Posted on 11/30/2017 11:22:42 AM PST by Eleutheria5
Jim Nabors, who gave popular culture its most enduring image of a wide-eyed, good-natured if none too bright hayseed in a character whose very name – Gomer Pyle – would become synonymous with lovable rube, died Thursday in Hawaii. He was 87.
Nabors’ husband, Stan Cadwallader...
With catchphrases “Shazam!” and “Gollllly!” (the latter drawn out to four or five lilting syllables), Nabors debuted his downhome, gas station attendant character in 1962 on The Andy Griffith Show, where the slow-going, dim-witted Gomer was a constant irritation to Don Knotts’ officious, high-strung Deputy Barney Fife.
The Gomer character, and Nabors’ odd-couple chemistry with Knotts, proved so popular with audiences that he was given his own spin-off series in 1964. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, co-starring Frank Sutton as his ever-yelling drill sergeant Vince Carter (“I can’t heeearrrr youuu!”) ran until 1969 on CBS. (The Gomer character was replaced on Andy Griffith with cousin Goober Pyle, played by George Lindsey in a Jughead-style cap).
Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. was an instant smash when it debuted in September 1964. The series finished No. 3 among all primetime shows that season with a 30.7 rating –- ahead of Andy Griffith – and was No. 2 behind Bonanza for the following 1965-66 season. The series slipped in the ratings after its move from Fridays to Wednesdays for the 1966-67 season, but CBS returned Gomer Pyle to Fridays the following season and it ranked No. 3 and No. 2 in primetime during the next two seasons.
Nabors’ comic persona, with his natural Alabama accent stretched to a near-cartoon drawl, evaporated when switched gears to sing, utilizing a baritone that sounded both formal and trained, a dichotomy used to great effect as far back as the Griffith show.
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(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Goes to show you how much he didn’t....I’m just finding out now that he was!
I remember in 1963, I was in the 5th gade and a fellow classmate told me Nabos was Rock Hudson’s boyfriend. Well, that didn’t make sense to me, so he explained it, as well as he could. I thought he was crazy, no guy would have a boyfriend.
Was thinking the same thing....Won’t be the same....Hope they will just keep him singing to eternity. Remember when I was a kid...him starting to sing. That’s not Gomer!!
FWIW, Nabors was a supporter and friends with President Reagan.
RIP
Thanks for supporting the troops in Vietnam.
Sure, but why kind of Nabors’ Favors did Pvt. Pyle have to do for, and to Sgt. Carter to get Sgt. Carter to get promoted?
And when the "love that dare not speak it's name" still knew how to keep quiet.
Sad to see him go. Enter into rest, Pvt. Pyle.
87 is old for a homosexual to live to?
Frank Sutton (AKA Sgt Carter)
I can’t heaarrrrr you!!!
Yes, the amazing talent of Frank Sutton. He died way too soon, himself.
Yet, on M.A.S.H., the Korean war lasted nine years.
This obit on Yahoo! is the first I ever heard of it, which speaks volumes about his basic decency. People would be less homophobic if these militant gays didn’t keep shoving it in our face, and if they left the kids alone. That’s creepy when it’s with young girls, and doubly creepy when it’s with young boys. A human penis is only one small part of a man. Stop swinging it around, you dumbass gay militants.
Frank Sutton.
Nobody did the National Anthem or “Back Home in Indiana” better. RIP.
“I thought he died years ago going down the Hudson.”
—
Gomer: Golleee, kin I put mah finger in yer bellybutton?
Rock: Okay.......hey, that’s not my bellybutton!
Gomer: That’s not mah finger!
“This obit on Yahoo! is the first I ever heard of it”
—
Was well known and talked about in hushes, at least going back to the early 1970s.
Jim Nabors grew up in Sylacauga, AL. Early in my career, I had a supervisor from Sylacauga who knew him well (my guess is that my supervisor was gay, too, as he never married or dated to my knowledge.) Early in my career was in the early 1980’s, and Nabors was already famous and had been away from Sylacauga for years.
As a side note, although I have not tried to verify it, I am probably distant kin to Jim Nabors. My great-grandmother Roy’s maiden name was Nabors, and she lived about 50 miles west of Sylacauga below Birmingham. . . for the record, I am unapologetically and hopelessly straight. What’s the song?? “I Like My Women Just a Little on the Trashy Side”!!!!
We lost a beautiful singing voice and funny man, not so much a role model.
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