Thursday, February 25, 2021

Thursday Movie Picks #346: Love Triangles (TV edition)

This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. It's the last Thursday of the month, which means it's time for a TV-themed edition of the blogathon. And since we're still in February, we've got more romantic tropes. So this time, it's the love triangle. I have to admit this was a rather difficult one for me. I had to stretch way back to get one, and stretch the theme for another:

The Many Wives of Patrick (1976-1978). I'll be extremely surprised if anybody else has heard of this one. The local PBS station had this one on many years ago as one of their Britcoms. Patrick Cargill plays Patrick, whose sixth marriage is currently marrying but who can't afford to pay alimony to yet another ex-wife, so he's trying to come up with some way to get wife #6 to initiate proceedings so he can remarry wife #1. Along the way, wives #2-5 pop in and out. A YouTube search only revealed one clip and no theme. And I actually had to do a search on the title to make certain I even had it right.

3's a Crowd (1979-1980). From the incredibly tasteless mind of Chuck Barris comes this take on The Newlywed Game, but with the questions being asked of two teams of three, each consisting of a man, his wife, and his secretary. No Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, or Jean Harlow here. You can see why people would find this offensive, especially when questions were designed to create conflict. Game Show Network did a retooled and watered-down version of the show in 1999, and neither is to be confused with the other Three's a Crowd, which was the successor to Three's Company and had John Ritter married to Mary Cadorette with father-in-law Robert Mandan.

Big Love (2006-2011). Bill Paxton is part of a fundamentalist Mormon sect and has three wives. Multiple wives equals love triangle, or some more complex shape. And who wants to deal with more than one mother-in-law?

5 comments:

joel65913 said...

I'm only familiar with Big Love. I saw a couple episodes somewhere but was never a faithful viewer, it did have a good cast and an intriguing premise.

The first sound fun and kind of charming, the second.....doesn't! I do like the allusion to Wife vs. Secretary though. That's a fun film.

This one was tough for me too, I ended up going to early TV that I watched in reruns.

Our Miss Brooks (1952-1956)-High school English teacher Constance Brooks (Eve Arden) is hopelessly enamored with handsome but obtuse science teacher Phillip Boynton (Robert Rockwell). They exist in a sort of limbo land where Mr. Boynton takes it for granted that Miss Brooks will always be there. That is until Connie moves to a new school and the gym teacher Gene Talbot (Gene Barry) tries to sweep her off her feet. At last Boynton’s dander is riled up enough to fight for her.

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963)-High school student Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) is hopelessly in love with Thalia Menninger (Tuesday Weld) who hardly acknowledges his existence while Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James) likewise pines for him. Even after Thalia moves away and Dobie, as the title says, constantly falls for a series of beautiful and unattainable girls Zelda continues to yearn.

Petticoat Junction (1963-1970)-When crop duster Steve Elliott’s (Mike Minor) plane crashes near the Shady Rest Hotel in Hooterville he’s taken in to recover by proprietress Kate Bradley (Bea Benaderet) and her three daughters Billie Jo (Meredith MacRae), Bobbie Jo (Lori Saunders) and Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning). During his convalescence he and Billie Jo start to date but once he decides to stay in town, he realizes it’s Betty Jo that he really loves.

Sara said...

I've only heard of Big Love! The Many Wives of Patrick sounds fascinating though.

Getter said...

Haven't heard of any of these.... lol

Brittani Burnham said...

I saw a few episodes of Big Love but never watched it week to week. I did enjoy what I saw, it seemed interesting.

ThePunkTheory said...

"who wants to deal with more than one mother-in-law?" I am wheezing! 😅