(Just to get it out of the way for anybody who doesn’t know, Dick Sergeant replaced Dick York as Elizabeth Montgomery’s husband Darrin in Bewitched in 1969)
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Comics I Don't Understand 
Wow! A 50 year old cultural reference. We must be in geezer territory.
I can add no more. I have no idea what’s going on in this comic.
I think it’s just that you’d think “the forgotten man” is a member of the downtrodden in our society, but it’s just the second Darrin, who is much less remembered than the first Darrin.
How “forgotten” can he be if we all know who he was 50 years later?
I find it difficult to distinguish one Dick from another Dick. However, out of 14 men (and two women) in this strip, I can recognize only three (the two leftmost and the grumpy guy with the hat in the middle). I assume that at least one of the women is a regular waitress, but I think the joke would have been better if most (if not all) of the faces were recognizable (minor) characters in the strip. Are there others that I missed?
B.A. I know that there were two Darrin’s, but I would only be able to recognize Dick York, not Dick Sergeant.
I’d think Dick York was the forgotten man. What grows stale faster than last year’s Dick?
I think I recognize Abe Vigoda next to the guy with the baseball cap, but otherwise I’m drawing a blank.
I think the artist read an article about TV shows that replaced actors of main characters and thought it would make a good comic.
I thought it was a reference to the Movie “My Man Godfrey”.
Two Dicks and Sergeant York.
Actually, his name was spelt Sargent.
So, I went to the comments section, in hopes of an explanation/identification of the characters. Nope, the commenters/trolls are fighting about the use of ‘man’ and the addition of ‘woman’. Talk about thread drift . . . and getting nasty about it, too. Nothing civil, as with CIDUers.
@ Kilby: I get that. It can be hard to get your Dicks straight.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, Google tells me that Dick Sargent’s real surname was Cox.
@B.A. “How “forgotten” can he be if we all know who he was 50 years later?”
Because he was so *memorably* forgettable?
(I guess, anyway — I never watched the show.)
@Kilby: OK, it’s an easy hit, but: Obviously you’ve forgotten the rest of them…
But yeah, this is incomprehensible.
The second Darrin was a mean little sarcastic alcoholic, and I noticed this even as a kid: the guy had no joy, was constantly forbidding Sam doing anything, and always needed his drink to be made into a double because his petty plans of control never quite worked out to his tyrannical satisfaction.
I never understood why, if you could do something easily and quickly with witchcraft, you would want to suppress doing so and do it the hard way. But then, I was an immigrant child and didn’t understand the underlying puritanism inherent in WASP culture. It was only when I watched the original B&W episodes as an adult (they didn’t rerun the non-color ones when I was a kid) that I saw the brilliant metaphor the show originally was about, of an immigrant wife marrying a WASP American, and the grief her weird, different family brought to her straight-laced WASP husband and his family; My Big Fat Greek Wedding done with the metaphor of witchcraft, because who wants to see foreigners on prime time TV in the 60s? That guy with the pointy ears, even though the most popular thing about that weird space show, was constantly a threat to the TV executives, who wanted him gone, or at least toned down (I mean, his ears! They’re pointy!) This, of course, after they got rid of the obvious non-starter of having a woman as second in command of that space ship!
I always thought it would be cute to take an episode of Mad Men and dub the dialog over footage from Bewitched (or maybe vice versa): You got the tall asshole ad-man with the blonde wife and the white-haired boss — I think it’d be brilliant.
(As for the comic, no idea! Are those all supposed to be recognizable TV characters who got replaced? If so, major fail for me, as I recognized not a one. And if not, what’s so clever about a soup kitchen (“Pauper’s Palace”) having a day of the forgotten man (and woman)? Isn’t that basically what they do every day? (I’d see the (and woman) bit as an extra joke on top of the main joke (the “b” story to the main joke’s “a” story, if you will) — the forgotten women is so much more forgotten that they even forgot her… But what is the “A” joke?! …12 chances, and I recognize not one?))
The drawing is so specific about the facial features, etc, I wonder if these were characters that were introduced in the strip and just never made it to regular status?
Regarding the “and woman”: I like this part of the joke. Regardless of your feelings about the desirability of using gender-neutral language, tacking on an extra bit at the end of the sign is a (humorous) attempt at inclusivity that’s actually more off-putting than the original sign.
