- as
Harcourt
Fenton Mudd from Star Trek,
Mudd's
Women (1966)
Rotund, handlebar
mustachioed comedian/character actor, a familiar face on television
for almost three decades until his death. Best known as interstellar
villain Harcourt Fenton Mudd on the original Star Trek (1966) series,
Roger Buell on the short-lived (1967-1969) but well-remembered series
The Mothers-In-Law (1967), and Colonel Gumm, a guest villain on
Batman (1966).
Roger C. Carmel, who was born September
27th, 1932, was named after his grandfather, Roger Charles, who
carved the horses for the carousel in New York's Central Park. He
became an actor and won television immortality by appearing as Harry
Mudd in two classic "Star Trek" episodes, "I,
Mudd" and "Mudd's Women." Carmel was one of the few
actors, other than the regulars, to appear in two episodes of
"Star Trek" as the same character.
After appearing on stage, Carmel began
working steadily on television in the early 1960s as a character
actor, appearing on both dramas ("Route 66") and situation-comedies
("The Dick Van Dyke Show"). The highlight of Carmel's non
"Star Trek" acting career came in 1967, when he was cast as
Kay Ballard's husband in the TV situation comedy "The Mothers in
Law" by Desi Arnaz, the Cuban-born actor and entertainment
impresario's first production since I Love Lucy (1951).
The network, NBC, was disappointed by the
mediocre ratings of "The Mothers-in-Law" and almost
canceled it. It picked the show up for a second season after rival
network ABC expressed interest in the show, but the network informed
Arnaz that they would not give any additional money for the show.
Traditionally, salaries are increased when a TV show is picked up for
a new season, and all the actors' contracts specifically called for
raises in the event of renewal.
Show creator Arnaz, who was also producer,
director, and writer, called together the cast and crew and told them
that although the series had been renewed, there was no money for
salary increases. According to Carmel's own recollection, Arnaz was
already drawing down multiple salaries on the program, and would
shortly cast himself as a supporting character in the series, thus
drawing another salary, although Carmel didn't know that at the time.
Arnaz elicited a promise from the creative people, the crew and the
actors to forgo salary increases to keep the show on the air. All the
actors had agreed but one: Roger Carmel. He told Arnaz he would quit
unless he received a raise, as per his contract.
In a contemporaneous account of the
incident, Carmel said, "Desi called me and put it on a personal
basis. I didn't feel it should be done that way - it was very unfair
of him. Then Desi and the Morris Agency threatened I would be
replaced. Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden also called me and asked me to
go along, but I wouldn't."
Arnaz's
response to Carmel's ultimatum was dismissive. "Where else is
he going to make two thousand dollars a week?" the producer
asked rhetorically. If Arnaz's Desilu production company gave in to
Carmel, it would be faced with giving all the cast members a raise,
which was financially unviable with the money on offer from NBC.
Arnaz was forced to terminate Carmel, who was replaced by fellow
"Dick Van Dyke Show" alumnus Richard Deacon for the second
season. The show had poor ratings and was canceled after its second season.
After being fired from "The Mothers-in-Law,",
Carmel's acting career suffered. Other than his Harry Mudd
appearances, Carmel's most memorable gig on TV was as Colonel Gumm on
"Batman" in 1967. He made regular appearances on the
syndicated quiz TV show "Stump The Stars" from 1968 to
1970. Carmel even reprised his most famous role, that of Harry Mudd,
in an episode of the animated version of "Star Trek"
(1973-75), an indicator of the direction of his future career.
However, during the 1970s, he could not secure another regular role
as an ongoing character on a TV series, though he continued to appear
regularly on sitcoms, mostly in ethnic roles, including appearances
on "All In The Family," "Chico and The Man," and
"Three's Company." He also appeared in B-movie bombs,
including the Jerry Lewis flop "Hardly Working" (1981).
At
the dawn of the new decade of the 1980s, Carmel finally got another
opportunity for the first time in a dozen years, when he was cast as
a regular on the network program "Fitz and Bones." An
hour-long drama starring the TV comedy-musical duo The Smothers
Brothers as investigative reporters, the show was a ratings failure,
lasting only one month. After this monumental flop ("Fitz and
Bones" was the lowest-rated series for the entire 1981-82
season), character parts dried up and Carmel was reduced to doing
voice-over work for children's cartoons, including "The Transformers."
Carmel's last triumph as an actor was in
commercials. Carmel was a huge hit in advertising playing Senor
Naugles, a faux-Mexican Colonel Sanders clone, for the West Coast
region Mexican fast food chain Naugles. The commercials were a
success and the chain began expanding rapidly. However, both the
renewed success of Roger C. Carmel and the fresh success of the chain
were, sadly, to prove short-lived.
According to acquaintances, Carmel was
struck by chest pains on the night he died and called a cab to take
him to the hospital. When the cab showed up at his Hollywood
high-rise but Carmel did not come down to get it, the doorman sent
the cab away, never inquiring why he failed to appear. Carmel was
found dead on the floor of his apartment the next morning, November
11th, 1986. While there were rumors that he committed suicide (he was
rumored to be a recreational drug user), the official cause of death
was listed as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart
muscle in which the organ becomes enlarged. The condition leads to
congestive heart failure, which apparently is what struck down
Carmel. He was only 54 years old.
Roger C. Carmel's body was interred in
Glendale, New York.
After Carmel's death, Naugles failed to
come up with another successful ad campaign, and eventually, its
financial fortunes changed. It was eventually acquired by rival Del Taco.
