Comical Co-Stars of Television: From Ed Norton to Kramer

Some scholars credit Shakespeare with creating in Henry IV's Falstaff the first "second banada" character, but many television historians think that the popular co-star was born in 1955 when Art Carney, as Ed Norton, first addressed Jackie Gleason with a "Hey, Ralphie-boy" on The Honeymooners. The phenomenon has proved to be one of the most enduring achievements of the American sitcom. Twenty-nine of those popular co-stars get all of the attention in this work. Each chapter focuses on one television character and the actor or actress who brought him or her to life, and provides critical analysis, biographical information and, in several instances, interviews with the actors and actresses themselves. It includes people like Art Carney, Don Knotts of The Andy Griffith Show, Max Baer of The Beverly Hillbillies, Vivian Vance and William Frawley of I Love Lucy, Jamie Farr of M*A*S*H, Jimmie Walker of Good Times, Tom Poston of Newhart and Michael Richards of Seinfeld, to name a few.