Jean Stapleton Movies
Each and every week from 1971 to 1980, the popular TV sitcom All in the Family was heralded by the glass-shattering offkey singing of Edith Bunker, aka "Dingbat." This tended to obscure the fact that Jean Stapleton, the woman who so brilliantly portrayed Edith not only possessed a lilting, well-modulated singing voice, but also was as far removed as possible from a "dingbat" in real life. While attending Hunter College, Stapleton began her performing career as a member of the Robert Shaw Chorale. She made her professional stage debut in 1941, then went on to fruitful work-study associations with the American Apprentice Theater, the American Actors Company, the American Theater Wing, and director-acting coach Harold Clurman. Her first Broadway appearance was in the 1953 production In the Summer House; the following year, she made her TV bow as a semi-regular on the daytime drama Woman With a Past. She endeared herself to Broadwayites with her wistfully funny characterizations in the SRO musicals Damn Yankees, Bells Are Ringing, and Funny Girl, roles that she would carry over into the film versions of these hits. In 1958, she made her first appearance at the Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, PA, a summer-stock operation managed by her husband, Bill Putch.Most of Stapleton's onscreen work in the 1960s and 1970s could be found in New York-based movies (Something Wild, Up the Down Staircase, Klute) and TV series (Car 54, Where Are You, The Defenders, The Patty Duke Show). Her earliest association with producer-director Norman Lear occurred in the 1969 theatrical feature Cold Turkey, in which she played a neurotic housewife named Edith. When Lear began assembling the cast for his upcoming TV sitcom All in the Family, he immediately thought of Stapleton for the role of slow-witted, strident, essentially kindhearted Bronx housewife Edith Bunker. Before leaving the series in 1980, Stapleton earned three Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Edith -- not to mention the undying affection of millions.
Once free of All in the Family, she sought out roles that she hoped would demonstrate her versatility: She played the distraught mother of a drug-addicted teenager (enacted by her real-life son, John Putch) in the made-for-TV Angel Dusted (1981), and effectively portrayed Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1982 TV biopic Eleanor: First Lady of the World. Stapleton kept her comic skills sharpened by appearing in the made-for-cable productions of Shelley Duvall: She was terrific as a no-nonsense Fairy Godmother ("Trust me. This is important.") in Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater adaptation of Cinderella, and even better as the title characters in Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. In 1990, she briefly returned to weekly television as co-star (with Whoopi Goldberg) of the offbeat sitcom Bagdad Café. Jean Stapleton was then an infrequent but always welcome TV guest-star presence; in 1995, she startled (and delighted) her Edith Bunker fans with her con brio portrayal of Lea Thompson's sex-starved aunt in an episode of Caroline in the City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
- PG
A cautious single mom and a frustrated writer dance around the prospect of getting together in this romantic comedy. Caustic, difficult Emily (Susan Sarandon) lives with her potty-mouthed son, Tim (Wil Wheaton), and her obnoxiously bossy mother (Jean Stapleton). Her social life consists of afternoon dalliances with a total cad. When part-time writer/inventor and full-time school security guard Joe (Richard Dreyfuss) passes up the chance to turn Tim in for not meeting the school's residency requirements, a paranoid Emily accuses him of masterminding a blackmail scheme. Unbeknownst to Emily, though, the friendless, fatherless Tim strikes up an unlikely friendship with Joe. Eventually, against her better judgement, so does Emily herself. But when one of Joe's inventions begins to take off, his sadistic ex-girlfriend, Carrie (Nancy Allen), shows up to spoil things. Directed by TV vet Glenn Jordan, The Buddy System was written by future Beaches scribe Mary Agnes Donohue. The film marked the feature debut of future Stand By Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation star Wheaton. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, (more)
- 1983
This is one of many versions of the fairy tale about a boy who trades his family cow for magical beans and soon finds himself on an adventure in a magical land. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1982
An impressive cast drives this early episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. Dennis Christopher -- best known from the 1979 sleeper hit Breaking Away -- is Jack, a boy who acquires a handful of magic beans in exchange for his poor family's cow. His mother, Soap's Katherine Helmond, is furious and throws the beans into garden beside the house. However, the beans grow overnight into a magnificent beanstalk that reaches into the clouds. Jack climbs the beanstalk only to find that it leads directly to the castle of a fierce yet wealthy giant. Elliot Gould and Jean Stapleton star as the giant and his equally gigantic wife. ~ Carrie Downes, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Jean Stapleton stars as Eleanor Roosevelt in this made-for-TV biography, first telecast May 12, 1982. The film recounts Mrs. Roosevelt's life after the 1945 death of her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the request of new president Truman, Eleanor serves as a United Nations delegate, spending much of her time tilting with dedicated anti-FDR politico John Foster Dulles (E.G. Marshall). She goes on to spearhead the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proving to Dulles--and to Soviet delegate Freddie Jones--that she's anything but soft on Communism. The winning teleplay for Eleanor: First Lady of the World was by Caryl Ledner and Cynthia Mandenberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Isabel (Jean Stapleton), a widowed executive secretary, is forced into early retirement by executive Lymon Jones (Richard Kiley), whom she herself trained. Actually, Jones has an ulterior motive; he's fallen in love with Isabel, and wants to marry her. Now Isabel must choose between Jones or keeping her job in order to train Jones's successor Peter Coyote. For her work in Isabel's Choice (working title: A Life of Her Own), Jean Stapleton won an award from the National Commission for Working Women. The made-for-TV film was first telecast December 16, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
