Today I took my new label maker for a spin and it was an experience beyond anything I could’ve imagined in the early ’90s, when my dweeby hand-cranked red Dymo I.D. was the height of organizational glamour and sophistication. “Make me one!” Crankenstein requested as I clicked through dazzling options for adjusting the font, size and formatting. That’s how she ended up taking a selfie with a ‘lesbian’ label on her forehead.
My other evening project was to collect the screen caps I’d promised of Janis Paige’s wardrobe from her first guest spot on Eight is Enough. She played Dick Van Patten’s free-spirited sister, Vivian (also known as Auntie V), in at least five episodes, beginning with “V is for Vivian.” I’m a Paige admirer, as you might’ve gleaned from my review of Valentine Magic on Love Island, and it was nice spotting her in the wild like this since I’d been unable to honor her by watching one of her films following her death last month at the impressive age of 101.
If you’re also a Paige fan, pour yourself a glass of Ovaltine — or something a bit stiffer, like Auntie V preferred — and let’s stroll down memory lane. She’s dressed unremarkably at first, in a typical late ’70s wide-collared shirt with vest and matching pants, but Paige’s wigs were always a wonder to behold and this offering from the Mike Brady/Robert Reed collection was no exception.
By the seventh episode of the first season, the Bradford household had been motherless for nearly half its run; Diana Hyland’s death wouldn’t be addressed until the start of the second season. Aunt Viv is introduced as a force of nature who once inspired Tom to overcome the odds and physically rehabilitate himself after a horrible accident, and she captivates some of her nieces and nephews — and alienates others — by relentlessly encouraging them to seize the day and pursue their dreams.
Paige wears a denim jacket and bell bottoms when she takes Susan (Susan Richardson) on a skydiving (mis)adventure, but it’s hard to pull your gaze from the eyewear her wig-fur attempted to devour.
Who among us can’t relate to Joanie (Laurie Walters) idolizing an eccentric aunt who travels with a special costume for enjoying Asian cuisine?
Mary, despite being heterosexual, is in humorless lesbian mode throughout “V is for Vivian,” and if we can discuss Lani O’Grady’s wardrobe for a moment, I had a similar shirt around 20 years ago, in shades of green, from the Gap. But unlike Mary, I would’ve shown proper reverence to V’s ostrich feather dress.
It would’ve required great powers of prescience, since the song was two years away from docking atop the charts, but with David (Grant Goodeve) in construction garb and Aunt Viv dressed as a randy sailor, it was a missed opportunity to put Van Patten in a headdress and have the trio perform “In the Navy.”
Sadly, that was Viv’s final ensemble for this episode, but if she’s equally fashionable (and, day I say, inspiring) during her second appearance, I’ll cover it here.