Today's Blind Items - The Cruelest Show Ever - Kind Of Old Hollywood
An actress is selling her story. Not her life so much, although it will be included but her life on one particular television show and the aftermath it wrought. I have always wanted to use that word. The show was a huge hit when it was on the air. It was in color, but barely. It has also been called cursed. This actress who never really worked again after it aired, is selling publishers on more than just the curse.
She is selling them on what happened behind the scenes on the show where she was basically forced to have sex with the lead actors and producers and that the young cast on the show had no choice either and that both the boys and girls on the cast were molested and as they got older forced to have sex. She also claims that the most well known actor on the show who was probably almost A list at the time was not only having sex with his television daughter but also his real life daughter too.
The actress says that everyone was complicit and that the studio heads would come over to the soundstage during the day and have their pick of the extras on set that day. Our actress also has interviews with other female television actresses of the day who say their shows were very much the same and that it was no wonder so many of the women hid behind a veil of drugs and booze as they got older and so many died tragic deaths.
NOW THIS IS DISHY!
ReplyDeletePlease reveal who's behind this sick shit
DeleteFamily Affair (how apropos!)
ReplyDeleteSee: Post Series
DeleteAwful.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no. I refuse to believe Mr. French would have allowed anything like this to happen.
ReplyDeleteVery sad
ReplyDeleteOkay, this destroys me. The original Parent Trap with Brian Keith is one of my favorite movies.
ReplyDeleteFamily Affair fits EXCEPT the children on the show were neices and nephew. The blind said daughter. Family Affair does seem cursed, though.
ReplyDeleteeww and eww! I think this has been going on from day 1 in Hollyweird. Bunch of sexual perverts and deviants run that place. Gross gross gross.
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ReplyDeleteSounds like it's a show with a big rotating cast and a lot of young people. I don't think the shows proposed fit so far.
ReplyDeleteNot Family Affairs.
ReplyDeleteWhere the hell were they filming this series, in Caligula's Rome? Were any goats harmed?
ReplyDeleteJeez.......
Brian Keith had seven children, three of which were adopted, and multiple daughters.
ReplyDeleteIF this is supposed to be Kathy Garver writing this book, why the hell did she attend his funeral unless it was to spit on his grave? That doesn't make sense to me.
Ooo! Good point @Glitter! (Thank you, by the way. I cannot stand the thought of Brian Keith being anything but awesome.)
ReplyDeleteOK, how about Gidget? Nah. That would be Sally Field.
Wow----this needs to be revealed
ReplyDeleteBrady Bunch? I think the first episodes were in B&W
ReplyDeleteFlipper
ReplyDeleteAddams Family
Lost in Space
The father in the Brady Bunch was gay in real life. Partridge Family didn't have a dad.
ReplyDeleteDonna Reed show?
Partridge Family
ReplyDeleteThis can't be My Three Sons...
ReplyDeleteWas Donna Reed's show ever in color?
ReplyDeleteLittle House on the Prairie? Waltons? Good Times?
ReplyDeleteAnissa took what was considered elephant trsnquilizer to kill herself. Kathy Garver never worked again. I think it is Family Affair.
ReplyDeleteNot true Sandybrook. While she may have never been on anything as big I worked with her and she was a sweetheart.
DeleteKathy Garver has more than 70 items in her imdb listing. The Family Affair guess has to be wrong.
DeleteMake Room For Daddy
ReplyDeleteDick Van Dyke Show
If I remember correctly, both started in B&W and then went to color.
Don't even say I Love Lucy.
Oops....Dick Van Dyke Show and Lucy only had sons on the show.
DeletePeggy, you might have it with Make Room for Daddy. Apparently Danny Thomas had a very freaky side to him.
DeleteAnd I meant to add that Angela Cartwright fits as the TV daughter. I think.
DeleteAngela Cartwright does NOT fit. Her career went on after Make Room for Daddy. She was on Lost in Space and The Sound of Music, and more that I don't know without looking at imdb
DeleteDark Shadows?
ReplyDeleteOK, multiple children of both genders, multiple male actors, just as color was becoming available.
ReplyDeleteMale actor had TV daughter and real life daughter. Seems like a large-ish cast.
School setting?
This could go back a ways.
