Sitcoms Online - Main Page / Message Boards - Main Page / News Blog / Photo Galleries / DVD Reviews / Buy TV Shows on DVD and Blu-ray

View Today's Active Threads (No Chit Chat/Chit Chat Only) / View New Posts (No Chit Chat/Chit Chat Only) / Mark All Boards Read / Chit Chat Board

Benson (Sitcoms Online) / Benson links and theme songs at Sitcoms Online / Benson Photo Gallery


Benson - The Complete First Season

Buy Benson - The Complete First Season on DVD
Benson - The Complete Second Season

Buy Benson - The Complete Second Season on DVD
Benson - The Complete First Season (Mill Creek)

Buy Benson - The Complete First Season (Mill Creek) on DVD
Benson - The Complete Second Season (Mill Creek)

Buy Benson - The Complete Second Season (Mill Creek) on DVD
Benson - Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek)

Buy Benson - Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek) on DVD

Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums  

Go Back   Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums > 1980s Sitcoms > Benson
Register Community View Today's Active Threads (No CC/CC Only) Search Photo Galleries Calendar FAQ

Notices

SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Headlines Facebook X/Twitter Bluesky Threads Instagram YouTube RSS

HBO Max Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Six Feet Under; Netflix Orders Dealies
Additional Fox Summer 2026 Dates; BET's Lot Patrol Premiere Date
Kids Make Me Angry Sneak Peek; Shrinking Adds Karen Gillan for Season 4
Netflix's A Different World Premieres September 24; Ted Danson Joins Elizabeth Banks Apple TV Comedy
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of June 1, 2026)
SitcomsOnline Digest: New Episodes of The Simpsons Headed Exclusively to Disney+; Release Date Set for Reboot of A Different World
Disney+ Announces Brand New The Simpsons Episodes; Remembering the Sitcom Stars and Crew Members We Recently Lost


New on DVD and Blu-ray

Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD) I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD) The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)

11/04/25 - Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - Rick and Morty - Season 8 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fifteenth Season (DVD)
11/11/25 - Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/02/25 - Tom and Jerry - The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
12/16/25 - Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/16/25 - Wally Gator - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
01/20/26 - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (Blu-ray)
01/27/26 - The New Fred and Barney Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/11/26 - Tom and Jerry - The Complete CinemaScope Collection (Blu-ray)
03/24/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
04/11/26 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
04/21/26 - Famous Studios Champion Collection (Blu-ray) (DVD)
05/19/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD)
05/19/26 - Looney Tunes Cartoons - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
07/14/26 - The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)
07/28/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive


Search Sitcoms Online:



Donate

Please make a donation if you can help with Sitcoms Online's web hosting costs. Thanks for your support!

We receive a small commission on all DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Books, and any other items ordered through our Amazon.com links as an associate. Thanks for using our links for your online shopping!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 02-04-2023, 07:15 AM   #1
TMC
Member
Forum Idol
 
Join Date: Jan 09, 2001
Posts: 124,452
Default Five Great Beah Richards Guest Appearances

https://popculturereferences.com/fiv...t-appearances/

Quote:
In a feature spotlighting character actors who routinely do strong guest appearances on TV series, Brian spotlights five fine TV performances by Beah Richards

Today, we look at five great guest appearances by Beah Richards.

This is “Following a Star,” a new feature where I spotlight five great guest spots by an actor who frequently did/does guest spots on TV series in their careers. It doesn’t mean that they’ve NEVER been regulars on shows, but obviously I’m not looking to spotlight people who are best known for their regular TV roles (like no Jason Alexander or Florence Henderson, for instance).

Since this is Black History Month, I’ll specifically spotlight Black character actors this month.

Beah Richards is a great example of how theater actors are treated in Hollywood. She was one of the most impressive theater performers of her generation, as well as an acclaimed poet, and yet when it came to television and film, she mostly played people’s mothers. But hey, she at least played the hell out of it! Plus, later in life, she won two Emmys for two outstanding guest performances where she did so much with very little (actually, “Doing so much with so little” is a hallmark of a number of these performances I’m about to share).

