Jim J. Bullock

I assume he's among us. Jim, how's it going?

He’s fine.

OP, please try the googler…

Bajour!

Lives in Palm Springs I believe.

Okay, that’s in the article. But I’m friends with his friend Jane, who is a Methodist minister and stand up comedian. She’s writing a book about the humor in the Bible.

One of those weird, unexplainable TV shows. Monroe was a screaming queen and they lived in San Francisco, but he was just written as childlike and sexless. The girls were written out of the final season (replaced by perennial turd-in-punchbowl Pat Carroll) and Ted Knight looked ghastly as he was suffering from colon cancer.

But the first seasons were funny and it was groundbreaking to have someone like Bullock star in a sitcom.

When did he get the "i" back?

I saw him about 15 years ago in the road company of Hairspray playing Wilbur. He was very good.

[quote]The girls were written out of the final season (replaced by perennial turd-in-punchbowl Pat Carroll) and Ted Knight looked ghastly as he was suffering from colon cancer.

Initially, the producers (and Ted) also wanted to get rid of Muriel (Nancy Dussault) when it was "retooled" as The Ted Knight Show....and make Ted's character a widower (or divorcee?). However, Dussault still had a year remaining on her contract with DLT Entertainment, and she forced them to honor it.

So long as he didn't speak he was a cute bottom probably pulled a lot of great dick in his prime. Unfortunately an infected one too. I bet he was a gang bang whore.

R10: it only takes one infected sex partner. He wasn’t necessarily promiscuous . Except for that one time as a pass-around bottom on Hollywood Squares. Rose Marie told me about it once. She used a strap-on.

When did Too Close For Comfort bring in that off-brand Didi Conn, Deena "aka the 2nd Kate Zbornak" Freeman? That was truly the shows nadir!

The first Kate Zbornak was also the mother of the chubby red headed football player on Dorothy and Rose’s peewee league AND the mom of ‘Curly Sue’ who won a role on the “Golden Girls” as Blanche’s granddaughter who freezes at a Little Miss Miami beauty pageant.

He played a psychic in the comedy Switch, and had some good scenes with JoBeth Williams, who was excellent in that film.

R12: Deena Freeman (a lovely, funny woman) came on as "kooky" cousin April in Season Two. IMO, one of the problems with TCFC was that the producers (and network?) constantly tinkered with it & tried to do too much, too soon? April was introduced the same season that Muriel became pregnant with Andy. There was no need to overlap the kooky cousin with the late-in-life pregnancy trope. Do one or the other.

The thing is TCFC was a good show. Then they started fucking with it. The show was in the top ten until they moved it around and started tinkering with it. Too bad. It was a consistently funny show.

R10 can meet her fated grease fire any time.

Preferably soon.

This thread is going to end in tears.

Nancy Dussault is still with us -- why wasn't she at the reunion?

[quote]This thread is going to end in tears.

Or boredom

Lived across the street from him on Kings Road at Willoughby Avenue in West Hollywood during the late 90s.

Nancy Dussault should be a National Treasure, unfortunately she spent the peak of her career getting confused with that other feisty ginger with a mushroom head, Bonnie Franklin! It seems that now Hollywood cannot get enough of redheaded broads: Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams, Isla Fisher, Emma Stone. But back in the day, there was only roon for one and that was the Bonstress!

R21 And?

Maybe Jim J. can figure into the new Tammy Faye Baker musical. I was disgusted that his scenes from the movie were deemed fit to play only on the cutting room floor.

He was one of my first crushes!

R22, don’t you mean Anita Gillette? They’re basically the same person.

How does someone like him make a living? Faded sitcom stars from the 80s. Is he waiting tables somewhere?

Here’s a disconcerting clip that has aged poorly.

R17: He got the "i" back in the mid-1990s, at the suggestion of his manager, Billy Sammeth (who also managed Joan Rivers). When he joined SAG, there was already another actor named Jim Bullock in the union, so he spelled it "Jm" (as opposed to using James), thinking it would help him stand-out. He was probably right; everyone noticed the odd spelling. (I guess the other Jim Bullock died, or was no longer a SAG member, by the mid-90s??)

For those interested, the oral history of The New Hollywood Squares is a great, interesting read! Many hilarious anecdotes (Zsa Zsa Gabor stealing toilet paper, throwing a hair dryer at writer Rick Shaw), and some poignant ones, too. In it, Jim mentions that Ted Knight knew he was gay when they were doing TCFC, and wasn't comfortable with it. Ted told him on several occasions to "Take it down a few minces."

