Geri Jewell, Cousin of Blair
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Okay, I’ll admit I was always a bit uncomfortable whenever Cousin Geri would show up at Leland Girls School on the TV series The Facts of Life. Her character was the cousin of teen socialite Blair Warner. Geri looked different and acted different because she had cerebral palsy…for real. But I can’t help but admire the producers of the show for bringing this disease into the public eye and at the same time give a chance to a talented comedienne with an alarming disability. Read the rest of this entry »
So who doesn’t love The Brady Bunch– either openly or secretly? I was actually a little later than some of my friends at getting into the series, not having watched my first episodes after school until about 1983 or so. But I quickly got hooked on the corny adventures of America’s favorite family with afros. I felt like I was right there being cool with Greg, being a loser with Peter, getting in the way with Bobby, drooling over Marcia, wanting Jan to fail miserably, and being protective of little Cindy. 
Most movie buffs would certainly recognize Richard Kiel as the notorious and dealdy villian Jaws from two James Bond films, The Spy Who Loved Me and Jaws. As seen at left, Kiel wore metal inserts in his mouth by which he could bite into victims’ jugular vein, rendering them slightly dead. Younger movie buffs would certainly know Kiel for his portrayal of Mr. Larson in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore. I’m ashamed to say that of the two, I knew him better from the latter film, never having been a big James Bond fan. 
Booth Colman doesn’t really have an instantly recognizable face. And that may be because his most famous role was that of Dr. Zaius in full ape regalia in Planet of the Apes. But Mr. Colman has had a rather lucrative career as a character actor in a slew of over 150 film and TV appearances. Most recently he has twice appeared as a judge in two of the Coen Brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There and Intolerable Cruelty. 
…to fill my day with love. Sometimes when I’ve left things to chance during my California visits, they don’t always work out as hope for. For instance, we when thought that Ray Bradbury would be present at one of his