...all long pig, all the time... (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
froodle) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
eerieindiana2020-06-07 08:46 am
froodle) wrote in eerieindiana2020-06-07 08:46 am
Washington Post on John Astin as Eerie Indiana's Mister Radford
Once he was Gomez Addams, the very embodiment of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams' strange-but-devoted pater familius.
Once he was a Washington Post carrier too. But more about that later.
Now John Astin is part of NBC's fantasy series, "Eerie, Indiana," playing Radford, the quirky proprietor of The World of Stuff, the ultimate convenience store. Radford, with his crooked smile and piercing eyes, is someone who'll listen to 13-year-old Marshall Teller, played by series star Omri Katz, a kid-detective who believes that his family's new home town is the center of world weirdness. Justin Shenkarow plays Marshall's younger pal, Simon Holmes.
It's a move that NBC hopes will broaden the appeal of a show that operates on one level for kids and another for adults, but has disastrous ratings.
Astin doesn't show up in this week's story but will in subsequent installments. "Eerie, Indiana" may be his best TV venue since "The Addams Family" ran on ABC back in 1964-66.
To understand Astin, begin with a quotation from a UPI interview that he also chose for his entry in "Who's Who in America": "It's important to understand that the world is, for the most part, a collective madhouse, and that practically everyone, however 'normal' his facade, is faking sanity. One must try to recognize these aberrations, for they can be the enemy of love."
"The quote has been with me for some time," said Astin. "I stand by it. I modify it, expand on it, because I've learned a little something in the last 20 years, hopefully. Falsely, deluded, we may erect a partition between the sane and insane, the right people and the wrong people, but we're all part of the human race and these distinctions are in many ways artificial.
"A good deed is a positive manifestation of life; a crime is a negative manifestation of the life force. The good and the evil affect all of us whether we know it or not. Rather than resorting to retaliation in moments of crisis, if we can understand that we are what we do, and if we try willfully to damage another human being, we are only creating damage in our own lives. There's no such thing as happiness at the expense of someone else.
Sections
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Get 1 year for $29
JOHN ASTIN JOINS 'EERIE' AS AVUNCULAR SHOPKEEPER
By Patricia BrennanMarch 15, 1992
Once he was Gomez Addams, the very embodiment of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams' strange-but-devoted pater familius.
Once he was a Washington Post carrier too. But more about that later.
Now John Astin is part of NBC's fantasy series, "Eerie, Indiana," playing Radford, the quirky proprietor of The World of Stuff, the ultimate convenience store. Radford, with his crooked smile and piercing eyes, is someone who'll listen to 13-year-old Marshall Teller, played by series star Omri Katz, a kid-detective who believes that his family's new home town is the center of world weirdness. Justin Shenkarow plays Marshall's younger pal, Simon Holmes.
It's a move that NBC hopes will broaden the appeal of a show that operates on one level for kids and another for adults, but has disastrous ratings.
Astin doesn't show up in this week's story but will in subsequent installments. "Eerie, Indiana" may be his best TV venue since "The Addams Family" ran on ABC back in 1964-66.
To understand Astin, begin with a quotation from a UPI interview that he also chose for his entry in "Who's Who in America": "It's important to understand that the world is, for the most part, a collective madhouse, and that practically everyone, however 'normal' his facade, is faking sanity. One must try to recognize these aberrations, for they can be the enemy of love."
"The quote has been with me for some time," said Astin. "I stand by it. I modify it, expand on it, because I've learned a little something in the last 20 years, hopefully. Falsely, deluded, we may erect a partition between the sane and insane, the right people and the wrong people, but we're all part of the human race and these distinctions are in many ways artificial.
"A good deed is a positive manifestation of life; a crime is a negative manifestation of the life force. The good and the evil affect all of us whether we know it or not. Rather than resorting to retaliation in moments of crisis, if we can understand that we are what we do, and if we try willfully to damage another human being, we are only creating damage in our own lives. There's no such thing as happiness at the expense of someone else.
"Many of us live with delusion, and I think one of these delusions is that we are somehow separate from everything else that happens in the world, that we are somehow isolated, that suffering people are not part of our lives, that it's best to wall ourselves off from that. I think that good shows -- that is, art and culture -- are a way of reminding all of us that we're basically cut from the same cloth, and in fact, maybe we're all interwoven in the same bolt of material. Beyond that, maybe our past, present and future is all part of the same cloth."
John Allen Astin, 62 this month, was born in Baltimore but grew up in the District on Harrison Street NW, and went to Janney Elementary School. When he was 12, the family moved to Battery Lane in Bethesda -- his father worked for the Bureau of Standards -- and John transferred to Bethesda Elementary, then Wieland Junior High School and Wilson High School. (He hitchhiked back across the District line to attend Wilson, he said, because friends were enrolled there.)