^^^ Ack! Typo! The above was in response to R7 (not 17). My apologies.

[quote]don’t you mean Anita Gillette? They’re basically the same person.

Don't you mean Penny Fuller?

R22. She’s the only one who sang “Where is the Tribe for Me.”

I was so smitten with Monroe's chest hair.

He looks good for 68!

My older sister said at dinner one night that she had a huge crush on Jim. I laughed and said that he was obviously a big homo. We had just argued days earlier about George Michael's being one, too. She screamed "You think every good looking guy is gay!!!"

I still remind her of this occasionally.

[quote]don’t you mean Anita Gillette? They’re basically the same person.

Don't forget me!

He reminds me of George Michael

I think it's great that the wife character had a baby past age 50.

Any updates? Has DL found him yet? How is he earning a living now? Where does he live?

[quote]Nancy Dussault is still with us -- why wasn't she at the reunion?

I'm sure they're glad she was a no-show after that shit she pulled when Knight passed away.

R40 What shit did she pull?

He cruised me in West Hollywood at Merrick's Mexican Restaurant back in the early 2000s when I was still young and could get attention.

As he left with his friends, he walked past me and said, "You have the cutest smile."

He was very sweet.

1999

Gold Gym Hollywood

I had recently moved to Los Angeles, feeling "LA ugly" and so I was on the weight bench and did a (probably too) heavy set of free weight chest presses. As I struggled to lower the weights I turned to my left and there was Jim J. Bullock. Then I turned to my right to lower the other weight and there was Fabio. All I could was laugh at the absurdity.

A few weeks later I read an interview with him where he talked about doing a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and riffed on winning an award for a character named "Bottom".

And he proclaimed that he was free from addiction of meth..."But my apartment's a mess!!!"

R41, I've written here about it before.

My uncle worked on that show.

After Knight passed away it was obvious the show was kaput. Well Dussault had other ideas.

Not sure which pitch came first, but she approached producers with two options..

1. Knight's character would "possess" her and the show would continue with her in both roles. Sort of All Of Me wackiness would ensue.

2. Her character would "pick up the pieces" and move on inheriting Knight's job at the paper and....eventually entering into a lesbian relationship with Carroll's Mrs. Stinson character.

Both ideas were outright rejected.

R44 I love both of those ideas.

I can't decide which one would've been funnier.

“Take it Down A Few Minces” should be the title of his memoir.

I just hope he’s doing good and is happy, knowing how many of us loved him on TV shows.

R44 That's not "pulling shit;" that's coming up with ideas to keep the show going.

I was expecting you to say she said something really horrendous about Knight after he died or something.

Still alive after nearly 40 years with HIV, apparently.

I always associate him with Terry Sweeney, probably just because of the time period. Very different performers, but similar vibe because they bother were so 80s. Plus they’re both still alive.

10, 9, 8… I can’t believe no one’s mentioned the infamous episode yet.

Every other TCfC thread in DL history has fallen down that rabbit hole.

R42 It was Marix. Loved that place.

meth

r51 Which infamous episode?

R42- The second part was definitely a flirt.

Thumbs up to Jim J!

I had a lesbian barbie doll with a homemade spikey hairdo I painted silver. Her name was Monroe. I was only 10 but obviously picked up on a few things.

They bother to still be alive.

And then he died, R29.

I love R51. What a complete bitch.

Great interview/conversation on Marc Summers' YouTube channel.

R29 Thanks for posting that. Good info.

I wish that version had lasted longer, and kept the camp.

So was Ted Knight a complete cunt? I always thought he was gay. Gavin McLeod too. But apparently not.

Nancy's pilot that didn't get picked up. Probably for the best. Looks like this could be where Bonnie Franklin stole her shtick from.

R57 = Jeff Lewis

R64 Oh, my God! I remember those Dixie lunch bags with the limes on them.

R64 Also starring also-ran Karren Morrow as the quintessential wise-cracking sidekick.

R64 I love how they had to include the phonetic spelling of her name in the opening credits.

I knew him casually in the late 90’s in LA. We had mutual friends. Hysterically funny and a real sweetheart. Nice guy.

Dussault With A Deadly Weapon

I never knew it was pronounced "Dew-Sew," which then makes me wonder if it is pronounced, "sew," as in "so" or "sew" as in "sewer"...so really is it pronounced "do-sue" or "doh-soh"

I stole Nancy's lunch money

r71 It's doo-SO

It should be pronounced Duh-soh. If you are any kind of French.

Lydia Cornell posts on FB and IG. She is a sweetheart and huge supporter of us!