TV Acres Newsletter    Volume 1     Number 1

 

October, 2001

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 News Items 

  Cover Story
  Trivia of the Month
  Birthdays
  Profile of the Month
  Haps in TV Land
  Ethnic Salute
  New Shows 
  Classic Quotes
  Heroes in TV History
  TV Animals
 

Ethnic Salute


This month TV Acres salutes 
...Czechoslovakians.

This group has not been overly represented in the TV world, but after a little research I found the following examples. 

 

A PERFECT SPY/BBC/1988
     Axel (Rudiger Weigang), a Czechoslovakian Communist spy who befriends and secretly exchanges information with a British double agent named Magnus Pym (which results in both of them being promoted over and over again). The characters are based on John Lecarre's semi-auto-biographical novel A Perfect Spy.

THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN/NBC/1996-2001
     Mrs. Dubcek (Elmarie Wendell), the landlord to the Solomon family [a bunch of aliens hiding out on planet Earth]. Mrs. Dubcek revealed her ethnic background while talking to the Solomons. She pointed out their last name was obviously Jewish. Harry Solomon then asked her own ethnic origins and she told him she was part Czechoslovakian and part Rumanian...sort of a "slavic mutt."

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE/NBC/1975+
     Jorge & Yortuk Festrunk (Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin), two newly arrived political refugee Czechoslovakian immigrant bachelors living in New York City whose hormones were set in gear to pick up some beautiful American women. Jiggling with excitement in polyester shirts and tight slacks, their popular catchphrases were "It is certainly not difficult now for any woman to notice our bul-ges."; "Fox-es!"; "You American girls have such big breasts all the time!"; and "We ARE two wild and cra-a-z-z-y guys!" These two swingers were part of a recurring sketch seen during the late 1970's.

TO THE MANOR BORN/BBC/1979-81
     Richard Devere, (
Peter Bowles/costar),  a Czechoslovakian millionaire in the grocery business who purchased the Grantleigh Manor & Lodge in rural Great Britain. His elderly mother Mrs. Polouvicka (Daphne Heard) also lived at the Manor. When Richard moved into the rural estate, the following ad ran in the local newspaper: "The ancestral home of the fforbes-Hamilton family has been bought by the chairman of Cavendish Foods, Mr Richard DeVere, as a result of bankruptcy proceedings against the estate of the late Martin fforbes-Hamilton." Richard later married Audrey fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith), a proper British widow and the
former owner of the Manor.

If you are aware of any other Czechoslovakian characters to have appeared on TV drop me line at jholst@tvacres.com 


Please note: I have only listed "TV Characters" of Czechoslovakian decent, not the actors who play the role who are actually Czechoslovakian.

 

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