Monday, November 19, 2007

Dick Wilson (Mr. Whipple), R. I. P.

'Mr. Whipple' actor Dick Wilson dies - CNN.com: "LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Dick Wilson, the character actor and pitchman who for 21 years played an uptight grocer begging customers 'Please, don't squeeze the Charmin,' died Monday. He was 91.

Dick Wilson played Mr. Whipple in more than 500 commercials for Charmin toilet paper. The man famous as TV's 'Mr. Whipple' died of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, said his daughter Melanie Wilson, who is known for her role as a flight attendant on the ABC sitcom 'Perfect Strangers.'"

2 comments:

Cap'n Bob said...

I loathed those commercials. He was better as an SS officer on Hogan's Heroes.

Anonymous said...

i cant believe me and capt bob actually agree on something. actually the whole ad campaign was vile. a "grocer" - traditionally depicted as a pleasant, mindless,idiot anyway - actually crosses the retail line of good judgement and tries to sabotage a sale. a toilet paper sale. he intrudes on a customer who probably, at least until he makes his rectal-hygiene selection, probably wants to be alone. we are supposed to find this kind of intrusion endearing. "he's just an idiot grocer, let's cut the goofy fellow some slack" we are supposed to think. over and above all this is the matter of the "softness" itself: charmin is wrapped in a kind of powdery paper that is unique among toilet paper packaging; especially when it is compared to a roll of, say, scottissue that is wrapped singly, with paper even more rugged than the paper it encloses, though many experts insist that this is not possible. plus, it is clear from mr whipple's pastey, slack, unathletic appearance, that he does very little of the brute-work that needs to be done in a grocery store, preferring instead to hang-out at the toilet paper aisle to discuss anal maintenance with female strangers. I could go on for another thousand words but i am starting to type too fast in anger. i could break the machine. it would be funny if the trees around his tombstome were all TP'd. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!