Glamour, Gidgets, and the Girl Next Door

September 1, 2014

Pilato (The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery) highlights 45 female television stars from the 1950s through the 1970s, focusing on the archetypal and nubile characters they portrayed. Dividing the actresses into six sections--from Gilligan's Island, Tina Louise (Ginger) is a "Liberated Soul" while Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) is a "Country Girl"--Pilato provides a three- to five-page overview of each actress's life, characters, and TV productions, and closes with a summary of iconic facts. It's impossible to argue with Pilato's picks, and his breadth of knowledge allows him to spotlight lesser-known roles such as Anne Francis's single season as detective Honey West alongside more recognizable "Supersleuths"--Diana Rigg's Mrs. Peel or Barbara Feldon's Agent 99, for example. However, despite the central conceit, this book lacks cohesion and depth. Save for a few recent interviews, the author collates classic works such as Peggy Herz's TV Talk or John Javna's Cult TV. Lastly, the "iconic facts" presented here are chiefly drawn from Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Database, which interested readers will have already explored. VERDICT While Pilato offers a breezy, fun retrospective for nostalgia buffs, there's little here that fans haven't had access to before--either in print or online.--Terry Bosky, Madison, WI

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
Pilato pays tribute to the women who lit up the small screen in such now-classic shows as I Dream of Jeannie, Charlie's Angels and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He devotes 5 to 10 pages to each actress, recounting her rise to fame, her experience on the show (or shows) she starred in, and some basic facts about her life. Among the profiled are Sally Field, who rose to fame in two very disparate roles in Gidget and The Flying Nun before going on to movie stardom; Cher, whose variety show launched her singing career; Patty Duke, who charmed viewers as Patty and her look-alike cousin Cathy on The Patty Duke Show but was forbidden to watch the show by her tyrannical managers; and Nichelle Nichols, who made history on the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek. With photographs of the leading ladies and plenty of quotes culled from magazines and interviews, Pilato's guide will be a welcome trip down memory lane for many readers and a terrific resource for all film and television buffs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)