I never thought Flip Wilson was that wonderful a comedian. He struck me as a guy with about three good bits and four good catch phrases, plus his Geraldine identity, which was fun in limited doses until he started getting into drag to play her. In interviews, he used to talk about his various characters like the Reverend Leroy and Freddie the Swinger, and I wondered if anyone ever told him that, Geraldine aside, they were all the same person: Same voice, same look, same attitude, etc. But I will say this for the guy: He knew how to work an audience and make them love him, which is sometimes better than actually being funny.
So why am I mentioning this now, years after this death? It's because TV Land is about to start rerunning the 1970-1974 Flip Wilson Show, starting with an all-day, all-night marathon the weekend of July 3-4. I remember not liking Flip but liking his show, which usually had good writing and a fabulous array of guest stars. What TV Land is airing are cut-down versions which trim the hour shows to 30 minutes, presumably dumping the lesser moments. Here's the schedule and as you'll see, there aren't many people who were big in show business in the early seventies who didn't put in an appearance. Which is why I'm setting the TiVo to grab a bunch of episodes.