A Jewish friend got a Christmas card where the sender had, in a genuine attempt to be considerate, had scratched out the part that said “Merry Christmas,” and written in “Happy Hannukah.” My friend appreciated the sentiment, but felt it would have made more sense to leave the card alone.
“How “forgotten” can he be if we all know who he was 50 years later?”
He was “forgotten” IN THE SHOW. Some other guy shows up, didn’t even look like him, and everyone just accepted the replacement, and didn’t notice any difference.
The more interestesting version of this was the reboot of “Roseanne”… when they started up production again, original Becky wanted to come back, making new Becky redundant. So they created a new character for Sarah Chalke to play.
You could argue that five different Lassies were the most forgotten.
“The Second Darrin” is well enough remembered to be a television trope: When they brought in a new Becky, they even made a “Second Darrin” reference in-show.
B.A. The existence of the second Darrin is very well-remembered. But I don’t think the specific person who played the second Darrin is well-remembered, or generally recognizable as Darrin.
Would you say you were well-remembered at work if people referred to you as “that guy who replaced Rick Bork in accounting?”
Being replaced in a TV show is one thing. How about being replaced in a movie series?
James Bond has been replaced so many times..
Batman has been Adam West, Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Christian Bale, Kevin Conroy, and Ben Affleck.
(Both of those leave uncounted stuntmen who played the character for just one scene)
Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes,
Anakin Skywalker has been played by no less than 8 actors.
Jake Lloyd in Phantom Menace, Hayden Christianson in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Matt Lanter in The Clone Wars, Dave Prowse and James Earl Jones in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, and Sebastian Shaw in Return of the Jedi. Spencer Wilding, Danial Naprous, and James Earl Jones again in Rogue One.
“… But what is the “A” joke?! …12 chances, and I recognize not one?”
The woman with a flower should be recognizable. But isn’t.
I do think this is characters who were replaced or introduced or dropped early or … trouble is that *none* of them are recognizable. Are any of these Archie Bunker’s bartender on “Archie Bunkers Place” are any of these the waitress who replace “Flo” on “Alice”. I’m not sure we’d be able to recognize any of them if the *were* drawn well. There’s a reason the were forgotten.
I was thinking of the parallel Becky Connors on Rosanne, Aunt Vivians on Fresh Prince, Marilyn Munsters … ?
The two men in the back row look to me like Richard Deacon (maybe) and Woody Allen, but that’s probably just coincidence since I don’t know how images of either one would fit the alleged overall purpose of the group.
No idea on anyone else, unless the guy at the far right is Bert Gordon in his “The Mad Russian” persona?
Basically, I got nuttin’.
” There’s a reason the were forgotten.”
The fact that your examples are four decades old, for example.
“I was thinking of the parallel Becky Connors on Rosanne, Aunt Vivians on Fresh Prince, Marilyn Munsters”
The youngest son on “The Partridge Family”
On Happy Days, there was a character who was frequently referred to, but never seen… Joanie Cunningham’s friend who got into all sorts of the trouble (again, all offscreen). Then, late in the series, as the original cast members were departing, they decided to actually cast that character and bring her onscreen. But I can’t, for the life of me, remember the character’s name.
There are some great characters in TV history who spent little, if any, actual time on-screen. Vera, Norm’s wife on Cheers. Wolowitz’s mother on Big Bang Theory. The Narrator, on Jane the Virgin. Future Ted, on How I Met Your Mother.
OK, I’ll stop the tangents, now. I think.
Are we adding Doctor Who to the list?
“Are we adding Doctor Who to the list?”
As the latter Doctors eclipsed the earlier ones and as this was a regular and expected thing and as *every* Doctor is remembered and loved and someone’s favorite, I don’t think so.
I keep thinking the guy in the baseball hat is Rick Nielson.
“As the latter Doctors eclipsed the earlier ones and as this was a regular and expected thing and as *every* Doctor is remembered and loved and someone’s favorite, I don’t think so.”
The earlier series are gone, because they weren’t archived. So, it follows that the earliest Doctors will, in fact, not be remembered as the people who actually saw them broadcast grow old, and senility and/or death takes their memory of the early Doctors.
I semi-promised no more tangents, but this fits… is an actor “forgotten” when they take on a new role, and become more famous/remembered for the new role than for the old? Bob Denver was cast in a memorable character in “the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”, but now he’s Gilligan, and he’ll always BE Gilligan. A little-known British actor was cast to play Gurney Halleck in “Dune”, but now he’s the boss on “American Dad”. That sort of thing. (In this formulation, it’s the character that becomes the “forgotten man (and woman)”).
