeling a bit saddened when I heard of the death of actress Shelley Fabares, 82, last week.  No, she was not one of those actresses of my youth on whom I had a crush, but she was always likable.  I remember her most from her days on "The Donna Reed Show", and I know that she went on to have a second act, of sorts, in television when she played Craig T, Nelson's wife in the long running "Coach".  I also remember her co-starring with Elvis Presley in three of his movies, including one of my favorites, "Girl Happy".  I mean, how can you ever forget THIS SCENE when Elvis croons to her about the "Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce"?  

I remember that there was always a matter as to how you pronounced her last name.  Was it "Fah-bare-eze" or "Fa-bray" like the actress Nanette Fabray, who was not her mother, as was once rumored, but her aunt.  In actuality, she herself pronounced it "Fab-uh-ray".  Three syllables.

She had an active acting career with over 160 credits in IMDB.  She appeared on just about every show you could think of throughout the seventies and eighties including four episodes of "Love Boat", five episodes of "Fantasy Island", and three episodes of "Love, American Style". She also played Joy Piccolo, the wife of Brian Piccolo/James Caan in the 1971 tear-jerker "Brian's Song".  And, of course, there was her hit record "Johnny Angel", which she sang on the Donna Reed show, that went to Number One on Billboard's Hot 100 back in 1964. She was married to recording executive Lou Adler from 1964 to 1980 and to actor Mike Farrell (BJ from M*A*S*H) from 1984 until her death.

I also got a great kick out of seeing recent pictures of her in her later years rocking this hairstyle:

Seeing a woman in her eighties wearing her hair like this is awesome, and this, as much as anything else, makes her deserving of an Absent Friends post.

RIP Shelley Fabares.

Publicity photo at age 16

With Donna Reed

With Elvis Presley in "Girl Happy"

"Mary Stone" and "BJ Honeycutt"

A 42 Year marriage

To Absent Friends - Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

1946-2026

It is a testament to the life of a person when, upon their deaths, there is nothing but an outpouring of both sadness at their passing and great joy when their life's accomplishments are examined.  Such has been the case since Dolly Parton died earlier this week.  Her career as a singer, songwriter, entertainer, actress, and businesswoman speaks for itself, and her humanitarian accomplishments, particularly her Imagination Library are remarkable beyond words.

To pay her tribute, I find myself resorting to some images that have appeared on social media in recent days to express just what a universal treasure Dolly Parton was.

RIP Dolly Parton.

On a personal note, I will not tell anyone how to spend heir own money, but if you are looking for a good cause to support, consider a contribution to the Dollywood Foundation and, specifically, the Imagination Library:

https://support.imaginationlibrary.com/

THE Four Essential Steelers

So, as I watched last Friday night's abdominal 17-0 loss to the Jets, I knew that there wasn't much to be said about that game, other than it seemed to secure Mason Rudolph's spot on the roster as QB2, I decided that I would write about an idea that I had been kicking around in my cranium for a  few weeks, and that was who were the four most important Steelers vis a vis  the 1970's era Steelers.  You know, the Super Steelers, the team that won four Super Bowls in six seasons (1974-1979).

This is not meant to be a "Mt. Rushmore" of the Steelers.  I had played with that idea eleven years ago and produced THIS POST on July 26, 2015 when I made my nominations for the Steelers "Franchise Four". (This was something that Major League Baseball had done in conjunction with the All-Star Game that year.)  For the record, if you don't feel like clicking on the link, the four that I chose then were Joe Greene, Ernie Stautner, Jack Ham, and Terry Bradshaw.  It generated a lot (well, some) of comments at the time.

This list today, though, is a bit different.  I had asked myself who were the key men, the most important men, who contributed to those four Super Bowl Championships.  In my mind, I had to feel that these were the four Essential  Steelers of that era.  So essential that if there were only three of them, if you took even one of them away from that Seventies mixture, the four Lombardi Trophies would not have found their way to Pittsburgh. 

Here they are:

Chuck Noll

Joe Greene

Terry Bradshaw

Franco Harris

I didn't really have to identify them under their photos for you, did I?