Not donna reed or beaver, they are all fine. I doubt family affair but i remember ehen that little girl od-ed, the coroner said the most amount of drugs in person he'd ever seen. Poor thing. I think her name was annissa.
ReplyDeleteit sounds more like a variety show to me since there are a bunch of children and lots of extras or whatever. Maybe something like the Mickey Mouse Club?
ReplyDeleteMultiple children of both genders and multiple male actors should narrow it down, you'd think.
ReplyDeletefather, daughter...school or large family?
Hmm..
I have a meeting to go to, but this will bug me for days or ever.
@Karen, interesting tidbit on Brian Keith and Family Affair. His stepmother (for two years when he was still small) was an actress named Peg Entwhistle, whose father died in a hit and run accident in NYC when she was 14. She and her two younger brothers were taken in by their uncle, who was a successful manager for Broadway actors. Eerie!
ReplyDeletePeg Entwhistle later committed suicide by jumping off the H in the Hollywood sign.
* gawd was kindly adjusted to aged by autocorrect.
DeleteBewitched started in BW and ended in color. Tabitha was played by different sets of twins and then there was a baby Adam born into it.
ReplyDeleteMickey Mouse Club is a good thought. It started in B & W. But who was the A list star?
I questioned my Mrs. Beasley doll about this - she's not talking.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha love it! Mine stopped talking because I pulled her string too hard. As a child I was devastated and there was no " lets just run to the store and get you another one!" Those were the days you had to look after your stuff or else :(
DeleteThe Waltons? Had lots of kids.
ReplyDeleteThat's where I got stuck on Mickey Mouse Club, Prima Cornice. It seems the most likely set-up, doesn't it?
ReplyDeletePlus, it'd be a newsmaker.
Maybe not the Waltons, forgot about the curse...sorry!
ReplyDeleteWaltons was the 70s. Well into color TV days.
ReplyDeleteSource: I was alive and watching television in the 50s, 60s & 70s.
Waltons is too late for this blind, in my decrepit opinion.
Lost in Space..other than that, I got nuthin...
ReplyDelete@7 of 11, WOW! Thanks for sharing that!!
ReplyDeleteThe Patty Duke Show
ReplyDeletePatty Duke was born in 1946. Show aired in 1963 so she would have been 17 already. I was thinking someone younger. She has already written a memoir about how unhappy she was in her teens.
DeleteGotta be a show from the 60's. One that started in B&W are right when the majority of shows went to color.
ReplyDeleteThis cannot be Family Affair. There were no daughters on the show. Stop with the FA guesses, I will not accept. And for the record, I had a Buffy sweatshirt when I was little.
I have no guess, I am just happy Fugazi Enty combined my faves on this site: old hollywood and rape/molestation/incest.
ReplyDelete+ 1 Fugazi Enty
It can't be the Mickey Mouse Club, unless there was someone who played a father and had a TV daughter. The father actor also had to have a daughter.
ReplyDeleteThe blind says in color but barely. That means it was prob a show that started around 1965 when the shows started in color. It does not say it started in black and white. Family affair started in 1966 so it fits. A lot of guesses have listed shows that started in black and white.
ReplyDeleteMaybe somebody else can make something else work with this. Family affair still seems to be the inky thing that is close to fitting. Sorry I can't make it clickable.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.entertainmentscene.com/top_tv_shows_60s.html
Petticoat Junction is another you could make almost fit. You'd have to sub Uncle for Father, but the "cursed" could be referring to the mother on the show's health problems. Two of the daughters were played by multiple actresses.
ReplyDeleteThe Jackie Gleason show was also in color and doing a variety format in the later 60's. I don't remember if he ever had a daughter character on the show but he does have one in real life. The "curse" could be referring to the ratings plummet after he lost weight.
"Family Affair' fits all the clues except that Buffy was a niece, not a daughter on the show, but I believe it may have been Enty's assumption that Brian Keith played the dad, not their uncle. Enty's mistake, I think; Family Affair is considered a cursed show and Kathy Garver never worked again, as the blind states. Drugs, tragic deaths; it's all in there.
ReplyDeleteLet me throw another thought into the mix - Peyton Place. Would have had a large rotating cast and a lot of youngish people.
