Female icons from 60s sitcoms that we don’t talk about enough today

In the 1960s, audiences sat in front of their televisions to watch Rob Petrie with his family on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and Andy Taylor patrolling Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show.” Laughing with family during prime time became a pastime that it still is today. The ’60s were truly a golden age for sitcoms, but it was also a defining era for female sitcom actresses.

In an era long before streaming, the decade’s female sitcom stars helped pave the way for shows like “Fleabag” and “Abbott Elementary.” From Lucille Ball to Mary Tyler Moore, television has featured some of the most popular (and funniest) women on screen. If these series are still watched today and their talented actresses continue to captivate, there are those whose light has been unfairly dimmed over the years. To shed more light, here’s a list of five female 1960s sitcom stars who deserve more recognition.

From 1966 to 1971, ABC aired “That Girl,” a sitcom starring Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie, an aspiring actress who recently moved to New York to pursue an acting career. Also serving as executive producer, Thomas brought to life one of the first independent female characters on a sitcom. At a time in television when women were often married or living as servants, “That Girl” featured a single woman pursuing her own goals. Thomas’s work went against the national norms that dominated television. The series would pave the way for shows like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Murphy Brown.”

Thomas has co-owned the rights to the series since its conceptualization, giving him great creative control. She exercised this by refusing to allow her character to get married before the finale. She also did not want “That Girl” to be resurrected in a disappointing television revival, believing that the series and her character resonated most in the 1960s.

With modern film technology, it’s hard to imagine how difficult it was to film an actor playing two different characters at once. But Patty Duke knew the challenges, playing identical cousins ​​Patty and Cathy Lane on “The Patty Duke Show.” This ABC series aired from 1963 to 1966 and was one of the first television shows to regularly feature an actress playing dual roles.

Patty and Cathy were prime examples of comic mismatch – Cathy was a prim, proper Scotswoman visiting the United States, and Patty was an outgoing, extroverted New Yorker. Duke’s comedic wit entertained audiences for three seasons. Going back and forth between the two characters’ costumes, moods, and even accents wasn’t easy for Duke, who at the time was also battling undiagnosed bipolar disorder. She would later write about her eventual diagnosis and how her role affected her mental health in her book “Call Me Anna.” Before passing away in 2016, Duke said mental health advocacy was his “true calling” (via Psychiatry Online).

Everyone who watched “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” will remember the hardworking and wise Mrs. Livingston, played by Japanese-American singer and actress Miyoshi Umeki. Mrs. Livingston was the housekeeper for widower Tom Corbett (Bill Bixby) and his son Eddie (Brandon Cruz), and regularly acted as a surrogate mother for Eddie, who constantly tried to set his father up with several women, so that he would have a mother. Sometimes, Mrs. Livingston even helped Eddie in these often ill-fated attempts, which diminished as the series progressed.

Although Umeki’s roles were sometimes limited to stereotypes, her portrayal of Mrs. Livingston was nevertheless significant at a time when racial diversity on television was low. Umeki’s caring and affectionate housekeeper was one of the first prime-time leading roles for an Asian American, following Anna May Wong, who starred in “Madame Liu-Tsong’s Gallery” in 1951. For her work in television, Umekli received a Golden Globe nomination. In 1958, ten years before “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” aired, she had already won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her work in “Sayonara,” making her the first Asian woman to win an Oscar.

The Clampetts were known for engaging in wild antics on “The Beverly Hillbillies.” But for all this nonsense, the most consistent anchoring force of the CBS fish-out-of-water sitcom was Nancy Kulp as Miss Jane Hathaway, the secretary to the Clampetts’ bank manager, Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey). Hathaway’s clever and cunning nature stood in stark contrast to the Clampetts’ slapstick behavior, which provided audiences with nine seasons of laughter. His character often protected the Clampetts from Drysdale’s inept and greedy schemes. His ever-present crush on Jethro Bodine (Max Baer Jr.), the Clampetts’ simple-minded nephew, was a staple of the series.

This witty intelligence could not have been achieved without Kulp, who brought her own tenacity and intelligence to the role that earned her a prime-time Emmy nomination in 1967. In addition to her acting career, she served in the United States Navy as part of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) during World War II. In the 1980s, she ran (unsuccessfully) for Congress.

About a year after starring in one of the most popular episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” Donna Douglas was lounging in California as Elly May Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Douglas played the creature-loving daughter of the Clampett patriarch, Jed (Buddy Ebsen). After Jed made his fortune discovering oil on his land, he moved his family to a mansion in Beverly Hills, providing viewers with some of the funniest examples of culture shock.

Elly May was not a character who adhered to traditional domestic norms—she was a tomboy, a horrible cook, and could easily take down her cousin Jethro (Max Baer Jr.) and any other man. Elly May’s fierce qualities probably couldn’t have been portrayed by anyone else, as Douglas was also a tough woman behind the camera. After “The Beverly Hillbillies” ended, her career unfortunately declined. This was largely due to her refusal to take roles she didn’t really want, despite the money or potential success.