As a teenager, Astin delivered District newspapers: first the Daily News, then the Herald -- later the Times-Herald, he recalled -- and the Star.
Sections
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Get 1 year for $29
JOHN ASTIN JOINS 'EERIE' AS AVUNCULAR SHOPKEEPER
By Patricia BrennanMarch 15, 1992
Once he was Gomez Addams, the very embodiment of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams' strange-but-devoted pater familius.
Once he was a Washington Post carrier too. But more about that later.
Now John Astin is part of NBC's fantasy series, "Eerie, Indiana," playing Radford, the quirky proprietor of The World of Stuff, the ultimate convenience store. Radford, with his crooked smile and piercing eyes, is someone who'll listen to 13-year-old Marshall Teller, played by series star Omri Katz, a kid-detective who believes that his family's new home town is the center of world weirdness. Justin Shenkarow plays Marshall's younger pal, Simon Holmes.
It's a move that NBC hopes will broaden the appeal of a show that operates on one level for kids and another for adults, but has disastrous ratings.
Astin doesn't show up in this week's story but will in subsequent installments. "Eerie, Indiana" may be his best TV venue since "The Addams Family" ran on ABC back in 1964-66.
To understand Astin, begin with a quotation from a UPI interview that he also chose for his entry in "Who's Who in America": "It's important to understand that the world is, for the most part, a collective madhouse, and that practically everyone, however 'normal' his facade, is faking sanity. One must try to recognize these aberrations, for they can be the enemy of love."
"The quote has been with me for some time," said Astin. "I stand by it. I modify it, expand on it, because I've learned a little something in the last 20 years, hopefully. Falsely, deluded, we may erect a partition between the sane and insane, the right people and the wrong people, but we're all part of the human race and these distinctions are in many ways artificial.
"A good deed is a positive manifestation of life; a crime is a negative manifestation of the life force. The good and the evil affect all of us whether we know it or not. Rather than resorting to retaliation in moments of crisis, if we can understand that we are what we do, and if we try willfully to damage another human being, we are only creating damage in our own lives. There's no such thing as happiness at the expense of someone else.
"Many of us live with delusion, and I think one of these delusions is that we are somehow separate from everything else that happens in the world, that we are somehow isolated, that suffering people are not part of our lives, that it's best to wall ourselves off from that. I think that good shows -- that is, art and culture -- are a way of reminding all of us that we're basically cut from the same cloth, and in fact, maybe we're all interwoven in the same bolt of material. Beyond that, maybe our past, present and future is all part of the same cloth."
John Allen Astin, 62 this month, was born in Baltimore but grew up in the District on Harrison Street NW, and went to Janney Elementary School. When he was 12, the family moved to Battery Lane in Bethesda -- his father worked for the Bureau of Standards -- and John transferred to Bethesda Elementary, then Wieland Junior High School and Wilson High School. (He hitchhiked back across the District line to attend Wilson, he said, because friends were enrolled there.)
As a teenager, Astin delivered District newspapers: first the Daily News, then the Herald -- later the Times-Herald, he recalled -- and the Star.
"Finally I graduated to The Post," he said. "We used to call it 'serving papers.' I served the Star and I served The Post. They dropped off 100 papers at Old Georgetown Road and Battery Lane, on the northwest corner. I would fold them, and when it was raining we'd have to find a sheltered place to put them."
Not long ago Astin and his third wife, Valerie Sandobal, were back in the District when he decided to revisit his old Harrison Street house. "They let me come in the place," he said. "Three young students living there, and they let me come in there. What a thrill." He didn't tell the occupants who he was, he said. "I never brought it up and they didn't either. But my wife said, 'That's how you got in, John.'"
Astin went on to Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania on a mathematics scholarship; transferred to Johns Hopkins University to earn a degree in drama in 1952, and did graduate work at the University of Minnesota, touring with the university's troupe. But he listened when a professor advised him to "go out into the world."
Astin went to New York and began his career, appearing first on the stage, then in movies and on television. But it was "The Addams Family" that brought him success.
Carolyn Jones, who became his friend, played his wife Morticia; Jackie Coogan was Uncle Fester, Ted Cassidy was both Lurch the butler and Thing. The mcabre father included children Pugsley and Wednesday, and Grandmama, a witch.
Now, Astin joins "Eerie," a show he'd never watched because he was a devotee of its competitor, CBS' "60 Minutes." But he was so intrigued when he watched cassettes the producers sent him, he decided to sign on.
"Just to help this show is worthwhile, because this is a show with value and real entertainment," he said. "It's a combination of 'Night Gallery' and 'Wonder Years' and 'Tom Sawyer.' My character is a sort of an uncle-type adult that kids can talk to when they feel strange about talking to their parents. I feel that 'Eerie' is a metaphor for the adult world to a young person."