Yes, I know that there were seven other guys on those teams who are currently in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Blount, Ham, Lambert, Shell, Stallworth, Swann, and Webster; and Greenwood should be in there!), yet I maintain that if any one of either Noll, Greene, Bradshaw, or Harris were NOT in that mix, then those four Championships would not have happened.  Maybe they'd have eked out a Super Bowl win if Noll was coaching those other players, but without Greene and Bradshaw and Harris, then those four Lombardis would not be sitting in the Steelers front office.  Maybe this makes the case that Chuck Noll was the most important cog in that Steelers' Machine.

I would love to hear others thoughts on this.

Some Viewing Recommendations

 Let me recommend two selections for your viewing pleasure.

"Pressure"

This movie focuses on the days leading up to D-Day in June, 1944.  Brendan Fraser plays Dwight Eisenhower and Andrew Scott play Captain James Stagg, a British officer who is assigned to be the chief meteorologist as the Allied command makes plans for the invasion of Normandy, upon which the fate of the war hinges.  He's there because, according to Ike, "Churchill says he's brilliant", but he immediately butts heads with the weather guys who are already on Ike's staff when he tells everyone that there is no way that the invasion can take place as scheduled on June 5, but that maybe, just maybe, there might be a slight window of opportunity on June 6.

Hey, we all know how it turned out in Normandy eight-two years ago, but that doesn't take away from the drama and suspense that this movie delivers.  Both Fraser and Scott are terrific as is an Irish actress named Kerry Condon who played Kay Summersby.  She was Ike's driver, the movie shows her as a key member of the staff, and we all know that she was also Ike's, ahem, special pal during those days.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

"Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness"

This is a seven episode streaming HBO series in which Larry David puts his unique and neurotic spin on different episodes in American History.  Each episode is a half hour long and contains two or three different sketches.  Like any sketch comedy show, there are hits and misses, but when the sketches click, they more than make up for David's incomplete passes.  Three in particular:

• David played Alexander Graham Bell as he displays his new invention, the telephone, and realizes that after he makes the connection to his associate, Mr. Watson, they don't really have anything to talk about.
• A sketch where David plays an advisor to Abraham Lincoln and convinces Abe that he should attend this funny play at Ford's Theater to take his mind off of things.  He then spends the night mediating arguments between Abe, played by Bill Hadar, and Mary Lincoln, played by the wonderful Kathryn Hahn.  He then has to deal with a batshit crazy Marry who refuses to leave the White House after her husband's death.
• Larry is an advisor to President Obama who convinces him that he should wear a tan suit to a Presidential event, a real life incident that sparked amazing criticism of the President at the time.  Barack and Michelle Obama were Executive Producers of this series, and Obama plays himself to great effect in the skit.  They've even reproduced the Oval Office as it was before its gold leaf tackification by the current occupant.

Like I say, not all of the skits are great, but enough of them are to make this an enjoyable and entertaining series.  The sketches are also peppered with cameos and performances by folks like Jerry Seinfeld, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Paul Rudd, Rita Wilson, Kaley Cuoco, Jimmy Kimmel, and Rob Reiner.  I watched all seven episodes in one day.  Hey, there was nothing else going on that day!

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

To Absent Friends - Tommy John

 

Former major league pitcher Tommy John died over this past weekend at the age of 83.  We all should think of Tommy John like this:

However, John will most be remembered for this, 

the revolutionary surgery performed on him by  Dr. Frank Jobe in 1974 , a surgery that now bears his name.

This is what I wrote in part in The Grandstander on March 7, 2014, when I commemorated the death of Dr. Jobe:

It is a sad irony that Tommy John himself is better known today for the surgery that bears his name than for his career as a pitcher.  Too bad, considering that his career spanned 26 seasons and totaled a record of 288-231 with a 3.34 ERA.  He pitched in three World Series. Fourteen of those seasons and 164 of those wins came after he had Jobe's surgical procedure performed.  He retired in 1988 at the age of 46.

Was Tommy John a great pitcher?  Well, he was a very, very good pitcher, and when you look up the "Similarity Scores" for Tommy John on baseball-reference.com, nine of the ten pitchers listed are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  For the record, those nine are Jim Kaat, Robin Roberts, Bert Blyleven, Fergie Jenkins, Early Wynn, Tom Glavine, Burleigh Grimes, Don Sutton, and Eppa Rixey, so you be the Judge.

