Some years ago Mary and I were in New York and heard that Dick Van Patten, star of "Eight is Enough", would be speaking at a showing of "Mama", the television series based on John Van Druten's award winning play, starring Peggy Wood, that ran from 1949 to 1957, sponsored by "Maxwell House Coffee!". My sisters and I watched it religiously - the story of a Norwegian immigrant family living in San Francisco, based on the best selling memoir "Mama's Bank Account" by Kathryn Forbes. Yes, it was corny. But we were corny. America was corny.
So Mary and I go down to the new Museum of Broadcasting, now the Paley Center for Media, and before they show the episode there's a wonderful live interview with Dick Van Patten, "Nels" himself, who is a most charming and jovial gentleman, who tells the story of his audition for the show. To paraphrase Mr. Van Patten...
"I was very lucky as a young man starting out. I was Dickie Van Patten, and I did quite a few plays in New York and even on Broadway. Then I hit my teens, and I was called by my agent to read for a part in "Mama", based on the play "I Remember Mama" that had been a big hit on Broadway with Mady Christians, and then as a film with Irene Dunne. A very young Marlon Brando had played Nels on Broadway.
It was 1949, and there was this new thing called "television" that everyone was excited about. And this was to be a "series" of shows. I was so excited to be able to read for it, and then over the moon when I got the part! Life was golden, the show was a hit, and we had a wonderful eight year run. The cast was a delight to work with. We all looked forward to shooting every episode. And when the run ended in 1957 we were sad, but so grateful we'd had the opportunity.
I was drafted at one point during the run of the show, and went over to New Jersey to report. There was a good looking young kid who was always hanging around and wanted so badly to act that I suggested he replace me, and he did. But because I was sole support of my mother I didn't have to serve and I came back, and the kid was so angry. He was Jimmy Dean. Nels' friends on the show, by the way, were Paul Newman and Jack Lemmon.
But when it was over, it was rough. What to do with a bald "Dickie Van Patten". I did a series with Mel Brooks, as Friar Tuck. I was working around, but not much seemed to be panning out. And then, just as I was thinking "what's the use", I got a call to audition for a new TV show called "Eight is Enough", as "the Dad". The Dad? I went.
I went out onto the stage with my script. Not at all hopeful. And as I started to read, from out of the darkness of the theater came a voice "It's Nels! It's Nels!"
Brandon Tartikoff, the wunderkind Head of Entertainment for NBC was watching the auditions. Now if you read his biography, he was known for watching everything he could find on television from the time he was born, which was 1949. He had been weaned on "Mama", and his boyhood hero - was "Nels".
Needless to say he was so excited about having Nels in his new show that we "just had to make it happen". And it did. "Eight is Enough" was a hit. It changed my life. And it taught me that you never know. You should always "show up", because you never know who'll be watching" - ld
Join us on November 16 at 7 and November 17 at 3 for our "Women's Project". A Readers Theater presentation of the original play, "I Remember Mama", directed by Mary Chalon, at Parson's Nose Theater. Tickets? or call 626-345-5116,
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