PCP, a deadly drug commonly known as Angel Dust, made its first destructive appearances on the street in the late 1970s. In Angel Dusted, Jean Stapleton plays a cloistered housewife/mother who knows little and cares less about drug problems. Her son is a hard-working college student who decides to experiment just once with marijuana. The boy freaks out after smoking pot laced with PCP--and it doesn't look like he'll ever totally recover. Adding texture to the film is the presence of the film's screenwriter Darlene Craviotto as the boy's psychiatrist--and the presence of Jean Stapleton's real-life son John Putch in the role of her on-screen son. Angel Dusted was based on a book by Ursula Etons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
This is one of many versions of the fairy tale about a boy who trades his family cow for magical beans and soon finds himself on an adventure in a magical land. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1979
This TV movie stars Jean Stapleton as the real-life "Aunt" Mary Dobkin, a physically handicapped woman living in the Baltimore of the 1940s. Concerned that juvenile delinquency is destroying her neighborhood, Aunt Mary organizes the "Dobkin Dynamiters", a baseball team comprised of disadvantaged and minority children. As she fights to have her biracial team officially sanctioned by the highly segregated Baltimore power structure, Aunt Mary is further challenged by the amputation of her left leg and right foot. Nonetheless, she perseveres over the next two decades, providing nearly 35,000 disenfranchised boys the opportunity to escape the streets and play ball. Sportscaster Ernie Harwell, who'd once called the shots for the Baltimore Orioles, makes a cameo appearance in this 1979 Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Theodore Bikel returns as Bronx butcher Alvin Klemmer, the man who fell in love with Edith during All in the Family's eighth season. Insisting that he's gotten over his infatuation with Edith, Alvin introduces the Bunkers to his new fiancée, a mittel-European woman named Judith Klammerstadt. But even slow-on-the-uptake Archie realizes that Alvin's latest love bears an astonishing resemblance to Edith as well she should, since both Edith and Judith are played by Jean Stapleton (who, in her "other" role, is billed as Giovanna Pucci, an Italianized variation of the actress' married name, Mrs. Jean Putch). Written by Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf, "A Girl Like Edith" originally aired on January 14, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Archie rushes Stephanie to the hospital when she suffers an attack of appendicitis. Upon meeting Stephanie's doctor, however, Archie very nearly rushes Stephanie back home again. It turns out that Dr. Shapiro (George Wyner) was once the childhood playmate of Archie's daughter, Gloria -- and seemingly for this reason alone, he refuses to operate on Stephanie. Written by Phil Sharp and Milt Josefsberg, "The Appendectomy" first aired on January 21, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
The disappearance of several items from the Bunker household coincides with a rash of petty thefts from the school attended by Stephanie. Though Archie and Edith are reluctant to believe it, the evidence is irrefutable: Stephanie has been stealing. The question is how best to punish the girl, who, after all, is not really the Bunkers' daughter. Davis Roberts appears as school principal Mr. Ruskin. Written by Larry Rhine and Mel Tolkin, "Stephanie and the Crime Wave" was originally telecast on January 28, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Blanche Hefner has walked out on husband Barney several times in the past, but this time it's permanent. As usual, Barney tries to drown his sorrows at Archie's bar, thoroughly depressing the other patrons. Hoping to divest himself of Barney, Archie tries fixes his pal up with a wealthy and hefty widow named Martha Birkhorn (Peggy Rea). Written by Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf, Phil Sharp, and Milt Josefsberg, "Barney the Gold Digger" was first telecast on February 5, 1979 (in a Monday-night slot, a brief departure from the series' customary Sunday-evening home). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Fully aware of Archie's narrow-minded attitude towards minorities, Stephanie hides the fact that she's Jewish. The truth comes to the forefront thanks to the family's well-meaning minister, Reverend Chong (Clyde Kusatsu), to whom Stephanie confessed during a Sunday School session. Will Archie renounce Stephanie now that he knows she's not "one of his kind," or will he swallow his pride and prejudices (for the umpteenth time)? Written by Patt Shea and Harriet Weiss, "Stephanie's Conversion" first aired on February 18, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Edith faces a crisis of conscience when she is assigned to care for Sunshine Home resident Mrs. Loretta Dillon (Angela Clarke), an 81-year-old woman who is dying of heart failure. Though the rest of the staff is determined to keep Mrs. Dillon alive, she is equally determined to die with dignity. When the old woman begs Edith to "hold my hand and don't let go" late one evening, Edith does so, whereupon Mrs. Dillon quietly passes into the next world. As a consequence of not summoning assistance, Edith is promptly fired, but she cannot convince herself that she did anything wrong. Written by Patt Shea and Harriet Weiss, "Edith Gets Fired" originally aired on February 25, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Technically speaking, this was the 199th episode of All in the Family. But because the earlier one-hour episode "California Here We Are" was conceived