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“There Goes Old Gomer”: Rural Comedy, Public Persona, and the Wavering Line Between Fiction and Reality

“There Goes Old Gomer”: Rural Comedy, Public Persona, and the Wavering Line Between Fiction and... Essay .................... "There Goes Old Gomer" Rural Comedy, Public Persona, and the Wavering Line Between Fiction and Reality by Sara K. Eskridge During the 1950s and 1960s, rural sitcom stars like Jim Nabors of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. purposely blurred the line between their characters and real selves. Publicity photo of Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle with Frank Sutton as Sergeant Carter, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, CBS Television, 1966. alking through Chicago's O'Hare airport, Jim Nabors, star of the enormously popular 1960s sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, encountered a look that summed up his life. "A mother and a little boy were walking along, and I could tell the minute the recognition hit the little boy," Nabors told the LA Times. "As he walked by holding his mother's hand, he said in a real loud voice, `Look, Mother. There goes an old Gomer Pyle!'"1 It's common that actors are known not by their real names, but by the characters they play. This was particularly true during the 1950s and 1960s, when stars of rural sitcoms purposely blurred the line between their characters and real selves. Producers, and occasionally actors, believed that one of the key reasons people enjoyed rural sitcoms was http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Southern Cultures University of North Carolina Press

“There Goes Old Gomer”: Rural Comedy, Public Persona, and the Wavering Line Between Fiction and Reality

Southern Cultures , Volume 20 (4) – Nov 12, 2014

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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of the American South.
ISSN
1534-1488
Publisher site
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Abstract

Essay .................... "There Goes Old Gomer" Rural Comedy, Public Persona, and the Wavering Line Between Fiction and Reality by Sara K. Eskridge During the 1950s and 1960s, rural sitcom stars like Jim Nabors of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. purposely blurred the line between their characters and real selves. Publicity photo of Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle with Frank Sutton as Sergeant Carter, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, CBS Television, 1966. alking through Chicago's O'Hare airport, Jim Nabors, star of the enormously popular 1960s sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, encountered a look that summed up his life. "A mother and a little boy were walking along, and I could tell the minute the recognition hit the little boy," Nabors told the LA Times. "As he walked by holding his mother's hand, he said in a real loud voice, `Look, Mother. There goes an old Gomer Pyle!'"1 It's common that actors are known not by their real names, but by the characters they play. This was particularly true during the 1950s and 1960s, when stars of rural sitcoms purposely blurred the line between their characters and real selves. Producers, and occasionally actors, believed that one of the key reasons people enjoyed rural sitcoms was

Journal

Southern CulturesUniversity of North Carolina Press

Published: Nov 12, 2014

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