ReplyDeleteAnissa jones died of drug overdose at 18. Sebastian Cabot died of stroke at age 59. In 1997, after the suicide of his daughter, and having lived with cancer for some time, Brian Keith committed suicide by gunshot. In 2002, Gregg feeders on died of cancer at 53. Cancer also claimed heather Angela in 1986 and nancy walker in 1992. John Williams died in 1983 due to heart condition. Both Phil ober and John Hubbard who played bill Davis' partner are also all deceased.
ReplyDeleteI think VIP got it right as always!
Thanks, this was juicy juice!
ReplyDeleteRobin Thicke
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's someone from Loonie Tunes? I never trusted Foghorn Leghorn. I suspected he an Elmer Fudd had a thing for each other.
ReplyDeleteShe looked like a sweetheart in any case--i had puppy love for Kathy Garver back then and she disappeared. Simon makes a very good case for Family Affair being the show and Kathy being the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't really think people dying of cancer over a 50-year period is really "cursed." I mean, come on, Nancy Walker was like 150 when she passed away. The only one who died tragically was Buffy.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to believe this is Family Affair, and my Mrs. Beasley doll agrees @ leahglen . Maybe your's is just deaf?
I thought the fact that Brian Keith committed suicide after his daughter committed suicide might support the allegation the man in the blind had also had sex with his daughter. Anissa died, Johnny Whittaker had huge drug problem, and Kathy garver never worked again. Seems pretty cursed to me.
ReplyDeleteBrian Keith's daughter was born in 1969.
ReplyDeleteI am a child of that era but never watched Familly Affair how odd.
ReplyDelete@Topper - I'd say Brian Keith shooting himself is kind of tragic as well, don't you think? I do understand what you mean about the rest of the cast dying of Cancer because it seems pretty common now (sadly). It's just when you add up all of the deaths it seems a bit much.
ReplyDeleteIs Kathy Garver the only one left from this show? Maybe that's why she's willing to write about it now.
It could be Keith. But, his suicide isn't too telling though, as he was old and suffering from very bad cancer. Lots of issues involving people from Family Affair. But, Keith's surviving family is still quite devoted to him, maintaining a site about him and speaking well of him.
ReplyDeleteThis BI is actually pretty tough, when you consider just how many early TV shows ended up in wreckage and being dubbed "cursed". There must be at least a dozen that could fit that cursed show billing.
This could be a show from NBC who was the only one showing color for a few years, the color rainbow symbolizing this. I think in 62. It could be something like Gunsmoke or The Rifleman, earlier than Family Affairs.
ReplyDelete...Also cancer deaths shouldn't be counted. This was people in the 50s/60s EVERYBODY smoke and drank, thus legions of famous actors have died from cancer & smoke/drink related illnesses. Most of the actors from that era, actually. (All of the top 10 of AFI's Top 100 male stars for instance.)
ReplyDeleteI worked with a guy who was in AA. He said Brian Keith's daughter was in the group and said Brian Keith molested her for years. Plus the girl on the showed OD young. Johnny Whitaker, a Mormon, turned to drugs. So everything fit.
ReplyDeleteToo damn sick for words
DeleteTru Leigh, if you ever see that guy again tell him he is an asshole. That daughter probably thought she could tell that secret in AA and he should have left it in that meeting.
DeleteHe's a blabber mouth
I've just done some research on early color shows and Family Affais fits the best.
ReplyDeleteI really want this to be "The Brady Bunch" but I think VIP is right - "Family Affair."
ReplyDeleteI guess there's no escaping the Family Affair possibility.
ReplyDeleteI just thought the blind read like there were more children, as in boys & girls.
@ tru leigh.
ReplyDeleteway to keep what was said in AA a secret. whether you were in AA or not, someone should have some respect for its rules.
also, speculating about who might have been molested as a child is pretty gross. I realize this is a gossip site, but seriously people.
Tru Leigh doesn't have to keep a stranger's secret, ESPECIALLY if they weren't even involved in that AA meeting.
DeleteWould the Nanny and the Professor fit? I don't know much about old American TV Trent Lehman died committed suicide, Kim Richards has know alcohol trouble and Richard Long died young.
ReplyDeleteI want to read this book! We always hear about these, but they never seem to come to fruition!
ReplyDeleteLittle rascals ? I can't remember, but was it in color or black and white. And I can't remember whether or not there was any adults on the show.