Selected Roger
C. Carmel TVography
Adventures of the Gummi Bears
- A Hard Dazed Knight/Do Unto Ogres (voice 1986)
- The Crimson Avenger (voice 1986)
- Over the River and Through the
Trolls/You Snooze, You Lose (voice 1986)
- Up, Up, and Away (voice 1986)
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
- Crimson Witness (1965)
All in the Family
- Fire (1977)
Armstrong Circle Theatre
- The Secret Crime (1962)
- The Crime Without a Country (1961)
B.J. and the Bear
- The Eyes of Texas (1979)
Banacek
- To Steal a King (1972)
Batman
- Batman's Satisfaction (1967)
- A Piece of the Action (1967)
Blue Light
- The Secret War (1966)
Car 54, Where Are You?
- Stop Thief (1962)
CBS Storybreak
- Mama Don't Allow (1987)
Chico and the Man
- Long Live the Man (1975)
- The Giveaway (1975)
The Defenders
- The Hundred Lives of Harry Simms (1961)
The Dick Van Dyke Show
- It Wouldn't Hurt Them to Give Us a Raise (1964)
Diff'rent Strokes
- On Your Toes (1982)
Disneyland
- My Dog, the Thief: Part 1 and 2 (1969)
The Doris Day Show
- Defective Story (1972)
DuckTales
- Master of the Djinni (1987)
East Side/West Side
- Not Bad for Openers (1963)
Everglades
- Unwanted: Dead or Alive (1962)
Fitz and Bones
- A Difficult Lesson (1981)
- To Kill a Ghost (1981)
- Blue Pigeon Blues (1981)
- Terror at Newsline 3 (1981)
Get Christie Love!
- I'm Your New Neighbor (1975)
Getting Together
- Beep, Beep (1971)
The Glo Friends
- Starnose (voice 1986)
Great Ghost Tales
- Mr. Arcularis (1961)
The Greatest Show on Earth
- Lady in Limbo (1963)
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
- Nancy Drew's Love Match (1977)
Hart to Hart
- 'Tis the Season to Be Murdered (1980)
Hawaii Five-O
- The Ninety-Second War: Part 1 (1972)
- F.O.B. Honolulu: Part 1 and 2 (1971)
The High Chaparral
- The New Lion of Sonora (1971)
Hogan's Heroes
- The Prisoner's Prisoner (1965)
I Spy
- Red Sash of Courage (1967)
- The Barter (1966)
- Affair in T'Sien Cha (1965)
Insight
- Is the 11:59 Late This Year? (1969)
The Invisible Man
- Stop When Red Lights Flash (1975)
Ironside
- Walls Are Waiting (1971)
It Takes a Thief
- The Bill Is in Committee (1968)
Jonny Quest
- voice actor (1986)
Laverne & Shirley
- Murder on the Moose Jaw Express: Part 1
and 2 (1980)
Look Up and Live
- A Likely Story (1961)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- The Ultimate Computer Affair (1965)
- The Quadripartite Affair (1964)
McCloud
- The Man with the Golden Hat (1975)
McMillan & Wife
- Death of a Monster... Birth of a Legend (1973)
The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo
- Mystery on the Orly Express (1980)
The Mothers-In-Law
- series regular as Roger Buell (30
episodes 1967-1968)
The Munsters
- Lily Munster, Girl Model (1965)
My Little Pony 'n Friends
- Mulligan (voice 1986)
My Living Doll
- A Paris Original (1965)
- The Rhoda Gamble (1964)
Naked City
- The S.S. American Dream (1963)
- Spectre of the Rose Street Gang (1962)
- Today the Man Who Kills Ants Is Coming (1962)
- The Day the Island Almost Sank (1961)
- Landscape with Dead Figures (1961)
- The Pedigree Sheet (1960)
The Patty Duke Show
- Author! Author! (1964)
The Paul Lynde Show
- Springtime for Paul (1973)
The San Pedro Beach Bums
- The Winner's Circle (1977)
Premiere
- The Freebooters (1968)
The Pruitts of Southampton
- Phyllis, the General Stealer (1966)
Route 66
- Where There's a Will, There's a Way:
Part 1 & 2 (1964)
- The Man on the Monkey Board (1960)
The Smothers Brothers Show
- A Wolf in Sheik's Clothing (1966)
Star Trek: The Animated Series
- Mudd's Passion (voice 1973)
Star Trek
- I, Mudd (1967)
- Mudd's Women (1966)
Switch
- The Late Show Murders (1975)
Three's Company
- Ralph's Rival (1979)
Transformers
- series voice actor, 32 episodes (1985-1987)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
- The Machines Strike Back (1965)
Arnaz's
response to Carmel's ultimatum was dismissive. "Where else is
he going to make two thousand dollars a week?" the producer
asked rhetorically. If Arnaz's Desilu production company gave in to
Carmel, it would be faced with giving all the cast members a raise,
which was financially unviable with the money on offer from NBC.
Arnaz was forced to terminate Carmel, who was replaced by fellow
"Dick Van Dyke Show" alumnus Richard Deacon for the second
season. The show had poor ratings and was canceled after its second season.
At
the dawn of the new decade of the 1980s, Carmel finally got another
opportunity for the first time in a dozen years, when he was cast as
a regular on the network program "Fitz and Bones." An
hour-long drama starring the TV comedy-musical duo The Smothers
Brothers as investigative reporters, the show was a ratings failure,
lasting only one month. After this monumental flop ("Fitz and
Bones" was the lowest-rated series for the entire 1981-82
season), character parts dried up and Carmel was reduced to doing
voice-over work for children's cartoons, including "The Transformers."
