Five Great Beah Richards Guest Appearances

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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.

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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.