ReplyDeleteI thought Brian Keith and the older daughter on the show were life long friends.
This blind should be revealed, and any of the predators that may be still alive, should be shown for what they are....filthy twisted monsters!
buffy buffy come back to me
ReplyDeletewhy'd you have to go and od?
who will watch over ms. beasley?
anyone remember that song from the 80s?
I'm going with Little House on the Prairie. Michael Landon for the A-list actor. Lots of choices for the actress.
ReplyDeletePossibly related?
Kathy Garver HAS worked again - pretty solidly since the show ended in 1971
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0308744/
I loved Family Affair. I knew Buffy OD'd but thought Jodi and Sissy grew up unscathed.
ReplyDeleteExcept for the B&W reference, I was thinking this was Eight is Enough. It was super popular in the mid-70s. The woman who played the oldest sister died of an OD and I think the girl who played Susan did as well. Willie Ames and the kid who played Nicholas were both drug addicts. But that would make Dick Van Patten a perv? I have a hard time with that.
Dick Van Patten only had sons, so it couldn't be him. I too was thinking that show, but looked it up, and seen he had no daughters in real life to molest.
ReplyDeleteAha - good call Lizzie.
ReplyDeleteI would read this book. And sadly, Family Affair fits.
ReplyDeleteI have been contacted with a request to throw Father Knows Best into the ring. I was told Bud Anderson has spoken of this in the past and now works with troubled kids.
ReplyDeleteThe Real McCoys had kids, and an Oscar winning star in it as lead. Walter Brennan , Richard Crenna, but that's probably a long shot. But they both do have daughters.
ReplyDeleteThis would explain so much about Anissa Jones' tragic life and death, which I only got into a year or so ago as I've never seen Family Affair cause obvs I'm a baby. BUT I read about her online and it saddened me to the core. She was beautiful and just had a hard hard life after that show ended.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely Peyton Place.
ReplyDeleteRe: Family Affair. I remember the doorknob was in the middle of the door. I thought that was so neat (a word from the 60's.)
ReplyDeleteThe Facts of Life. TOOTIE
ReplyDelete@Lizzie no way in hell is it Walter Brennan. None whatsoever. I've never heard anybody say anything but raves about what a sweet and good guy he was. Very religious as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely thinking Keith now, as 2 of his daughters we're adopted. Which usually increases the likelihood of abuse of that manner. He adopted them with wife Judy Landon, and the time period fits, they would've been adopted between '54 and '68.
Please don't let this be family affair :(
ReplyDeleteStart looking at all the syndicated shows from the 1950s & early 60s.
ReplyDeleteMany of them were filmed in color, but released in black & white due to only a few NBC stations having the capability of broadcasting in color.
Examples of this were many westerns, especially anything filmed at Republic Studios, which is now the CBS Studio Center.
@Tru Leigh, when I was young, there were allegations that Brian Keith had molested one of his daughters. I remember that it stood out because that was not the sort of thing that one typically read about in our newspaper then, and I was surprised that they had printed it. If I remember correctly--and I may not--it was one of the adopted ones. I couldn't tell you if it was the one who committed suicide, though.
ReplyDeleteAlso in the '80s, Tony Carey (who also called himself Planet P Project) had a song about a boy who had planned his suicide because a family member was molesting him, called "Uncle Bill".
@Elissa I tried to find the song "Uncle Bill", but could only come up with the lyrics. Those might be some of the saddest words I've ever read. :(
ReplyDeleteIs there any links that would talk about any kind of rumor of Brian Keith molesting his daughter? I can't see this being him.
ReplyDelete@Illinois 30 of those 70 credits were before Family Affair. One was during Family Affair.A lot are cartoons voices. Very few acting credits
ReplyDeleteNot trying to push the McCoy show, but Lydia Reed pretty much quit acting after the show ended, and before the show started she worked with the likes of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly...etc. She would have been pretty young to quit after that kind of career.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Reed#cite_note-imdb-1
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ReplyDeleteI would be so sad if this was Family Affair. I grew up in the Bronx and remember watching that show (they lived in NYC) and marveling at the size of that apartment they lived in. It was enormous! I got the feeling from this blind that it was a bigger cast of children than just three. Also, the whole premise of the show was that the parents died and Brian Keith got the kids - not sure how you can mistake that for him being the dad.
