Ah, plenty old coots here at IO. We never watched Dobie Gillis, I think it ran opposite another show we preferred. Only 3 channels in our region at the time and no VCR in those days.
Wyatt Earp on ABC? Dobie Gillis was on CBS. And your third channel was presumably NBC. In NYC we had a whopping 7 channels on VHF and might get as many as 3 on UHF depending on weather.
Those were the days when TV programs usually had 39 episodes a season, unless there were scheduled pre-emptions like holidays etc. And actors usually got hundreds of dollars for each one and not hundreds of thousands like some stars got later.
Penny Marshall, who sadly left us two years ago, was a recurring character on The Odd Couple. At one point, everyone got a raise except her and she was informed she would receive no residuals. The management said that she would not quit because her brother Garry Marshall was a producer was on the show. Garry either went along with the idea without argument or actually instigated it according to your source. Penny went to her agent who said to her that in this business what goes around comes around. Just hang on, your time will come.
Years later, when Laverne and Shirley (produced by brother Garry) had become the most popular TV series in the history of TV, and her contract was up for renewal, Penny asked her agent, Is it time? Yes, it’s time. Penny and co-star Cindy Williams each held out for $300,000 an episode and got it. Carroll O’Connor had only gotten $250,000 per episode for All in the Family.
Moral: Treat people fairly the first time.
Like Jackie Gleason did. Back in the mid 1950s, when The Honeymooners had gotten very popular, Art Carney’s agent went to Gleason (who had total control of everything) and asked for a raise for Carney from $500 an episode to $600. Gleason replied that he could not possibly pay Carney less than $750. Gleason knew perfectly well what he had in Carney.
Although virtually identified with Ed Norton from The Honeymooners, Carney did quite well in a wide range of roles. Some examples: Inventing the character of Felix Unger in The Odd Couple on Broadway, a cross country odyssey with his cat in Harry and Tonto movie for which he got an Academy Award and a Golden Globe both for Best Actor, WW and the Dixie Dance Kings movie in which he plays a preacher convinced that Burt Reynolds is the devil. That last role is one of my favorites.
So many names that are no longer around. (Cindy Williams is still alive and I believe still working.)
But enough old coot rambling. We tend to do that.
