Susan Tolsky

When Tolsky arrived in Hollywood, Foy was unable to grant her a contract with Screen Gems, and instead introduced her to people who worked in casting and helped her get an agent.[14] Foy let her join the New Talent Program without being under contract, which allowed her to read new scripts.[19] In 1968, Tolsky made her television debut on an episode of The Second Hundred Years, where she had one line, followed by a small role on an episode of Bewitched, both on ABC.[14] During this time, she worked with the Columbia Pictures Workshop and the Los Angeles Repertory Company to find extra work.[14][17]

In 1968, Howard, a contract actress at Screen Gems, brought home a script for the pilot episode of the comedy Western series Here Come the Brides.[14][20] The plot was loosely based on the Mercer Girls, women who moved from the East Coast of the United States to Seattle, Washington, in the 1860s.[21] Howard believed Tolsky was perfect for the role of Biddie Cloom. Foy was less enthused of her chances of securing the part, believing she could not play a character from Massachusetts due to her Southern accent.[14] In January 1968, Tolsky read for the part after convincing Foy,[11][19] and she recalled that the audition was "awful", stating that she was a "nervous wreck".[14] Two weeks later, she landed the role.[14] Written as a minor character, Tolsky had "like three, or four lines" in the pilot episode.[19] She initially struggled with the New England accent, which amused her colleagues.[12]

The studio tested the pilot of Here Come the Brides with a test audience and Biddie was well received. Screen Gems then wanted her to sign a contract with the studio, but because they did not offer her a contract from the beginning, she declined. She recalled, "I said, 'I want a contract just to do the show,' because I knew they could have done that when I first came out. They didn't do it, so I said, 'No.'"[19] She then fired her agent who advised her to sign the contract with Screen Gems, and hired a manager.[19] Tolsky chose not to sign a long-term contract with the studio as she knew that "all too often they mean seven years of forced labor in the wrong roles".[17] A few weeks later, she was given a contract for Here Come the Brides as a series regular.[19][22] The series aired from September 1968 to April 1970, running for two seasons on ABC.[20] In the second season, the character Biddie received "more attention" and "Biddie's Theme" was composed. Tolsky recalled, "The second year they gave me a little more latitude – the dimension of my character ... When you see Biddie walking, she has her own theme, and I was enormously honored by that because I was not in the regular cast – I came in on a fluke."[23]

Tolsky made her film debut in Roger Vadim's comedy-mystery film Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971) as Miss Craymire, the secretary of Rock Hudson's character.[24][25] The film received generally negative reviews in the press,[26] and was described as a "sex satire-murder mystery".[27] After watching the final product at a preview, Tolsky told Vadim, "Now I know why I'm the only girl in the movie who didn't get asked to take off her clothes."[12][28] Tolsky was slated to appear in Dirty Little Billy (1972) as the Texan girlfriend of Michael J. Pollard's title character, but the plans fell through.[29] In 1972, Tolsky guest starred on the season four finale of the CBS sitcom Here's Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and her daughter Lucie Arnaz.[30] The episode was a backdoor pilot for a proposed spin-off starring Arnaz. Tolsky was one of three finalists for the role of Arnaz's friend Sue Ann Ditbenner, and she landed the role after reading for the part at Ball's home.[31] The spin-off was ultimately not picked up by the network.[32] Tolsky then guest starred as another character, Miss Quigley, on a season five episode of Here's Lucy.[33]

In the early 1970s, Tolsky regularly appeared as a guest on talk shows hosted by Merv Griffin and Virginia Graham. Following an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show, producer George Schlatter took notice of her and enlisted her for the main cast of The New Bill Cosby Show (1972–73), a variety series hosted by Bill Cosby on CBS.[12][34] The cast portrayed themselves and different characters in sketches. Cosby told the New York Daily News that he "fought and won a battle" with the network to not establish Tolsky's character as a "dumb dame".[35] In an interview prior to the series premiere, he stated, "Susan will be smart but different. She won't be a nasal sounding dumb person as they wanted to make her."[35] The variety series premiered in September 1972 and was canceled after one season.[36] The series was met with mixed reactions from critics, although Tolsky's performance was better received.[37][38][39]

