There Was No Sixties Mom As Beautiful As Whitney Blake

I mean TV screen-wise

Why I nevah in all mah life...

How do you like my new vacuuming outfit?

She really did have it all. Hazel in the kitchen, multiple double-knit sweater sets and an acting range that covered all the emotions from A to B.

Small wonder then that Meredith herself is a veritable acting MasterClass.

The Missy B-mobile:

Barbara was not too far behind Whitney but Whitney was tops.

More beautiful than Diahann Carroll? Not even if Whitney had a good nose job (which she didn't...)

Excuse me... Could Whitney dance?

I think she looked a little common, frankly.

We include links in the original post, OP

Inger Stevens became a stepmom in the third season of "The Framer's Daughter" and was much prettier and far better actress (although she didn't get to show much on her sitcom).

Pretty much everyone knows what she looks like r9

She was not only beautiful but stylish and classy.

Funny how Whitney was portrayed by Bonnie Franklin and Meredith Baxter by MacKenzie Phillips

Inger Stevens looked like Nelly Olson.

My stars, you have a lot of nerve...

No Chinese Modern for that gal...

Whitney Blake was one of many "cool blondes" a casting fad that was probably kicked off by Grace Kelly and included Eva Marie Saint, Inger Stevens, Vera Miles and countless others regardless of their real hair color. Donna Reed was in that mode by the end of her series and Liz Montgomery seemed cool blonde-adjacent. Florence Henderson was part of that era even though the Brady Bunch came after "Hazel", "The Farmer's Daughter", etc.--she probably benefited from it in her earlier stage work. Blake is probably one of the more forgettable of them, despite her apparently limitless vanity.

Here's Stevens looking more tv mom/wife like.

She seemed lovely R2 but Harriett Nelson could get it as far as I'm concerned. Harriet seemed like a good time what with her cigarette smoker whiskey sipping voice and perky boobies.

Whitney Blake is one of the most WASP names going and I dig that. Sounds like a sportswear brand for people who can't quite afford a brand name. Whitney Blake had beautiful blue eyes and a nice figure. But, I kinda think she was a two bit version of Lee Remick at the end of the day.

Every time a pretty lady gets a hunky doctor AND a sitcom an angle gets it's wings...

Acute or obtuse, r20?

R15, that's a gorgeous shot of Elizabeth Montgomery. Good find.

^ A cute what?

Reed, Montgomery, Stevens, and MTM could actually act. Even Billingsley was good when she could do more than vacuum or be worried about the Beaver. Harriet Nelson was a good singer and you knew she was probably more interesting in person than she was on that show. Blake never seemed to do much and she never had much of a career otherwise.

r24

She half created "One Day At A Time."

"[R15], that's a gorgeous shot of Elizabeth Montgomery. Good find. "

It's hard to find a bad picture of Elizabeth Montgomery...

A random note from Blake's wikipedia entry:

[quote]Pop/R&B legendary singer Whitney Houston (born 1963) was named after Blake, as stated in the 2018 documentary Whitney.

Was Blake really [italic]that[/italic] popular?

R11 No

Fun fact:

Whitney Houston was named for her.

[quote]Whitney was named for a sitcom actress

[quote]In the documentary, Whitney’s brother mentions that their mother, Cissy, named her only daughter for actress Whitney Blake, who starred in the ‘60s sitcom “Hazel.”

R29 I was just reading that at R27

Don't forget me!

[quote]Was Blake really that popular?

She was the Clare Huxtable of the '60s.

Some people thought I was beautiful... In a macabre sort of way

I never realized how much Angelina Jolie looks like her

"Don't forget me! "

Try as we might...

Here's Lucy

Aaron liked big dewy eyes, r33.

Don't forget me, either

^ I didn't even remember she had kids on her show. Were they just accessories?

Doris was an expert accessorizer, r38!

@r4, It was that snobby Diedre Thompson (George's social climbing sister) who drove the Thunderbird

Remember Missy came from money. Hazel worked for Missy's family when Missy was a little girl. So basically Mr B inherited Hazel when she married him.

