Jean Stapleton

I always liked her. Very good actor and singer.

Ironically, I loved her as Edith. The more I saw her in interviews, etc., the more I DISliked her. She seemed very arrogant and unappreciative of fans.

She was once asked on a talk show, where she surprised her co-star, Carroll O’Connor, if she would do Edith's voice. Her response was something like, “not unless you pay me to.” Turned me off.

R2 here. Here’s the video I’m referring to. They asked her to do the voice and she flat out said, “No.” When they asked her why she said, “Well, in the first place I only do it for pay...”

Show me the money, bitches!

Jean Stapleton - why I said NO to star as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wore

That only makes me love her more, r2!

Jean Stapleton had a long and highly varied Broadway and film career, albeit in featured character roles, long before she played Edith Bunker. And she was a very intelligent and articulate woman, really nothing like Edith. That was all great acting.

R3, I get where she was coming from. She was an actor, not a trained seal.

She was no Gene.

Edith was the one character on "All in the Family" that actually evolved. A lot of that was writing, but I'd imagine that quite a bit of it was Stapleton.

One trick pony.

I thought she was somewhat annoying as Edith on All In The Family. In fact, they all were.

Cher looks none too happy about singing with her.

Good for Jean.

And I thought that was an entertaining rejection to an incredibly predictable request from a pathetically lazy interviewer.

Bad Marie. Bad, bad Marie.

And Donny almost cut Jean off as she was giving an interesting explanation of how the Edith voice was quite different in the pilot episode, because they were matching the Brit version of Edith which was as abrasive as the Archie character, apparently.

Bad Donny. Bad, bad Donny.

She also had her own "Stone Pillow" TV movie with "Aunt Mary."

Synopsis: Mary Dobkin sets up a baseball team of street kids to save them from juvenile delinquency. Because the team includes black and white kids she struggles with some of the authorities. After losing part of a foot before the movie takes place, she has half of her other leg amputated and believes she will be unable to coach for the 1955 season. She receives encouragement from a young boy who has his entire arm amputated at the same time in the same hospital. He learns to play, on her team with one arm.

She introduced the perennial old favorite (You Gotta Have ) Heart! in Damn Yankees on Broadway and reprised it for the film.

And she played Judy Holliday's sister Sue who owned Suesanwerphone in Bells Are Ringing on Broadway and reprised the role in the film.

And she played Mrs. Strakosh, the neighbor lady with the daughter Sadie in Funny Girl on Broadway.

Look for Jean in a very small role in one of the final scenes of Klute, which she filmed before All in the Family started.

By the time Klute opened she had begun playing Edith and her sudden popularity brought a laugh to movie house audiences recognizing her very familiar and beloved voice.

R15 Wow. I think "Aunt Mary" has Broadway potential as a musical for "Aunt" Patti Lupone. Song ideas: emotional ballad "No Limbs but Lotsa Heart", and the showstopper "Shoot Hoops Not Smack".

Carroll was always game to do the Archie voice. In that clip, he's just being a gentleman, since Jean won't do it. He didn't want to show her up.

I agree r11, I can barely stand to watch All In the Family now, it hasn't held up well through the years (like the "humor" on Laugh-In). Jean Stapleton may have been good in other roles, but as Edith Bunker she just kept getting more grating on the nerves. Maybe that's why she wanted to be written out when she did.

She lived a long time for a Christian Scientist.

She was a dyke to watch out for

Her son had a recurring role on DL fave "One Day At a Time."

She was reckless and dangerous esp. with produce.

A lot of the more "topical" All in the Family episodes did not age well, but there were some funny scenes, especially in the early years.

Jean and Alice

She went way over the top with the dingbat routine. At times she almost seemed special needs. She was much more restrained in the pilot episode and I wish she had stuck to that.

One of the best episodes ever.

Part2 is in here

(I think this might be mislabeled.....may actually be Part 1 as posted above plus Part 2)

I watched the "Crisis of Faith" episode for the first time 20 years after it originally aired, and I couldn't believe they had tackled these topics so progressively.

It was a different time

It’s not really her fault, but I hated the character of Edith. The downtrodden and trapped wives of TV bothered me: Lucy Ricardo, Alice Kramden, Caroline Ingalls, Weezy Jefferson. It especially bothered me that Samantha Stevens and Jeannie couldn’t just zap their jerky husbands into nicer ones; they had the power to!!

She played a prostitute in the 1961 film "Something Wild"

....