Tolsky's next film credit was Charley and the Angel (1973), a Disney comedy film directed by Vincent McEveety, in which she portrayed the character Miss Partridge.[40] While reviewing the film, the Austin American-Statesman's Marjorie Hoffman wrote that Tolsky "has a few good scenes as a self-admiring spinster".[41] From 1972 to 1973, Tolsky acted on two episodes of ABC's anthology television series Love, American Style.[42][43] She was a contestant on the ABC game show The Dating Game in September 1973,[44] and appeared as a celebrity guest on the game show Showoffs for a week in August 1975.[45] In the later part of the decade, she acted in the comedy film Record City (1977) and Stan Dragoti's comedy horror film Love at First Bite (1979).[46][47] Tolsky starred in the television pilot Front Page Feeney with Don Knotts, which aired in syndication in August 1977.[48][49] She also made episodic appearances on the drama series Quincy, M.E. (1977) and Fantasy Island (1978),[50][51] and portrayed Mammy Yokum in a Li'l Abner television special, the musical film Li'l Abner in Dogpatch Today (1978).[52]

In the 1980s, Tolsky appeared on four episodes of the CBS sitcom Alice, portraying different one-time characters, from 1980 to 1983.[53] She appeared in the films How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980), directed by Robert Scheerer, and The Devil and Max Devlin (1981), directed by Steven Hilliard Stern.[54][55] She also guest starred on two episodes of the ABC sitcom Barney Miller in 1981 and 1982,[56] for which the scripts were not finished at the time of filming.[31] Tolsky said, "We went there, and they would bring down like two pages and then they'd be 'Okay, everybody have a break and we'll come down with some more pages.'"[31] She said the cast and crew were "wonderful", and that the experience as a whole was "joyous" even if they had to wait for the scripts to be finished.[31] She also guest starred on an episode of the crime drama series Matt Houston in 1982.[57]

Tolsky earned her third main role on television on Madame's Place (1982–83), a comedy series about a puppet, controlled by Wayland Flowers, named Madame who hosts a late-night talk show from her mansion. Tolsky portrayed Bernadette Van Gilder, Madame's shy secretary.[58] The series was well received by television critics and viewers alike.[58][59][60] Madame's Place had a very rushed shooting schedule and aired five days a week in first-run syndication.[58][61] According to Tolsky, 75 episodes were shot in a span of fifteen weeks, and she considered it one of her "most enjoyable" experiences, after Here Come the Brides.[62] She said, "We had a fabulous crew on that ... We did a show a day, so we did have a close crew."[62] She felt that pleasant experiences on set became "less and less common by the 1980s"; she recalled, "The fifties and sixties and seventies – that was a wonderful era."[31] For the remainder of the decade, Tolsky had few roles; she appeared in the comedy crime film The Longshot in 1986,[63] and had a guest role on an episode of the sitcom Webster in 1988.[64]

After her guest appearance on Webster, Tolsky's acting credits only consisted of voice roles in animation.[23][65] She first became involved in voice acting on the NBC animated children's television series Foofur (1986–88), where she voiced Annabell.[66] In the 1990s, she lent her voice to several animated television series; she had recurring roles as Aunt Ruth on Bobby's World (1990–98), Binkie Muddlefoot on Darkwing Duck (1991–92), Scara on Aladdin (1994), and Aunt Janie, the aunt of the titular character on Pepper Ann (1997–2000).[67][68][69][70] She also voiced characters in single episodes of several Disney Television Animation productions, including TaleSpin (1991), Goof Troop (1992), and Jungle Cubs (1996).[71][72][73] Tolsky's final credit is the Disney Channel animated comedy series The Buzz on Maggie (2005–06), where she was part of the main cast. She provided the voice of Mrs. Pesky, the mother of the title character.[70] The series premiered in June 2005 to a positive response from television critics, who praised its humor, voice acting, and writing.[74][75][76] The Buzz on Maggie was canceled after one season, airing its final episode in May 2006.[77]

• Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays–Animated!: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9781476672939.
• Etter, Jonathan (2009). Gangway, Lord, (The) Here Come the Brides Book. BearManor Media. ISBN 9781593935061.
• Marill, Alvin H. (2005). Movies Made for Television, 1964–2004. Vol. 2. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810851740.
• Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781538103746.
• Terrace, Vincent (2014). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786486410.
• Wasserman, John (June 21, 1969). "She took off her glasses and... nothing happened". TV Guide. Vol. 17, no. 25 #847. Triangle Publications. pp. 10–13. ISSN 0039-8543.