As a title character in the sitcom in the middle of the century “Dennis the threat” ,,, North JayWho died Sunday at 73, was among my first television stars, even before having a notion of what a television star was. And he was definitely a star – billed on the adults who played his parents and a neighbor eternally put -upon Mr. Wilson, played in a memorable way by the great Joseph Kearns.
I lived when I was a child on a double dose of Dennis, in the daily newspaper, where Hank ketchamThe character saw life for the first time in 1951 and on television. I guess I was aware of the show, which took place from 1959 to 1963 and in replay for many years later – it is currently available on Peacock and various other platforms – before comics, because I have certainly watched television before I could read. (However, to think about it, the comics may have been read – Oh, the big days of the funny pages.)
North television appearance was as a guest in the local Kids show “The engineer Bill's Cartoon Express”, “ where he was spotted by a talent agent. Small pieces in various television dramas and a few feature films led to “Dennis”, where it was poured into the emblematic costume – an overalls, a striped shirt, with a slingshot that came out of a rear pocket and a sticky cowlick like a car antenna in the back of his head. Dennis is 5 years old in comics; The actor was 8 years old when he started playing it and continued until the age of 12, when he was at least allowed to exchange the overalls for pants. (I was quite critical of television, even to feel cognitive dissonance.)
Calvin's godfather (of “Calvin and Hobbes”) and Bart Simpson, Dennis is, unlike them, a lot of a child; He has no adult thinking, he is not an instrument for satire. It is not a smart-poteck or a small devil. He is cheerful and serious, even on the game. He is not afraid of anything, confident in his own ideas, the way many children are and most of them learn later not to be, and ensure in knowledge that everyone loves him, even those who do not particularly do it.
Indeed, he is a good child, even too good; his attempts to help lead to disasters (of a minor and corrected type); Things will be broken. You could say that with regard to Dennis, no target of a good action remains unpunished. (The brief generic opening imagines him as a real whirlwind.))
In the comics, the character was sometimes forced to sit in the corner (the gag was his explanation of everything that put him there), but has he already been punished on television? I should go through 146 episodes to discover it, but I do not suspect. If it were, it didn't stick.
Toddlers at that time were generally prepared for adulthood; Their misadventures generally and gently led to learned lessons. But there is no point in trying to teach Dennis anything; On the page and screen, the Mitchels, which are tolerant if they are often tested, are wise enough to know that they cannot win – whatever they do, there is another panel that arrives the next day, another episode to come next week, and Dennis will remain the chaos agent he was created.
For adult readers and viewers, it is a comic scamp; For a child, it is an ideal. In my mind, it is a bit mixed with my friend of the Grade Danny Shannon school, who, as a blonde kid, with a certain daring carefreeness was closer to Dennis (and north) than ever, and next to whom I read the pocket book collections, the way young people of the 21st century could look at their phones.
There was, of course, an inevitable date of sale for Dennis de North. David and Ricky Nelson could age “The adventures of Ozzie & Harriet”, “ But, like Bart Simpson, Dennis Mitchell, linked to a cartoon, could not.
The next and last television series of the actor was “Maya”, in 1967, semi-species of a 1966 film in which he also played. He lasted 18 episodes; I know I watched it, but I can't tell you much except that it was turned on site in India – unusual! -presented an elephant and co-suffered Sajid Khan, the first South Asian teenage idol in America, if you do not count Sabu. (De Tiger Beat: “The deep appearance of the wonder behind the brilliant brown eyes of Sajid increases every day. He cannot believe the love and the success that showed him here in America. It happened quickly with the arms of the fans everywhere and by holding his hand, shaking Sajid and telling him that he is their most recent favorite.” But I digress.) North as a teenager. What clips I could find from the show reveal it as a black hair tank, little resembling its younger self, playing new mature attitudes.
North post-“Maya” actor career has been dispersed and brief. The filming of “Dennis” had been a bad experience in his own account – the aunt who was his tutor on the set was abusive – and he was involved in the former star of “Donna Reed Show” Paul Petersen Minor considerationA plea group for the recovery of children actors. As an adult, he did a cartoon voice, especially by playing in an episode of “The Simpsons”, but did not seriously pursue a business career.
The expression range required of him on “Dennis the Menace” was not wide, and subtlety has never been the goal of the show. But it was North who brought the character of two in four dimensions, and he gave the movement and music of Dennis. The sound of his “Helll-OMr. Wilson “(and”GOOD Old M. Wilson “and” Gee, THANKSMr. Wilson ”) still lives in my ear. But he radiated a brightness and, well, a threat distinct from any actor of a televised child of his time; He had the role, when he corresponded to him, and as much as anyone or anything made the series a success.
Although there have been a few other Dennises since, notably Mason Gamble, opposite Walter Matthau, in a 1993 Theatrical Liberation (And in particular Justin Cooper, opposite Don Rickles, in the 78 directly to the video “Dennis the threat strikes again”), I did not take the trouble to meet them. It would seem unfair.