(As an aside, I initially opened with Richards’ performance in The Big Valley Season 1’s “Boots With My Father’s Name,” but I dunno, man, it’s a nice over-the-top performance in a role written WAY over-the-top, but it was just a biiiiiiit too close to a caricature for my comfort, so I’m not using it. Still, if you ever want to check the episode out, Richards does an interesting job with a not-so-great part. Jeanne Cooper does the same with her role in the episode).

Benson (Lois DuBois)



In Benson Season 2’s “No Sad Songs,” Richards has a tough task. She plays Benson’s mother (again, she played EVERYone’s mother. She once joked about the amount of great actors she played the mother of over the years), but she also dies midway through the episode, so she has to make enough of an impression in that half of an episode for us to both A. mourn her but also, perhaps even more importantly, B. see why Benson is having such a hard time with her death, in that their relationship wasn’t necessarily entirely a pleasant one. She does a great job. She returned for a later episode for a Christmas dream story.
TMC is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2024, 07:11 AM   #2
TMC
Member
Forum Idol
 
Join Date: Jan 09, 2001
Posts: 124,452
Default

https://popculturereferences.com/two...-no-sad-songs/

Quote:
Two Powerful Central Performances Highlighted Benson’s ‘No Sad Songs’

In a feature spotlighting the best pop culture has to offer, Brian examines a powerful Benson episode highlighted by great performances by Beah Richards and Robert Guillaume.



Today, we look at a powerful Benson episode highlighted by great performances by Beah Richards and Robert Guillaume

This is “All the Best Things,” a spotlight on the best TV episodes, movies, albums, etc.

This is a Year of Great TV Episodes, where every day this year, we’ll take a look at great TV episodes. Note that I’m not talking about “Very Special Episodes” or episodes built around gimmicks, but just “normal” episodes of TV shows that are notable only because of how good they are.

All this month, I’ll be spotlighting great Black-centric TV episodes.

Benson was one of those TV shows where the acting really sold the heck out of the story, which really wasn’t all that distinctive. After playing the butler on the soap opera parody series, Soap,
Robert Guillaume was given this spinoff, where he becomes the head of household for a Governor. The series revolved around the personality clashes between Benson and the other members of the Governor’s staff, from his officious Chief of Staff Clayton Endicott III (René Auberjonois) to his German cook, Gretchen Kraus (Inga Swenson), who would routinely trade insults with Benson (although there obviously was a mutual respect hidden underneath the barbs).

In this Season 2 episode, “No Sad Songs,” in March 1981, Benson is visited by his mother, played by the brilliant Beah Richards (Guillame was 53 at the time of the episode, and Richards was 60, but eh, sexism is as sexism does), who he hasn’t seen in three years.

They have a nice visit, but there are clearly some sharp edges to their relationship, mainly the fact that Benson hasn’t gotten married or had children (and, of course, the fact that he hasn’t seen her in three years). So therefore, when she dies suddenly, he is left tremendously out of sorts, as he had so much that he specifically wanted to talk to her about in just THIS trip, let alone in future discussions, and he can’t deal with the sudden loss.

Benson’s default position is stoic, and that’s his reaction to his mother’s death, but he allows himself to cry after asking for some sort of sign about faith, and then his cab driver shows up to take him to the airport, and the driver mentions that he hates flying, and prefers the train, but acknowledges that sometimes you just have to have faith. This was the sign Benson was waiting for, and he begins to gently cry (even his crying is stoic).

It’s a powerful episode, and Richards’ presence was so great. She would return for a later episode that got even deeper into the problems she and Benson had with each other (via a dream sequence), but, well, you know me, I hate me some dream sequences, so I’m not featuring that one.
TMC is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:28 AM.


Although the administrators and moderators of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards, nor vBulletin Solutions Inc. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message. The owners of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2026, vBulletin Solutions Inc.