Once he was a Washington Post carrier too. But more about that later.
Now John Astin is part of NBC's fantasy series, "Eerie, Indiana," playing Radford, the quirky proprietor of The World of Stuff, the ultimate convenience store. Radford, with his crooked smile and piercing eyes, is someone who'll listen to 13-year-old Marshall Teller, played by series star Omri Katz, a kid-detective who believes that his family's new home town is the center of world weirdness. Justin Shenkarow plays Marshall's younger pal, Simon Holmes.
It's a move that NBC hopes will broaden the appeal of a show that operates on one level for kids and another for adults, but has disastrous ratings.
Astin doesn't show up in this week's story but will in subsequent installments. "Eerie, Indiana" may be his best TV venue since "The Addams Family" ran on ABC back in 1964-66.
To understand Astin, begin with a quotation from a UPI interview that he also chose for his entry in "Who's Who in America": "It's important to understand that the world is, for the most part, a collective madhouse, and that practically everyone, however 'normal' his facade, is faking sanity. One must try to recognize these aberrations, for they can be the enemy of love."
"The quote has been with me for some time," said Astin. "I stand by it. I modify it, expand on it, because I've learned a little something in the last 20 years, hopefully. Falsely, deluded, we may erect a partition between the sane and insane, the right people and the wrong people, but we're all part of the human race and these distinctions are in many ways artificial.
"A good deed is a positive manifestation of life; a crime is a negative manifestation of the life force. The good and the evil affect all of us whether we know it or not. Rather than resorting to retaliation in moments of crisis, if we can understand that we are what we do, and if we try willfully to damage another human being, we are only creating damage in our own lives. There's no such thing as happiness at the expense of someone else.
Sections
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Get 1 year for $29
JOHN ASTIN JOINS 'EERIE' AS AVUNCULAR SHOPKEEPER
By Patricia BrennanMarch 15, 1992
Once he was Gomez Addams, the very embodiment of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams' strange-but-devoted pater familius.
Once he was a Washington Post carrier too. But more about that later.
Now John Astin is part of NBC's fantasy series, "Eerie, Indiana," playing Radford, the quirky proprietor of The World of Stuff, the ultimate convenience store. Radford, with his crooked smile and piercing eyes, is someone who'll listen to 13-year-old Marshall Teller, played by series star Omri Katz, a kid-detective who believes that his family's new home town is the center of world weirdness. Justin Shenkarow plays Marshall's younger pal, Simon Holmes.
It's a move that NBC hopes will broaden the appeal of a show that operates on one level for kids and another for adults, but has disastrous ratings.
Astin doesn't show up in this week's story but will in subsequent installments. "Eerie, Indiana" may be his best TV venue since "The Addams Family" ran on ABC back in 1964-66.
To understand Astin, begin with a quotation from a UPI interview that he also chose for his entry in "Who's Who in America": "It's important to understand that the world is, for the most part, a collective madhouse, and that practically everyone, however 'normal' his facade, is faking sanity. One must try to recognize these aberrations, for they can be the enemy of love."
"The quote has been with me for some time," said Astin. "I stand by it. I modify it, expand on it, because I've learned a little something in the last 20 years, hopefully. Falsely, deluded, we may erect a partition between the sane and insane, the right people and the wrong people, but we're all part of the human race and these distinctions are in many ways artificial.
"A good deed is a positive manifestation of life; a crime is a negative manifestation of the life force. The good and the evil affect all of us whether we know it or not. Rather than resorting to retaliation in moments of crisis, if we can understand that we are what we do, and if we try willfully to damage another human being, we are only creating damage in our own lives. There's no such thing as happiness at the expense of someone else.
"Many of us live with delusion, and I think one of these delusions is that we are somehow separate from everything else that happens in the world, that we are somehow isolated, that suffering people are not part of our lives, that it's best to wall ourselves off from that. I think that good shows -- that is, art and culture -- are a way of reminding all of us that we're basically cut from the same cloth, and in fact, maybe we're all interwoven in the same bolt of material. Beyond that, maybe our past, present and future is all part of the same cloth."
John Allen Astin, 62 this month, was born in Baltimore but grew up in the District on Harrison Street NW, and went to Janney Elementary School. When he was 12, the family moved to Battery Lane in Bethesda -- his father worked for the Bureau of Standards -- and John transferred to Bethesda Elementary, then Wieland Junior High School and Wilson High School. (He hitchhiked back across the District line to attend Wilson, he said, because friends were enrolled there.)
As a teenager, Astin delivered District newspapers: first the Daily News, then the Herald -- later the Times-Herald, he recalled -- and the Star.