[quote]The downtrodden and trapped wives of TV bothered me: Lucy Ricardo, Alice Kramden, Caroline Ingalls, Weezy Jefferson. It especially bothered me that Samantha Stevens and Jeannie couldn’t just zap their jerky husbands into nicer ones; they had the power to!!

I agree with most of this, but am not sure Caroline fits in here. She was somewhat down-trodden because of the hard times she lived in, but Charles largely treated her with respect (except for the cruel way he showed her that her father died - by letting her run to the wagon excited to see him only to find a coffin in the back - Landon really had some issues). I will say, she was often too good to be true and seemed like she might have been on the 19th century version of "mother's little helper in how placid she could be.

Of all those listed, Weezy really seemed like she could have found someone better. She was not economically strapped [even on All in the Family, they weren't broke), and early Weezy was practical and smart (she got more ditzy as the Jefferson's went on), and George really was a not a good person and never showed any signs of growth.

Addendum, a couple of years ago I was watching My Three Son's repeats while getting ready for work. It is stunning how Katie was treated. Same with Petty Coat Junction ?Bobby? Jo got married and they removed all of her spirit and previous personality to make her a house wife and mother. ?Billie? Jo in the last season became a ditz. A brunette version of a dumb blonde. It was strange how the last season of the show, it seemed a lot more reactionary than prior seasons. The girls all became Stepfordized.

R33, I hesitated to put Weezy in there. She gave as good as she got, and I think George respected her. But she wasn’t going to find another George - a successful entrepreneur - at her age. And she had to put up with that awful Mother Jefferson!

All of the characters on the show were such cartoons. Norman Lear always did that. I guess people liked it because they tuned in, but it all seemed very broad and preachy to me.

Hated that show, hated her character, hated her character’s voice, hated everything.

R36 All in the Family was one of the funniest, best-written shows ever. The entire cast was great. Nothing today even comes close.

I agree, I can’t believe that people found it cartoonish, at least compared to “Alice” or “golden girls”

There's nothing cartoonish about All in the Family. Exaggerated to slight degree to make a point, but that's not cartoonish. Urkel is cartoonish. Anyone saying this about All in the Family is someone who grew up with Perfect Strangers as a cultural touchstone.

She was in Funny Girl on Broadway but I've never heard her talk about it. I wonder why.

R41 Barbra forced her to sign a non-disclosure agreement. In exchange, Jean got a lifetime 20% discount at Barbra's mall.

r25, I agree with your "special needs" diagnosis. This is a link to the pilot of the British show AITF is based on. This is more a trashy Edith than a special one.

I never enjoyed All in the Family or Maude. MTM and Bob Newhart, absolutely.

She was on an episode of Dennis the Menace and played the bitchy housekeeper for the Wilsons.

Jim Carrey talked about how, for years, fans would come up and ask him to do that line from Pet Detective and how irritating it was.

I don't fault actors who go through this.

Her son John Putch, he's gay, isn't he?

No, but her husband was.

The funniest shows by decade: 1950's- The Honeymooners,1960's-The Munsters,1970's-All In The Family,1980's-Taxi , 1990's-Roseanne.

The Munsters? Really?

So many homos think the Mary Tyler Moore show was the funniest show of the 70's or ever. The show was well written but I rarely laugh when I watch it. All In The Family was far funnier. Sometimes when I watch AITF on youtube I'm laughing at Archie other times I'm laughing with him. Watch the very early episode from 1971 when Mike and Gloria's hippie friends come for a visit.

Patience is a virgin.

- Archie Bunker

R51, different strokes for different folks. I found All in the Family mean and strident.

44- You like Bob Newhart? Bob Newhart was a total DRIP.

But hilarious

I didn't know the goofy dude from ODAAT was her son. That picture of her and Alice Cooper is unusual. I'm surprised to see her in that getup. I loved Archie Bunker. I miss the 70s.

Wasn't that a photo from Circus of the Stars?

I'd feel a lot better if it was.

OMG, I have seen that photo a few times in the past and always assumed it was from Circus of the Stars. Somehow it was easier for me to believe Alice Cooper would be at CotS than it was for me to believe Jean Stapleton would choose to wear that dress.

[quote]Patience is a virgin.

Are you kidding? That slut?

Shocking !

Saw Jean Stapleton on Broadway in 1986 or so in a revival of Arsenic and Old Lace. She stared with that other humorless TV cunt Polly Holliday as the murderous sisters. That must have been an icy backstage.