Also Missy ran her own interior decorating firm and she raised; what we would call today; an autistic, son Harold; who loved to sit in trees and throw leaves at passing cars and skipping backwards.

r38, she forgot too, since the kids were written out without explanation in the fourth season. Suddenly she was just a single, childless woman.

Same reason Lucy circa The Lucy Show shouldn't count (even if she were beautiful, which....uh...). She ditched her kids halfway through the show too.

^ Poor Harold was a mess

Whitney Blake was a ho!

Don't forget me, bitches! I'm still alive.

Doris Day had the right idea. She dumped her kids in favor of a single life in San Francisco.

" I'm still alive. "

Really?

"She dumped her kids in favor of a single life in San Francisco"

Then in real life she dumped her grandson, her only family

Yep, r47.

Pat Crowley is 88. The last time I saw her, she slept with Martin Crane on "Frasier."

^ Pat Crowley is really a Gay man? I never knew

No, she did not, r50. Your memory is slipping.

Don't forget me, Marjorie Lord, not only was I Danny Thomas' beautiful wife on "Make Room for Daddy", I kept his glass coffee tables squeaky clean

I knew a woman named Whitney, which was also her family name. Her parents were very very distant cousins and they gave her the mothers maiden name as a middle name, so she was Whitney Whitney Whitney. When she married she decided to go for the gold. No, her husband wasn’t named Gold, but he was, a very wealthy great grandson of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, so she became Whitney Whitney Whitney Whitney. After her divorce she fell in love with a guy named, yup, Whitney. So today she is the venerable Mrs. Whitney Whitney Whitney Whitney Whitney, and as happy as can be. Happily telling anyone who asks how she got her name.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Jane Jetson.

R2, Alice Mitchell/Gloria Henry could take on June Cleaver/Barbara Billingsley any day.

I never had much luck with mothers.

When he sang: Who can turn the world on with her smile? Was it in a sex way?

[quote]Don't forget me, Marjorie Lord, not only was I Danny Thomas' beautiful wife on "Make Room for Daddy", I kept his glass coffee tables squeaky clean

Like Whitney, her daughter also became a famous actress.

Whitney was in the very first episode of "Perry Mason."

That restless redhead, r60...

Gloria was too sultry for a mere housewife, r56.

I love it when ‘Hazel’ is brought up on DL. It’s my family’s favorite show. We watch it whenever it airs on one of those geezer channel. Missy probably married down when she married Mr. B. She was pure class and elegance, Hazel did all the dirty work.

Meredith's biography isn't vituperative, but she makes it clear that Whitney wasn't a great mother: vain, ambitious and a bit cold. She was thrilled to get "Hazel" and then felt trapped because they never did anything with her character.

Missy got to welcome that big, strong, strappin', Mr. B when he got home.

I had the role of Carol Brady sewn up until that Flo Henderson stole it from me.

Bitches! No one can make the bed rock like me!

[quote] Inger Stevens became a stepmom in the third season of "The Framer's Daughter" and was much prettier and far better actress (although she didn't get to show much on her sitcom).

And then she died. Suicide.

She was a round for a few years after "The Framer's Daughter"

[quote] She was a round for a few years after "The Framer's Daughter"

Yes my comment was not meant to be taken literally.

Agreed, R64, Meredith Baxter’s book wasn’t bitter or score-settling, but it made clear that Whitney’s primary focus was her career and not Meredith and her brothers. At a certain point, she stopped answering to “Mom”and would only respond to “Whitney” from her own children..

[quote]Missy probably married down when she married Mr. B. She was pure class and elegance, Hazel did all the dirty work.

See you get it. She was really a classic beauty. And her character was a strong woman despite having to raise a retarded child.

You can't be a classic beauty with a bad nose job and no lips.

[quote]I love it when ‘Hazel’ is brought up on DL. It’s my family’s favorite show. We watch it whenever it airs on one of those geezer channel.

