The Albuquerque Tribune du lieu suivant : Albuquerque, New Mexico • 53

The Albuquerque Tribune Saturday April 12 1986 Betty's voice: it's a laughing matter funny how seemingly insignificant occurrences can have such profound effects on our history and our culture Here for example is a sobering thought possible that if Gerry parents had been able to find a baby-sitter one night many years ago Betty Rubble of would not have giggled quite the way she did in the '60s When Johnson was 3 years old her parents took her to a movie theater They want to but no sitter was available Her parents expected young Gerry to fall asleep after a few minutes Instead she sat there with rapt attention watching the entire movie (she remember what it was but it starred Jeanette MacDonald) and a live appearance by Maurice Chevalier "I went home with a Maurice Chevalier accent" Johnson said during a visit in Albuquerque this week when my interest in show business started From then on I never thought of doing anything For the want of a baby-sitter a career was launched that would include work on stage screen and television stints as the host of television shows in Dallas and Los Angeles and perhaps most important the part of voice in the popular TV cartoon series "The which was aired by ABC on Friday nights from 1960 to 1966 made TV history as the longest-running Gerry Johnson (left) and her most without getting paid more she usually supplied voices for sever- The she said al characters besides Betty She "the characters not the people mind who were the voices were the "It made it more interesting than just doing Betty Rubble all Now she is developing a night-the club act Johnson did voice for "I'm not fond of working in the 1966 feature-length cartoon "A she said not too Man Called and the fond of the setting the noise voice of a "little Southern belle people drinking But be and other characters for ing and doing a little dancing and the 1964 cartoon feature "Hey using character voices be There Yogi doing marvelous comedy songs She said she enjoyed working because I think comedy is where I on "The Flintstones but admit- ted she missed the publicity CBS Anyone who has ever heard had been giving her when she was Betty Rubble giggle will agree host of the "Panorama with that studying speech and drama at Stanford University and performing everything from Noel Coward to William Shakespeare on stage and they were invaluable for tne characters she created for her TV shows In Dallas in the 'SOs she hosted sang and danced and did skits on the daily "Gerry Johnson Variety and starred in a weekly prime-time sitcom called Gerry Johnson It was during this time that TV Guide gave her an award as "Outstanding TV Personality in the Southwest" The early '60s found her in Los Angeles hosting a daily talk and variety show called "Panorama One day Barbera was a guest on the show I asked him to bring his sketch i draw something and jld it up for me to see and say 'What do you think of show me a picture of a pompous dowager chicken and I'd do a voice I thought would fit the picture Then he'd do a French poodle and do another Barbera was impressed Be-naderet was about to leave "The and he offered her job to Johnson She remembers what it was like doing a show "We all came in and sat at a table and Joe would go through a script kind of mumbling it and holding up pictures of the charac she said Since Johnson was the cast member whose contract said she could do more than one voice revamp Nick Mancuso tered biography in order to infiltrate the assorted strongholds of the villains In the process he Invariably becomes Involved with a beautiful woman who realizing that she cannot possess him permanently is often left weeping at end As our hero drives off into the-' distance someone inevitably asks the equivalent of "Who was that masked man?" Gimmicks' is slick of tired formula prime-time cartoon series ever The William Hanna-Joseph Barbera production was patterned after Jackie situation comedy "The but it was set in prehistoric times Fred and Wilma Flintsone were the main cave couple Their neighbors were Barney and Betty Rubble Alan Reed did voice Jean VanderPyl was Wilma and the versatile Mel Blanc put the talk into Barney Bea Benaderet was voice from 1960-64 but when slue left the show Johnson took over "When Bea left they wanted me to do the voice like she did And I imitated it perfectly But then Joe (Barbera) said I think wrong We want your "I think Betty is a good-natured bubble head I did her with a giggle (she demonstrated) and that kind of set the tone for the character Betty didn't have opinions of her own or get mad at the boys (Fred and Barney) when they got into Johnson who was born in Jersey City NJ but grew up in Hollywood said she has been doing voices all her life She did them in skits at home and they came in handy when she was forward as an example of what Brandon Tartikoff president of NBC Entertainment deems his "quality bench" of programs waiting for a broadcast slot Brought back as the series premiere the two-hour movie came in No 47 out of 65 in the ratings Since then the regular weekly episodes have adhered to an already rigid formula The hero of is a mystery man who may or may not have ties with the United States government Like "The Equalizer" on CBS he is a vigilante offering his services free to people confronted by some or the bigger must promise tfiat if necessary they will do him a favor some day In the lead role only unchanging item of identification from week to week is a 1965 Corvette Stingray car which he keeps in gleaming mint condition This leaves him free to drive up to any situation and with some help from unnamed friends in top positions of power to assume any identity complete with an officially regia- famous character Betty Rubble a put the troublemaker in suit submerge it in water and increase the internal pressure until the helmet and head blew off The would-be heroine in this caper turned out to be working with the villains enabling somebody to observe that beauty is the Not surprisingly for this kind of macho fantasy many of the more alluring women turn out to be treacherous bimbos NBC is advertising as "something Obviously the same old nonsense done up in fashionable editing and electronic gear Songs the background cover a spectrum from the Rolling Stones to Jose Feliciano Intense close-ups are devoted to such glitzy objects as details on a Rolls-Royce car and the shoes and socks worn by Mancuso Ordinary movement such as walking across a room is edited into cubistic visuals often for no apparent reason than to keep the eyeballs agitated It can admittedly look good for a while But then it becomes apparent that Cannell is simply repackaging already remqiq-dered goods may change but formulas are forever A few weeks ago Mancuso turned up among a group of Mexican laborers working for the nastiest bunch of gringos this side of a spaghetti Western It turned out the slave masters were growing crops of "dope" and were quite capable of killing any of the workers who complained Recruiting an attractive Mexican-American woman who owed him a favor Mancuso set out to pose as a migrant worker She puzzled: "What is this He: "It Disneyland mi amor" The rest of the scenario included shootings explosions a near electrocution karate displays and ordinary fistfights After a final shootout with a tommy gun the hero got to say goodbye to the clearly disappointed heroine "You've paid your favor" he explained In a recent episode Mancuso managed to get behind the doors of a supposed environmental concern that was really siphoning millions of dollars in oil from a nearby exploring rig The way of getting rid of recalcitrant employees was to By JOHN TIm NY Timci New Service Stephen Cannell has looked at "Miami Vice" obviously and believes he has seen the future The producer of such "hard- hitting" shows RavIaw "The -A- Review Team" and Hunter" has now expanded his action domain on the NBC schedule with "Stingray" All three programs are broadcast on Tuesdays (on KOB-Ch 4 in Albuquerque) giving Cannell an unusual three of a kind on prime time Complete with Nick Mancuso as a dark-haired Don Johnson "Stingray" offered at 9 pm airs at 7 pm and at 8 pm) is awash in tight close-ups jumpy editing and poprock recordings all employed in the service of standard sex violence In the new television action formula the style is the substance "Stingray" was first seen last summer as a two-hour television movie that much to the surprise of NBC executives ranked second in the weekly ratings When the network decided in February to postpone giving the 'news show "American a weekly prime-time slot "Stingray" was quickly brought.