A lot of the First and Second Doctor episodes are gone, but not all of them.
Bob Denver will ALWAYS be Maynard G. Krebs to me; I never watched ‘Gilligan’s Island’.
As Bill says, not all William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton episodes are gone. Right now, out of 29 William Hartnell stories, all but 10 are complete, but only 5 Patrick Troughton episodes are complete.
And I was, like, there’s another character that got recast and a lot of people never noticed. Who was it? Then it hit me: Catwoman. Not only the Michelle Pfeiffer version and the Halle Berry version, but the 1966 Batman series had two of them: Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt, and the 1966 movie had Lee Meriwether in the role.
I’m still waiting for anyone to identify any of these people.
The second casting as “forgotten” really doesn’t sit well or ring true with me but nothing else does either.
And let’s remember the forgotten Chuck Cunningham and Lyman.
Julie Newmar ‘My Living Doll’ . . .
‘I’m still waiting for anyone to identify any of these people.’
I asked in the Go Comics comments, but they’re too busy fighting over the use of ‘man’ to answer. I do believe, tho, that they aren’t anyone specific.
” there’s another character that got recast and a lot of people never noticed. Who was it? Then it hit me: Catwoman. ”
Nobody noticed Eartha Kitt instead of Julie Newmar? (I believe the Halle Berry one was actually a different character than the Michele Pfeiffer one.)
I had to look it up. Adrienne Barbeau played the Catwoman in the animated series.
I always thought it would have been funny if Will Ferrell would have been replaced by Will Forte Half way through the movie version with no explanation.
As far as the TV series I saw the original broadcast as a child. I remember Dick York’s version as a loud mouth hothead. More like Larry Linville’s Major Burns of MASH. Dick Sargent’s version reminded me more of Robert Reed, Mike Brady from the Brady Bunch. A little smoother and not as obnoxious. Still very controlling of Sam, though, but that was the Shtick of the show. I do also remember there was way too much drinking. If someone just knocked on the door to say hi, the first thing asked was if they wanted a drink.
“I do believe, tho, that they aren’t anyone specific.”
Then I *really* don’t get this…..
But James Bond is just a code name. James Bonds come and go. It’s a tough business. (A retirement home for old James Bonds might make for an interesting story.)
As far as the many actors playing Batman goes, those are just different interpretations of the character and story. The Bewitched thing was a re-casting of one character, hoping no-one would notice.
“I do also remember there was way too much drinking. If someone just knocked on the door to say hi, the first thing asked was if they wanted a drink.”
Darren worked in advertising. His boss was a frequent guest. So… yeah. There was a lot of surgery on M*A*S*H, too, and a lot of fist-fights on Batman, too.
I remember wondering at the time whether the Batman/Catwoman flirtation would continue once Kitt took over the role — but of course I knew it wouldn’t.
@ Grawlix -“The Bewitched thing was a re-casting of one character, hoping no-one would notice.”
The funny thing was that they did it to several characters in the series. York was forced to quit because of a back injury, but there were two actors who played the bit part of Darrin’s father, and it wasn’t a “recasting”: they alternated in the role, depending on who was available when the episode was shot.
Andréa, our pedantry is always a lot more interesting than their pedantry.
I like Justme’s idea of Abe “I’m not dead yet” Vigoda, but it seems odd to mix one real (but deceased) person in with one minor character (Henry the Hater showed up in the strip just last week), and bury them in a field of nondescript random extras.
Phil could be right about “forgetting”, but I haven’t been reading the strip for that long. There are too many minor characters to keep track of them all (an understandable problem in a strip written by a committee of four or five people).
P.S. One correction (probably irrelevant): judging from the eyelashes on the blonde standing next to he ladder on the right, the count should be thirteen men and three women.
For those who do not follow the strip: Barney and Clyde is about the unlikely friendship between Barney, a billionaire, and Clyde, a homeless man. Clyde is the man to the far left. This particular strip is set in the Pauper’s Palace, a soup kitchen. Except for Clyde, these are all minor characters who appear only occasionally; I don’t remember the names of anyone other than Clyde, but I know I’ve seen them, or most of them. Everyone in the strip is homeless, except for the two soup kitchen workers.
