On TV, George Wendt was just another character actor when he stepped into the role of Bostonian Norm Peterson, a portly 30-something with a laissez-faire attitude and sardonic wit on Cheers. His line, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world and I’m wearing Milkbone underwear” is one of the best lines ever written not just in TV but all entertainment.
Wendt passed away on May 20, 32 years to the day the last Cheers aired its series finale. Sometimes the universe works perfectly. Norm would be the last customer Sam Malone (Ted Danson) would serve as they have a little heart-to-heart talk. Norm tells Sam he could never leave his “one true love” referring to the bar itself. He leaves locking the door behind him so Sam can be look around and realize what he meant, tell a man who shows up, “Sorry, we’re closed” as the episode ends.
After Cheers ended, Wendt back to the character actor roles in Disney’s Man of the House, Spice World and Outside Providence, produced by the Farrelly Brothers where he played a closeted gay man. In one of the first season episodes of Cheers, Norm got upset over suspected gay people in the bar after Sam shows support for a friend and former ballplayer (Alan Autry) who reveals he’s gay in his autobiography. It was groundbreaking for the early 1980s but now it’s a different story.
Autry would have a minor role as a police officer in one of Wendt’s biggest roles in the 1985 comedy-horror cult classic House. He plays Harold Gorton, the somewhat nosey but still friendly neighbor who befriends famed author Roger Cobb (William Katt), when he returns to his late aunt’s Victorian-style house to work on his memoirs of his tour of duty in Vietnam.
His agent tells him that no one is interested in the Vietnam War anymore. This is comical because the mid to late 1980s had an explosion of Vietnam War-themed movies and TV shows. These included Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, Off Limits, Casualties of War and even Rambo: First Blood Part II was set in Vietnam involving prisoners-of-war. Then there was the Mission in Action trilogy. On TV, you had Tour of Duty, China Beach and HBO’s Vietnam War Story anthology.
Roger is separated from his wife, Sandy Sinclair (Kay Lenz), a popular TV actress following the disappearance and suspected kidnapping of their son, Jimmy (Mark and Erik Silver) some time earlier. Roger’s aunt Elizabeth (Susan French) believed it was a supernatural entity in the house. But this was dismissed as the ramblings as a senile elderly woman by Sandy.
The movie begins with a grocery delivery boy discovering the body of Elizabeth hanging by a noose in one of the rooms. But as Roger soon notices the house itself has a lot of strange things going on as he works on his memoir with flashbacks to Vietnam. One of the infantrymen in his platoon was Big Ben (Richard Moll) who was captured by the Viet Cong and killed. Ben had told Roger to kill him when he was wounded because he didn’t want to captured. But Roger couldn’t and has been living with survivor’s guilt since.
Despite the blend of humor and great special effects make-up given the budget, the final act is more of a let down. This was released through the low-budget New World Pictures. SPOILERS ALERT!! It’s revealed that the entity was the spirit of Ben who sought revenge against Roger for leaving him to be captured. I was actually hoping there would be something more to the entity. But I will say the zombified creature of Big Ben is impressive for the time and budget. So are all the other creatures and entities shown in the movie.
And Harold at first seems like he’s skeptical of Roger who tells him he believes there are ghosts in the house. He soon realizes there’s a lot more going on in the house than an eccentric writer dealing with grief. While Katt is the protagonist, Wendt is still able to add some of his charm and big brother/fun uncle feeling that he always brought to many of his comic roles.
This same year Wendt had played Fat Sam in the comedy classic Fletch who is a lowly drug dealer for the corrupt police chief played by Joe Don Baker who recently passed away himself earlier this month. Wendt would go on to appear in many movies, TV shows and on theater through the 30 years following Cheers last episode.
The House franchise itself would become an anthology with House II: The Second Story featuring John Ratzenberger in a supporting role. I’m also proud to say that I say this House movie (which was the only one rated PG-13) in the theaters. But this wasn’t the end of the horror genre for Wendt as he would also appear on the horror anthology show Masters of Horror.
The series created by Mick Garris ran for two seasons on Showtime and had a difficult broadcast, even though it featured shows directed by Garris himself and other famed horror directors such as Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Dario Argento, Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante and John Landis. It was in the second episode of the second season titled “Family” and directed by Landis where Wendt would show off more of his macabre style.
Incidentally, the episode is also about a homeowner named Harold who has some new neighbors move into the neighborhood. Only, this Harold isn’t just a nosey, friendly neighbor, but a psychopathic serial killer who abducts and murders people. He disposes of their flesh and internal organs by pouring acid on them. After he’s cleaned their skeletal remains, he ties them together to form his own “family.”
While it might seem disturbing to see the loveable lunk that was Hillary Norman Peterson as a madman, Wendt and Landis give the episode the right mixture of creepiness and calmness. Wendt’s character is named Harold Thompson who talks to the skeleton family about the new neighbors David and Celia Fuller (Matt Keeslar and Meredith Monroe).
One night, they accidentally run into Harold’s mail box which is covered in a brick structure. This leads to Harold meeting the Fullers and it seems that Harold might be intending to make them his next victims. But there’s a twist at the end that is for the squeamish but it is well made.
I’d like to think that both House and “Family” kinda live in the same universe. In House, Harold never seems to be at work. But he could be on vacation. Yet, I think Harold may have already started his killing spree. He’s killed the original owners and is living off their finances. He recognizes Roger and pretends to be his biggest fan by carrying around one of his paperbacks that is tearing apart so it looks like he’s always reading it.
Harold also eyes another neighbor, Tanya (Mary Stavin), who attracts the eye of Roger as she is jogging a lot around the neighborhood. After the events of this movie, Harold movies to a new town and neighborhood, changes his name from Gorton to the more common Thompson and continues his killing spree.
But sadly, there’s always a last call. And even though he can’t drink it anymore, pour one for Wendt. We were all fortunate to know your name.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 