GROUCHO MEETS HONEY WEST?

Before ‘Honey West’ was a TV series (see previous two posts) it was a series of detective novels. The writer of these books was G.G. Fickling, a pseudonym for husband and wife writing team Gloria and Forest E. ‘Skip’ Fickling. (Try saying ‘Skip Fickling’ five times fast. I dare you.) In 1959, six years before the ‘Honey West’ detective novels were turned into a television series, the Ficklings were guests on ‘You Bet Your Life’. Groucho doesn’t make mincemeat of their last name as you might expect. He does, however, get caught up in a strange set of ruminations on Honey’s measurements versus his own. He also throws down one of his rare dud puns; when asking why they named their character ‘Honey’, he adds ‘were you writing for ‘bee’ pictures?’ A puzzled Gloria Fickling responds: ‘not yet.’ And the show goes on. The guest after the Ficklings is Ronnie Schell from ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC’ (he once referred to himself as ‘America’s slowest rising comedian’). Ironically that was the show that knocked ‘Honey West’ off the air in 1966 after its one and only season. Show-bidness…

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