Same. My three favorite episodes are the one where she gets the Baxters an air conditioner....

the episode when Hazel gets a new color TV…

and the episode when she meets Mrs. Forbes-Craigie at a women’s resort

@r64, Cool word...

vi·tu·per·a·tive

/vīˈt(y)o͞opəˌrādiv,vəˈt(y)o͞op(ə)rədiv/

adjective: vituperative

bitter and abusive.

"the criticism soon turned into a vituperative attack"

You'd think Gays would use it more often

@r70, as much as we love Eva Gabor she was barren and not a TV mom. The fact that Eb called her "mom" doesn't count

Still, r81, I felt so sorry for her, having to live in that awful farm environment. I had to leave the room when it came on.

I watch every day when I eat my lunch…DVR all the episodes. Yep, I’m elderly 😁😁

[quote]Alice Mitchell/Gloria Henry could take on June Cleaver/Barbara Billingsley any day.

I was about to post that, like Pat Crowley, Gloria Henry is still alive, but then figured I'd better check. Oops. She died in April, one day after her 98th birthday.

She made history as the first black Bond girl to bed James.

[quote]She made history as the first black Bond girl to bed James.

Whitney Blake? Gloria Henry? Harriet Nelson?

Patricia Crowley was HIGH YELLOW!

^ Patricia Crowley was HIGH ?

Man those 60s were wild

Meredith wrote in her book that she made a suicide attempt at her Eastern boarding school when she was a teen...

When she was recovered, the school called Whitney who had to fly from California to pick her up (apparently the school expelled her).

Whitney came and picked up Meredith and flew back to California with her...and never once asked about or mentioned Meredith's attempted suicide.

^ Can you imagine Whitney's non-reaction to the "lesbian talk"?

[quote]r14 Inger Stevens looked like Nelly Olson.

After her suicide it was discovered she was secretly married to an African American gentleman named Ike Jones.

She choose to die in a brown silk negligee.

I wonder if she was making a statement with that final outfit.

Yeah,R85, I loved the mother from “Dennis the Menace” in “Live and Let Die”!

[Quote] I loved the mother from “Dennis the Menace” in “Live and Let Die”!

Not that was some range she had.

Meredith is a fucking liar through and through. She was pissed off because her highly rated TV series got cancelled. She had to take a back seat to Sada and Kristy and humiliated by a Canadian midget.

She lied about her husband, she lied about her mother and even lied about her sexuality.

^^ And she lied when she acted!

She just couldn’t stop. That’s why she BECAME an actress!

Look how stunning she is in the Christmas "Hazel" episode.

The poor man's Kim Novak

[quote]^ Poor Harold was a mess

Yeah, quite literally

[quote]Buntrock died at age 21 in an automobile accident when his car veered off a bridge under construction into Battle Creek, drowning him in the submerged car.

[quote]She choose to die in a brown silk negligee. I wonder if she was making a statement with that final outfit

Final outfit? Was she buried naked?

I find Hollywood midcentury glamour and standards of beauty fascinating. I love watching old film and TV and see whose beauty and presence holds up favorably over time, and who has merely been molded into some conventional notion of "pretty."

Whitney Blake was not really a classic beauty. MBB has inherited her mother's gorgeous eyes and bone structure, but Blake's nose and mouth are not especially beautiful.

At that time, Hollywood believed any woman onscreen who could be blonde SHOULD be, and that enough peroxide forgave a multitude of failings.

Thirsty Whitney!

She really did photograph better as a blonde, just to be clear.

Girl, that is NOT your hairdo.

I'm sorry but Dorothy Malone, of Peyton Place, was pretty hot. Whitney Blake? Psh.

Hey don't forget us!!

In R105's pic, is that Little Lucie and Dezi Jr.? - looks like NEITHER of them. I know Dezi Jr. ditched the show to mess around with Patty Duke and later Liza.

R106 It's Desi and no, those are actors from The Lucy Show.

r103

no, she rocks that hairdo too.

r106 Sounds like Aaron Sorkin.