ReplyDeleteThe count may be onto something with Father Knows Best. I vaguely remember hearing some nasty gossip about Robert Young, and the kids on that show were pretty screwed up after it ended.
ReplyDeleteI think kitten was screwed up but not the others.
Delete@Golly HoLightly, it IS a heartbreaking song, it's a little difficult to listen to. A Google search found this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://music.big.az/Tony_Carey_-_Uncle_Bill-307582.mp3.html
I downloaded it, it seems to be safe, but I have no clue as to the legality of the site. Blue button lets you listen to a minute of it, purple button lets you download it.
I doubt it was Lost in Space, too much going on on Soundstage 10 at 20th Century Fox with LiS, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, Batman, The Green Hornet, and Land of the Giants all filming simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think Lauren Chapin would have talked about it before now. She has a web-site.
ReplyDeletehttp://laurenchapin.com/index.htm
This can't be Family Affair! I always wanted "Uncle Keith" as my dad. I was thinking earlier, Mickey Mouse club, Ozzie & Harriet??? Although no girls, Gilligan's Island?
ReplyDeleteI had a "Little House on the Prairie" vibe as I read this, but not clue really. The "cursed" part has me stumped.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt might well be Father Knows Best because Robert Young had 4 daughters. He also suffered from alcoholism and depression and tried to commit suicide in 1991.
ReplyDeleteThe barely in color part fit because even though the show was in black and white there were two reunion specials in the 70s which were in color.
Billy Gray (Bud) was arrested in the 60s for pot and wrote disparagingly about the show in the 80s.
Lauren Chapin (Kitten) was a molested by her dad as a teen became a drug addict and a prostitute before she became born again. She might be the writer shopping the story because she didn't act again after the show ended. She manages singers and does a Father Knows Best show for cruise lines. This is all from Wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt.
God, I have no idea what most of the shows are that you guys are talking about, but damn. The anissa story just made me cry. She died from a crazy overdose at 18 and her little brother died a few years later from another overdose? That's just sad beyond belief. Wish I could un-read this blind.
ReplyDeleteKathy Garver did indeed keep acting after Family Affair,doing guest shots and such, and a lot of voice-over work.
ReplyDeleteShe remained close to Brian Keith and gave the speech when he was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The blind sounds like there are a good number of kids on the show in question, not just 2-3.
(and @Leo - agree)
ReplyDeleteThe saddest part is that the woman has interviews with other actresses from other shows that did the same thing. Whether we guess the right show or not, there are many others along with this one. So all these other shows mentioned may be right as well. Ugh, I need a shower.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Little House. For all of Landon's personal failings, I've always heard that he was vigilant about the kids and their welfare.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely isn't Dark Shadows! I knew one of the main actresses. Grayson would have taken a baseball bat after anyone who tried to touch a child.
"Buffy, Buffy come back to me/Why'd you have to go and OD/Who's gonna take care of Mrs. Beasley?"
ReplyDeleteIf you listened to KROQ in the early eighties you heard that lyric ofte.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBuffy Come Back by Angel & the Reruns
ReplyDeleteWas the Danny Thomas show ever in color?
ReplyDeleteKeith's daughter committed suicide right before he did; I could see him killing himself in remorse for destroying her.
ReplyDeleteBeverly Hillbillies ???
ReplyDeleteEllie Mae FTW...
The Brady Bunch
ReplyDeleteThis may be a little too late, but the only show I remember being cursed, other than Family Affair, was Different Strokes.
ReplyDeleteNever heard or seen Famiky Affair, but now I have the Sly and the Family song stuck in my head.
ReplyDeleteForced sex is called rape, Enty.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember Sherry Jackson of Make Room for Daddy? She was the oldest child of the family.
ReplyDeleteThis is so horribly sad. I hope she sells this and knocks Hollywood onto it's ass.
ReplyDeleteNone of you got it. Bonanza
ReplyDeleteI find it very hard to believe producers were lined up to molest Buffy and Jodi. Jodi was the only boy in the cast, and the blind says
ReplyDeleteboys,
Has to be a show with older kids/teens.
I thought it read 'extras', not necessarily regular cast members.
Delete