Men may go after the “traditional” trophy-wife looking woman, but they are always interested in those that show a little backbone.

Disney and Bob Newhart are responsible for introducing me to Suzanne Pleshette.  Wait, that’s not exactly correct — My parents insisted on watching two things early in my life that introduced me to her.  Blackbeard’s Ghost was a fun Disney movie with Dean Jones and Peter Ustinov that my mom loved.  In this movie, Pleshette played the woman fought over by Jones and the villain.  At the same time, TBS aired nightly reruns of The Bob Newhart Show, which my parents always had on.  Here, Pleshette’s Emily advanced how women were played as wives in sitcoms, actually laying groundwork for Roseanne and company in later years.  The common thread for the two roles is that she never backed down from a challenge and refused to wait on the sidelines to be rescued.  At some point, I have to watch The Birds — for several reasons.

Here’s to a funny lady that I was lucky enough to grow up watching — Hopefully, she and Blackbeard’s Ghost are out having fun…