Frank Bank

Frank Bank died yesterday.  Bank was known for his role as Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on the situation comedy Leave It to Beaver.



Bank was a bond broker in Los Angeles, California.

His autobiography, Call Me Lumpy: My Leave It To Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life, was published in 2002.

Good Night Lumpy

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Tony Figueroa

TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: June 6, 2012

Show No. 141 June 6, 2012

First hour: Pop culture historian Wesley Hyatt (Television’s Top 100, The Billboard Book of No. 1 Adult Contemporary Hits) on the legacy of Donna Summer and The Bee Gees, including their contributions to television and the world of music videos. Also in this hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen discuss the final episode of The Sopranos, which originally aired five years ago This Week in TV History, as well as the impact of the show on HBO and television in general. Second hour: Ed welcomes film and TV biographer Mary Ann Anderson, author of Ida Lupino Beyond the Camera, a poignant look at the life and career of the iconic actress and director, and Mr. Adams and Eve Illustrated, a behind-the-scenes look at the classic TV series starring Ida Lupino and Howard Duff. Also in this hour: Ed pays tribute to Emmy Award-winning actress Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives, The West Wing) with an encore presentation of her appearance last year on TV Confidential.

This Week in Television History: April 2012 PART V

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As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

April 30, 1997

In The Puppy Episode of the ABC sitcom Ellen, the character of Ellen Morgan (played by Ellen DeGeneres) announces that she is gay. The widely publicized episode featured cameos by Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, and Dwight Yoakam. An estimated 42 million viewers watched the special hour-long program. Ellen DeGeneres herself had come out earlier that year on The Oprah Winfrey Show and in TIME. Ellen is often credited to be the first primetime sitcom to feature a gay leading character but there was a sitcom titled Love, Sidney (1981 until 1983) staring the late Tony Randall. The first openly gay regular character on a sitcom was Soap's (1977) Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal.

Ellen Puppy Episode by tehdownloads

In the spring of 1994, Ellen DeGeneres was cast in a series called These Friends of Mine, but in the fall of 1994, she took center stage and the program was retiled Ellen. The program finished in the top 20 shows for the 1994-1995 season.

The outing ignited a storm of controversy, prompting ABC to place a parental advisory at the beginning of each episode.

Despite her success, and the enormous audience drawn by the coming-out episode, ABC cancelled the series at the end of the 1998 season. Although the network pointed to dwindling ratings, Ellen DeGeneres contended that the network buckled under pressure from conservative groups and stopped promoting the show after the controversial episode.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

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Tony Figueroa