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« Today's News: Our Take
Allan Melvin (Brady Bunch's Sam) Dead at 84
Allan Melvin, a popular character actor best recognized for his roles on The Phil Silvers Show (as Cpl. Henshaw), All in the Family (Archie's bud Barney) and The Brady Bunch (Sam the butcher), on Thursday died of cancer, reports the Los Angeles Times. He was 84.
Melvin's 50-plus year career also included guest appearances on such TV shows as The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C.; voicing Magilla Gorilla and Popeye's Bluto; and playing "Al the Plumber" in 15 years' worth of Liquid-Plumr commercials.
Melvin is survived by his wife of 64 years, Amalia; a daughter, Jennifer Hanson; and a grandson.
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Jan 19, 2008 3:23 PM
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I...don't understand. What does this have to do with Britney?
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Jan 19, 2008 7:06 PM
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TVGord, you're funny!
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Jan 19, 2008 9:09 PM
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A 64 year marriage in Hollywood?!
This has nothing to do with Britney!
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Jan 19, 2008 9:26 PM
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Just an odd thing - I had just been flipping through the channels when I came across The Brady Bunch Movie (the silly remake from the 90s), and it happened to be a scene with Sam. My mom went to school with David Graf, the character actor who played Sam, so I stopped to watch that part. Then I flipped it off, sad because I knew that that Sam was dead (from a heart attack about five years ago).
The very next thing I did was come online and check TV Guide (mainly to see if there were ratings for Friday Night Lights), and of course saw that the original Sam had died.
So really, I've just lamented the death of two Sam-the-Butchers in the span of two minutes.
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Jan 20, 2008 1:58 AM
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I...don't understand. What does this have to do with Britney?
He acted as a butcher,
Shes' butchered acting?
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Jan 20, 2008 2:14 AM
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He also played a number of different characters in various episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. The one I remember best is when he was a tough thug who got on Barney's bad side, and he said "If you weren't in your deputy's uniform, I'd give you a lickin'." From then on, Barney was afraid to take his uniform off, altho of course he wouldn't admit it. As usual, Andy came in and found a way for the tough guy to get the message and Barney to save face.
Another good episode he was in, he played another tough guy selling fruits & veggies along a road outside Mayberry, and pretty much the same thing happened: Barney yelled at him, he threatened Barney, and Andy surreptitiously came in to save the day, letting Barney get all the credit.
Well, the guy had a pretty good career. May he rest in peace.
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Jan 20, 2008 9:53 AM
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For me, I think of Barney Hefner first before Sam the Butcher, but through a lifetime of therapy, I have managed to block out a lot of my memories of The Brady Bunch. I had no idea he was Magilla Gorilla, but I never got to see that much as a kid. I feel as though I've seen him in everything, I've always loved The Andy Griffith Show, its spinoff Gomer Pyle and its sequel, Mayberry RFD. Allan Melvin played different characters in all of those shows. He was even in the Danny Thomas show, Make Room For Daddy, which The Andy Griffith Show spunoff from*! (* never end a sentence with a preposition.)
He also had kind of a wacky history on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Although he occasionally played "other" characters, he was known mostly as Rob Petrie's old army buddy. Continuity wasn't a big deal back in the 60s, so the name of his character kept changing. At first, he was Sam Pomeroy. Later, he would become Sam Pomerantz. Then later still, he became known as Sol Pomeroy (the only reason I can see why they changed his name to Sol is so they could entitle that episode "Body and Sol"...although that's not a very good reason, since nobody even knew back then that episodes had titles).
If you think it's kinda funny that his character on The DVD Show was Sam, that's not where the very Brady coincidences end. Because he was such a friend of the show, Allan Melvin was in the very last episode of DVD, which was a fantasy episode where Rob was a sheriff in the old west (he was hallucinating under anestetic in his neighbor Jerry's dentist chair). The villain in the show played by Melvin was known as Big Bad Brady!
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Jan 20, 2008 10:18 AM
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Besides becoming a familiar face on TV from his years on Phil Silvers' "You'll Never Get Rich" (the original title of the show), Allan Melvin had a much more significant role as Barney Hefner on "All In The Family" during that program's later seasons than he ever had on the insipid "Brady Bunch", so it's unfortunate that your headline emphasizes his latter, quite minor role on that vastly inferior sitcom.
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Jan 20, 2008 11:21 AM
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Alas, the column is not titled "Today's News: GarryB's Take." 
I need to see what I can do about changing that.
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Jan 20, 2008 11:49 AM
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GarryB, while I loathed The Brady Bunch as much as I utterly loved All In The Family, I'm not prepared to quibble about which character of Melvin's is better known. To a generation, he's Sam the butcher. It's just a fact.
As for the term "vastly inferior", that's what I would call Archie Bunker's Place, which is where Melvin was a regular character (as opposed to his recurring status on All In The Family). For these reasons (and a couple more I won't go into out of respect for the dead), I think the headline is appropriate.
Today's News, TV Gord's Take
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Jan 20, 2008 12:52 PM
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Good Andy Griffith episodes, Jena. He also played a retired detective working as hotel security, who Barney pushes into a closet while unwittingly helping the real jewel thief make off with the jewels. Of course Andy saves the day.
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Jan 20, 2008 1:01 PM
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Hi Matt...I am thankful that YOU are the one writing these little blurbs. I also would like to add that it is Sunday and you still post! Thank you.
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Jan 20, 2008 1:50 PM
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I...don't understand. What does this have to do with Britney?
He acted as a butcher,
Shes' butchered acting?
More like Britney's butchering her own life - and that of her two sons.
Hi Matt...I am thankful that YOU are the one writing these little blurbs. I also would like to add that it is Sunday and you still post! Thank you.
Me, too! Thanks, Matt!
And I quite liked The Brady Bunch. I wouldn't presume to judge it as inferior or superior.
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Jan 20, 2008 2:27 PM
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Come on, people!!
Embrace your inner-BRADY!!!!
Who wants to go through life stuck as a "Cousin Oliver?!!!!"
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Jan 20, 2008 2:42 PM
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