Love Finds Muldoon

Alice Ghostley provides one of the most memorable guest appearances in the two-year history of this famous TVcomedy. She plays a woman "who has no pride."

Ghostley is hilarious as "Bonita Calsheim," an old school acquaintance of "Lucille Toody." Lucille is trying to find a woman for poor "Francis Muldoon" (Fred Gwynne). When she runs into "Miss Calsheim" at the department store, and finds out she's single, she immediately arranges it so that available woman and Muldoon will meet for dinner at their house.

I could go on and on about this episode, since I never forgot after first seeing it 50 years ago. The highlight, for me, was Ghostley lifting a heavy barbell and someone in the canned laughter in the show screaming at that moment. I will laugh forever at that scene.

Bonita's trials with Muldoon and her obsession with Ramon Navarro make this one of the best Car 54, Where Are You? episodes ever.

In a show I find generally very funny, Alice Ghostley really shines. Somewhat less pitiable than her Esmeralda role on Bewitched, she still unfortunately suffers from low self-esteem, but she turns out to have quite a bit of allure. Francis' sisters are crazy about her! And when you catch her playing piano and singing, followed by violin, trumpet, trombone, and musical saw, how could you not be as well?! Not to mention her weight-lifting skills as well!

Being an early '60s sitcom, it of course suffers from gendered stereotypes, but the writers were intelligent enough to poke fun at many of those conventions. And Alice Ghostley was positively enchanting as Bonita, unlike her disenchanted Esmeralda character.