John was in the news only a week ago when the Yankees posted this letter that John had written to them when he had to decline an invitation to appear at the Yankees' annual Old Timers Day.

RIP Tommy John.

The NFL Is Back! Steelers 28 - Packers 9

 

Yes, it was only the first Pre-Season exhibition game of the season, and yes, most of the guys you saw playing last night will be starting their life's work as butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers in about three more months, but wasn't it nice to see an NFL  football game again last night?  Even if the score doesn't mean anything, it's nice when your team wins, so I really enjoyed watching the Steelers beat the Packers last night in the first game of the "Mike McCarthy Era".

Some "quick hit" thoughts from the cranium of The Grandstander on last night's game....

• Steelers fans cannot be anything less than ecstatic over the quarterback play of Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and Drew Allar.  The three combined to go 27-for-33 for 313 yards, 2 TD, and 0 INT.  Howard looked really good in leading a drive downfield for a touchdown with under a minute to play in the first half.

• And how impressive was rookie WR Germi Bernard?  Five catches for 51 yards which included lots of YAK yardage as well.  The word from training camp was that Bernard wasn't looking that great, and that he wasn't jelling with Aaron Rodgers.  Well, he looked pretty damn good in actual game action last night.  Maybe he just isn't a good "practice player".  Franco Harris was never especially good in practice either, as I recall.  If Bernard become half that player that Harris was, I'll take it!
• I'm not as smart as all the people who call sports talk shows, so I am not going to comment on things like offensive and defensive line play.  I know that in the telecast last night, ex-Steeler Merril Hoge was raving about the play of the Steelers defense, so I'll take his word for it.  It was a defense that didn't yield a touchdown last night.
• Back to the quarterbacks, it sure was great to see an offensive scheme that called for throwing downfield and across the middle last night.  Looks like the remnants of the Matt Canada and Arthur Smith offenses have been swept into the dustbin.  Sure hope that that continues.
• Aaron Rodgers, along with a whole bunch of other first stringers, didn't even suit up last night.  Pre-season football is not "real football" according to A-a-ron.  He did get the chance to have chat with his successor in Green Bay during warm-ups though.  

• Did you play the "Bob Pompeani Drinking Game" last night during the telecast?  This is where you take a shot of your favorite adult libation whenever Pomp states that this-or-that Steelers player has either "looked good in training camp", "has been having a great training camp", or "has been outstanding in camp" or some variation on that theme.  If you did, you would have been plastered by halftime. I stopped counting after five such references.  He made two such references to Asante Samuel Jr. alone!  No Steeler player is a bad one in Pomp's world.
• On the ugly side, how about all those penalties?  That was not good, although the team did seem to clean that up in the second half.

We all know that these games are meaningless, but, like I said, it's always nice when your team wins!

To Absent Friends - Vincent Pastore

 

Actor Vincent Pastore died last week at the age of 80.  His acting career spanned almost forty years and included over 270 credits in IMBD.  As a character actor he mostly played mobsters and wise guys in movies such as "Goodfellas", "Manhattan Murder Mystery", "Mickey Blue Eyes", and "Carlito's Way".  However, he was most known and will be forever remembered for playing the role of Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on one of television's all-time great series, "The Sopranos".  He was one of Tony Soprano's capos, but when facing a federal narcotics charge, he was turned by the FBI and wore a wire to assist in the feds' ongoing investigation of the Soprano family.  The scenes of Sal going over the top in an effort to aid his FBI handlers was a bit of a comic touch in the series, but it didn't end well for Big Pussy when he went on a fishing trip with Tony, Paulie, and Silvio at the end of Season Two.  

Sal on Tony's boat

Right before being sent to sleep with the fishes

Like I always say, when you are associated with one of the greatest shows ever, you deserve recognition when you leave this world.

RIP Vincent Pastore.

The Sopranos Crew

Paulie, Silvio, Tony, Christopher, and Big Pussy

Unforgettable

Sal and Tony in better days