Make Room for Me, Too

Marlo Thomas never caught her father trying on her mother's girdle. That was just for the show that paid the bills, Make Room for Daddy (eventually changed to The Danny Thomas Show and on air from 1953-64).



However, That Girl makes clear in her the new memoir/comedy study, Growing Up Laughing, certainly caught his love of humor. In the book she tells tales of what it was really like to make room in her heart for daddy and how she and some famous comedians she talked with developed into the people who make other people laugh.

Thus Spake the Father of the Brady Boom

Even when in service to the inane, it is good to see fathers and sons teaming up. So, even though every bone in the WD body screams out DON'T!, we nevertheless put in the plug for Brady, Brady, Brady. Father Sherwood Schwartz (he, previously, of Gilligan's Island) shared his creation with son Lloyd (whose body of work as a producer relies very heavily on riding dad's Gilligan and Brady horses).

The result purports to be "The Complete Story ..." although only a very careful reading through the memories and a couple good guesses will help pass Mental Floss's The Brady Bunch Theme Quiz.

Not Quite Sweeping It Under the Carpet

Dad was a carpet cleaner ... oh, yes, he also killed a few people on the side as a low level mob guy and when his own drug deals went awry ... but he was handsome and kind and gave me candy and was kinda the perfect father ... although we moved around a lot when I was young ... and, anyway, I turned out fine and now have a book to tell you about.

That in an unfairly condensed version is Jennifer Mascia's story from Never Tell Our Business to Strangers. She learned about her dad, John (sometimes Frank) Cassese (until it was Mascia), in bits and pieces growing up. She discovered him in the newspaper, noted how he knew the bad guys profiled on television and know that he died not knowing she knew much more about him than he ever would have wanted his little girl to know.

As is only right, love for daddy doesn't ignore anything, it just sorta looks past it.

Uneaten and Unbowed

Sometimes dads get it wrong. Not often, but often enough to keep us humble. That's the current news with the report that Fraser Robinson — father of FLOTUS (first lady of the U.S.) Michelle Obama — figured her beau Barack wouldn't be around for long. "She'll eat him alive," he is reported to have judged according to A Game of Character, a memoir by FBILOTUS (first brother-in-law of the U.S.) and basketball coach Craig Robinson.