Joe And Mabel aired from June until September 1956 on CBS.
The course of true love never quite ran smooth for Joe and Mabel. Joe ( Larry Blyden) was a big-city cabdriver and Mabel ( Nita Talbot) was his girlfriend. Although he eventually planned to marry her, Joe's idea of when did not seem soon enough for Mabel. She was always trying to trap him into proposing and setting a date for the wedding. Mabel lived at home with her mother ( Luella Gear) and her little brother Sherman ( Michael Mann), who helped her scheme to trap Joe. Joe's best friend was Mike ( played by 32 year old Norman Feld who would soon change his name to Norman Fell and would achieve his greatest fame as landlord Stanley Roper in the 1970's classic sitcom Three's Company). Mike was also a cabdriver and he thought Joe was better off preventing the Inevitable as long as possible.
Here is Larry Blyden's Biography
23 June 1925, Houston, Texas, USA
6 June 1975, Agadir, Morocco (road accident)
Genial, dark-haired, often bespectacled Ivan Lawrence Blieden (pronounced Blee-den), better known as actor Larry Blyden, was born in Houston, Texas, the son of a lawyer. He developed an early interest in acting, appearing in various theater productions as a teen but never entertained the notion of pursuing a career. Following a stint with the Marine Corps, however, he went to college at the University of Houston and supplemented his income with a job as a local radio announcer, finding himself highly proficient at foreign accents. Bitten by the acting bug, he decided to give performing a serious try this time, first training at London's Royal Academy of Arts, then moving to New York. It was Broadway that subsequently gave Larry marquee value, contributing strongly to a string of successes. These included not only such staple comedies as "Mr. Roberts", "Oh Men! Oh Women!" and "Absurd Person Singular", but the musicals "Flower Drum Song" (Tony nomination), "The Apple Tree" and "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum", the last earning him the Tony award in 1972. In the early 1950s Larry was initially a noticeable presence in TV drama, but, as his career progressed, he found a more comfortable niche in breezy comedy. He even landed a couple of his own sitcoms "Joe & Mabel" (1956) and "Harry's Girls" (1963), short-lived as they were. Larry projected a very temperate, clean-cut image which some critics deemed as bland. As a result, film roles were scarce - three to be exact: Kiss Them for Me (1957) starring 'Cary Grant' (qv) and Jayne Mansfield, The Bachelor Party (1957) with Don Murray (I) and Carolyn Jones (I), and Barbra Streisand's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970). Larry was also a big game show enthusiast and was seen frequently as a panelist on "Password" (1961) and "To Tell the Truth" (1969), among many others. In 1972, he became a familiar daytime face after replacing 'Wally Bruner' (qv) as host of the syndicated "What's My Line?" (1968). Larry married 'Bob Fosse' (qv) dancer/extraordinaire Carol Haney in 1955. They remained a popular Gotham couple until their split seven years later. Haney, who was pure electric in the Broadway and film versions of "The Pajama Game", was a severe diabetic and died suddenly at age 39 in 1964, two years after their divorce. This left Blyden a single parent with two children to raise. He never remarried. Blyden himself died fairly young, killed in a car accident while traveling in Morocco. He was only 49. Highly personable and modestly unassuming, Larry Blyden may not have hit the heights, but he was a recognizable name and a durable talent - one of Broadway's brighter lights for over two decades.
A rabid collector of antiquities, who would often travel to the fartherest corners of the world in pursuit of a find, Blyden was investigating just such a dig in Morocco when he was killed in an automobile accident at the age of 49. Because there was no identification on the body, his family did not learn of the tragedy for several days afterward.
Had two children: Joshua Blyden (born in 1957, and named after Joshua Logan) and Ellen (born 1960).
Won a Tony Award as best supporting or featured actor (musical) for the 1972 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He was also nominated as best actor (musical) in 1959 for Flower Drum Song, and as best supporting or featured actor (drama) in 1975 for Absurd Person Singular.
A close friend since boyhood of actor Rip Torn. Friends back in Texas referred to the two boys as Torn and Bleedin' (Blieden)
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