So “day of the forgotten man and woman” is extremely appropriate here. As for the second Darrin reference, I have nothing to add – that part mystified me too.
Kevin – there are 2 versions of “My Man Godfrey” – I thought there was a 3rd fairly recently, but only 2 show up on IMBD. In that case the reference to “forgotten man” is a 1930s meaning of the phrase meaning in particular the out of work men in the Depression, particularly those who had served in World War I.
Dick Sargent died in 1994 and was still working in 1993.
Darrin is not a forgotten man. That the actor changed is notable in the real world, but it didn’t happen in the show. That was always the same guy as far as that world goes. One might prefer one or the other actor, but same character. We can all riff on what’s going on there (my guess is Samantha wanted someone more conventionally handsome), but, really, no explanation is needed.
I agree with Arthur, the real forgotten character is Chuck Cunningham. He didn’t just stop appearing in the show with no explanation. He was expunged from history. To the point where the family did not speak of him. In a later episode, someone asks Mr. Cunningham how many children he has and he says “two”. He doesn’t say “Three, Richie, Joanie, and our son Chuck, who is stationed in Antarctica with the Air Force” or anything like what they pulled with Richie’s absence. Presumably Chuck has also been airbrushed out of all the family photos and all documents in government archives have been removed with Soviet precision. I just wonder what the poor fellow did to require the government to erase him like that. He was just a youngster.
Chuck was also a victim of the Darrin Stevens Syndrome before he became Patient Zero of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. (Two actors, then *poof*)
Many thanks to Usual John for confirming my suspicions. As I said before, I would not have recognized (or been able to name) “Henry” if he hadn’t appeared on Tuesday, but he was the reason that I figured some of the others must also have been irregular extras.
I think it’s well established in the fiction that “James Bond” is not just a code name. He’s gotten married as James Bond, and owns the historic Bond family estate, Skyfall.
Someone on Seinfeld ( maybe even Jerry ? ) had two different fathers, played by the actors Barney Martin and Phil Bruns.
and a lot more civil, that’s for sure!
“I think it’s well established in the fiction that “James Bond” is not just a code name.”
The movies stopped following the books quite a long time ago. George Lazenby Bond made a specific reference to “the other guy”.
For all those Jameses Bond to be the same character, the current character would have to be well into his 80’s, 90’s, if not a centenarian, in order to rise the rank of Commander in the Royal Navy, then “retire” to Her Majesty’s Secret Service and rise up through the ranks there far enough to earn a license to kill by 1962.
The “James Bond is a codename” retcon isn’t even the best/most realistic… better is that the stories released to the public are actually an amalgam of real things that happened, but not all to the same guy. They can’t tell you the name(s) of the real guy(s) it happened to, so they invented this fellow. It’s not unlike the way hospital TV shows take real medical cases that happened all over the country, or even world, and pretend they all happened in the same hospital, or the way cop TV shows take cases that happened all over the country, and pretend they all happened in the same precinct of a big-city police department. Or, you know, just don’t take it too seriously because it’s just a movie. That’s another good one.
are any of these the waitress who replace “Flo” on “Alice”
That would be Diane Ladd. I don’t think so.
Re James Bond as a code name, check out the original movie “Casino Royale”.
“check out the original movie “Casino Royale”.”
The first theatrical release, or the first one made?
The one with Woody Allen.
That’s technically a remake, like Never Say Never Again was a remake of Thunderball.
The very first “Casino Royale” was a one-shot one hour TV show in the 1950’s, if I remember correctly. So yes, the Woody Allen / David Niven “Casino Royale” was arguably a remake.
Ian Fleming stated that he imagined Mr. Niven in the role. He HATED Connery, at first, but came around.
“I always thought it would have been funny if Will Ferrell would have been replaced by Will Forte Half way through the movie version with no explanation.”
Subtle, but brilliant.
@ CIDU Bill – Thanks for calling attention to John Kowalkowski’s comment; I missed that one, and it would indeed have been a brilliant parody.
Mark in Boston is correct. There was a TV version of Casino Royale in 1954 staring Barry Nelson as Bond.
There is also a movie called Kaleidoscope in 1966 which has a similar plot to Casino Royale and is considered by Bond fans to be a better version of the story than the comedy version done in the 1960s (based on discussions on Bond conventions before such things were called “con”.
“Mark in Boston is correct. There was a TV version of Casino Royale”
Hence the question upthread, the original version (TV) or first theatrical version.