as two half-hour installments, "The Best of All in the Family" was heralded as the series' 200th program. Hosted by producer Norman Lear, this 90-minute offering featured innumerable highlights from the series' eight seasons on the air, concentrating on the "character growth" of Edith, Gloria, and Mike and the gradual mellowing of the bigoted Archie. Also shown were clips from such controversial episodes as "Edith's 50th Birthday," in which Edith was held at knifepoint by a rapist. First telecast on March 4, 1979, "Best of All in the Family" has since been syndicated as three consecutive 30-minute episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Richard MacKenzie makes a return visit in the role of Archie Bunker's black-sheep brother, Fred (originally called Alfred in the 1978 episode "Archie's Brother"). Still hoping for a reconciliation with Archie, Alfred arrives at the Bunker household with his new bride, Katherine (Elissa Leeds), in tow. But this occasion makes Archie madder than ever -- Katherine is barely 18 years old. Scripted by Bob Schiller and Bob Weisskopf, "The Return of Archie's Brother" originally aired on March 11, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Much to Archie's discomfort, Edith insists upon rehearsing day and night for her singing duet with Stephanie at the annual PTA show. The night of the performance, Edith suffers from laryngitis. Reluctantly, and inevitably, Archie agrees to take Edith's place, making a musical debut that is truly one for the books. Written by Mel Tolkin and Larry Rhine, "A Night at the PTA" first aired on January 7, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Just when Archie has accustomed himself to the presence of foster daughter Stephanie, along comes Stephanie's no-good father (and Edith's cousin), Floyd Mills. Aware of the Bunkers' fondness for Stephanie, Floyd cagily offers to let the girl stay with them -- provided they pay him a thousand dollars. Ben Slack takes over from Marty Brill as the unsavory Mr. Mills. Also in the cast are veteran actors Victor Kilian and Charles Wagenheim, who, in a grim coincidence were murdered by the same assailant a few weeks before this episode aired on March 25, 1979. "The Return of Stephanie's Father" was written by Mel Tolkin and Larry Rhine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Edith agrees to show Mike and Gloria's old house to potential renters. But Archie is outraged; The prospective tenants are a black family, and he remembers his far-from-pleasant relationship with the house's previous African- American occupants, the Jefferson family. Isabel Sanford makes a "crossover" appearance in her familiar role of Louise Jefferson; other cast members include Janet MacLachlan as Polly and Richard Ward as Ed. Written by Mel Tolkin and Larry Rhine, "The Family Next Door" first aired on March 18, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1979
Edith is her usual bubbly, buoyant self as she prepares a special St. Patrick's Day dinner for the patrons of Archie's bar. But what Archie doesn't know is that Edith is paying a painful price for her cheerfulness; suffering from phlebitis, she had been ordered by her doctor to stay off her feet. Written by Patt Shea and Harriet Weiss, "Too-Good Edith" originally aired on April 8, 1979, as the 203rd and final episode of All in the Family. Most of the regular cast members would reassemble the following September for the spin-off series Archie Bunker's Place, which ran until 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1978
All in the Family star Jean Stapelton guest stars; meanwhile, chaos ensues following the return of Miss Piggy's ultimate rival, Annie Sue. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Season nine of All in the Family finds Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) in his second year as owner of his own neighborhood tavern, with his wife, Edith (Jean Stapleton), supporting his new project every inch of the way. Archie and Edith's daughter, Gloria (Sally Struthers), son-in-law, Mike (Rob Reiner), and grandson, Joey, are no longer regular characters, having moved from New York to California. However, the Bunkers pay Mike, Gloria, and Joey a visit at Christmastime -- only to discover that the younger couple is on the verge of divorce. Back at home, the Bunkers have become surrogate parents for little Stephanie Mills (Danielle Brisebois), who has been dumped on their doorstep by her father, Edith's no-good cousin Floyd. The introduction of Stephanie brings out the warmer, mellower side of the bombastic Archie, though there are still times that he re-emerges as his old reactionary self. Technically speaking, the ninth season of All in the Family marked the series' swan song. However, the venerable property would re-emerge the following year under a new title, Archie Bunker's Place. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1978
Having just had an argument, George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford) are hardly in the mood to be tied up back-to-back while a burglar (Philip Charles MacKenzie) ransacks their apartment. Brooding over their predicament, the feuding couple begins recalling the highlights -- and lowlights -- of their marriage. The late Zara Cully appears as Mother Jefferson in lengthy clips from earlier Jeffersons episodes, as do Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton in vignettes culled from All in the Family (in which the characters of The Jeffersons were first introduced). Originally telecast as a 90-minute special, "George and Louise in a Bind" has since been divided into three separate 30-minute segments for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
- 1978
Mike and Gloria are convinced that the spark has gone out of their marriage. To rekindle that spark, the Stivics spend a weekend in the Pocono Mountains. Unfortunately, the time alone only further convinces Mike and Gloria that something is seriously wrong with their relationship. Also appearing are Judy Kahan as Lorraine and Terry Kiser as Bob. Written by Larry Rhine and Mel Tolkin, "Stale Mates" first aired on February 19, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
