RIP: Florence Henderson and Ron Glass

Two mainstays of my TV consumption passed away over the holiday weekend.

Florence Henderson of course was always Mrs. Brady from the cheesy The Brady Bunch, the sitcom family I think many of us in Gen X wanted to belong to. Never mind that house having only one bathroom and no toilet. Another reason I probably thought she was an unreal, ideal mom was the fact she never yelled at the kids. Afterwards, Florence did commercials for Wesson cooking oil. This gig led to a hilarious blooper shown on Dick Clark’s compilation show. She flubbed a line, cursed, noticed the look in the eyes of the children starring with her and sang, “Mrs. Brady sweared.”

Ron Glass will always be Detective Ron Harris of Barney Miller, the stylish officer with the nice suit who was writing a fictional novel on the side. They finally got Ron a great comic foil with the addition of the late Steve Landesberg as Detective Arthur Dietrich. This got highlighted in an episode with both of them being holed up with a suspect in a safe house. The other funny incident playing on his obsession over his wardrobe was when he returned from chasing a suspect through NYC’s sewers…and he slipped. After the sitcom was cancelled, I recall him being Felix Unger in a new version of The Odd Couple and numerous guest appearances. I do know of his recurring gig on Firefly but I only saw the movie.

Thanks Ron and Florence for making my childhood amusing!

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