Sections
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Get 1 year for $29
JOHN ASTIN JOINS 'EERIE' AS AVUNCULAR SHOPKEEPER
By Patricia BrennanMarch 15, 1992
Once he was Gomez Addams, the very embodiment of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams' strange-but-devoted pater familius.
Once he was a Washington Post carrier too. But more about that later.
Now John Astin is part of NBC's fantasy series, "Eerie, Indiana," playing Radford, the quirky proprietor of The World of Stuff, the ultimate convenience store. Radford, with his crooked smile and piercing eyes, is someone who'll listen to 13-year-old Marshall Teller, played by series star Omri Katz, a kid-detective who believes that his family's new home town is the center of world weirdness. Justin Shenkarow plays Marshall's younger pal, Simon Holmes.
It's a move that NBC hopes will broaden the appeal of a show that operates on one level for kids and another for adults, but has disastrous ratings.
Astin doesn't show up in this week's story but will in subsequent installments. "Eerie, Indiana" may be his best TV venue since "The Addams Family" ran on ABC back in 1964-66.
To understand Astin, begin with a quotation from a UPI interview that he also chose for his entry in "Who's Who in America": "It's important to understand that the world is, for the most part, a collective madhouse, and that practically everyone, however 'normal' his facade, is faking sanity. One must try to recognize these aberrations, for they can be the enemy of love."
"The quote has been with me for some time," said Astin. "I stand by it. I modify it, expand on it, because I've learned a little something in the last 20 years, hopefully. Falsely, deluded, we may erect a partition between the sane and insane, the right people and the wrong people, but we're all part of the human race and these distinctions are in many ways artificial.
"A good deed is a positive manifestation of life; a crime is a negative manifestation of the life force. The good and the evil affect all of us whether we know it or not. Rather than resorting to retaliation in moments of crisis, if we can understand that we are what we do, and if we try willfully to damage another human being, we are only creating damage in our own lives. There's no such thing as happiness at the expense of someone else.
"Many of us live with delusion, and I think one of these delusions is that we are somehow separate from everything else that happens in the world, that we are somehow isolated, that suffering people are not part of our lives, that it's best to wall ourselves off from that. I think that good shows -- that is, art and culture -- are a way of reminding all of us that we're basically cut from the same cloth, and in fact, maybe we're all interwoven in the same bolt of material. Beyond that, maybe our past, present and future is all part of the same cloth."
John Allen Astin, 62 this month, was born in Baltimore but grew up in the District on Harrison Street NW, and went to Janney Elementary School. When he was 12, the family moved to Battery Lane in Bethesda -- his father worked for the Bureau of Standards -- and John transferred to Bethesda Elementary, then Wieland Junior High School and Wilson High School. (He hitchhiked back across the District line to attend Wilson, he said, because friends were enrolled there.)
As a teenager, Astin delivered District newspapers: first the Daily News, then the Herald -- later the Times-Herald, he recalled -- and the Star.
"Finally I graduated to The Post," he said. "We used to call it 'serving papers.' I served the Star and I served The Post. They dropped off 100 papers at Old Georgetown Road and Battery Lane, on the northwest corner. I would fold them, and when it was raining we'd have to find a sheltered place to put them."
Not long ago Astin and his third wife, Valerie Sandobal, were back in the District when he decided to revisit his old Harrison Street house. "They let me come in the place," he said. "Three young students living there, and they let me come in there. What a thrill." He didn't tell the occupants who he was, he said. "I never brought it up and they didn't either. But my wife said, 'That's how you got in, John.'"
Astin went on to Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania on a mathematics scholarship; transferred to Johns Hopkins University to earn a degree in drama in 1952, and did graduate work at the University of Minnesota, touring with the university's troupe. But he listened when a professor advised him to "go out into the world."
Astin went to New York and began his career, appearing first on the stage, then in movies and on television. But it was "The Addams Family" that brought him success.
Carolyn Jones, who became his friend, played his wife Morticia; Jackie Coogan was Uncle Fester, Ted Cassidy was both Lurch the butler and Thing. The mcabre father included children Pugsley and Wednesday, and Grandmama, a witch.
Now, Astin joins "Eerie," a show he'd never watched because he was a devotee of its competitor, CBS' "60 Minutes." But he was so intrigued when he watched cassettes the producers sent him, he decided to sign on.
"Just to help this show is worthwhile, because this is a show with value and real entertainment," he said. "It's a combination of 'Night Gallery' and 'Wonder Years' and 'Tom Sawyer.' My character is a sort of an uncle-type adult that kids can talk to when they feel strange about talking to their parents. I feel that 'Eerie' is a metaphor for the adult world to a young person."