Herb Tarlek in costume and holding a Arkansas Razorback coffee mug.
It’s no coincidence. Bonner slipped in similar branded props into his other roles.
I can’t say for certain the Tarlek character had a established backstory linked to Arkansas. Many fans in my state thought that was the reason for the mug.
Laverne Todd on Empty Nest was from the fictional town of Hickory Arkansas.
The show was a spinoff of The Golden Girls, and Laverne was played by Park Overall.
Double post. Mods please delete.
Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear on Wacky Races. At least, I would assume so from the name of their car, The Arkansas Chugabug.
Do you know that there is a wikipedia entry for each state for fictional characters from that state?:
It was almost a TV show. There was a televised pilot in 2013 but it didn’t perform well and the series didn’t get picked up. “Little Rock” was played by Izabela Vidovic. I suppose if Zombieland 2 is considered a success, the idea of a series might get revisited. Somebody could be working on it right now.
I remember an episode of it’s a living where Cassie’s family came to visit, and they were a bunch of stereotypical hicks. I don’t remember if they were from Arkansas, but they acted like it.
The movie, with Jim Varney et al., specifically named Arkansas, but the TV show? No idea.
Wayne Hays, from season 3 of True Detective, was from Conway, Arkansas.
The other was a patient named Jimmy Danielson, who does not appear to have his own page on that wiki. The episode was called “Promotion Commotion” and Colonel Potter sort of “adopts” him and teaches him to tie fishing flies, and the other members of his unit taunt him for perceived “unmanliness”.
Funny how things you know sometimes have no basis.
I would have sworn in court that the TV Clampetts were from Bugtussle, AR. I’ve “known” that for decades.
Where did I “learn” that?
They were from a fictional “Bug Tussle”; fans are still divided on whether it’s in MO or AR.
Jerry Jones, who plays the owner and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys on their weekly TV show is from Arkansas. There’s no way that that ass could be real.
I figured they were all from Tennessee because I remember Granny referring to being from that state. I didn’t know she had already moved to another state before moving to California.
There are a lot of points about the Clampett’s origins here.
There are reasons to say Tennessee. Granny is surely from Tennessee. Bugtussle is near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Bugtussle Hollow is in south central Tennessee. But Bugtussle could mean Oklahoma, Texas, or Alabama.
Maybe Bugtussle is a suburb of Springfield. Of course, there is a Springfield in each of Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee, so the Simpsons are no help.
In the early 90s there was a show with John Ritter, Markie Post and Billy Bob Thornton called Hearts Afire. Billy Bob Thornton’s character was from Arkansas, as is he.
Before this thread dies I thought I would post a summary:
Lt. Jim Dangle, Reno 911
Herbert Garrison, South Park
Caeser Martinez, The Walking Dead
Capt. Roy DuPree, MASH*
Jimmy Danielson, MASH*
Chuckles, G.I. Joe Adventures
Lavern Todd, Empty Nest
Lazy Luke, Wacky Races
Blubber Bear, Wacky Races
Billy Bob Davis, Hearts Afire
We also had the following:
July Johnson, Lonesome Dove [Does a “mini-series” count as a “television series”?]
Herb Tarlek, WKRP in Cincinnati [not explicitly proven]
Would anyone be interested in a new thread about the origins of the Beverly Hillbillies? If so, I will do some research, i.e., watch a whole lot of Beverly Hillbillies, before I start it.
Charlene (Jean Smart’s character) from Designing Women was from Poplar Bluff, Arkansas. (She was also friends with the then Governor Bill Clinton & his wife and the Waltons of Walmart - they were lesser known at the time the show was on the air).
Is this a fictional Poplar Bluff, Arkansas? There is no real Poplar Bluff in Arkansas but there is a real Poplar Bluff, Missouri only about 20 or 30 miles north of the Arkansas border.
Designingwomenonline.com (I never imagined there would be such a website) says that Charlene is from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. But how do we know if that is a reliable source? Fictional characters can come from fictional towns if they want to, right?
Well, we could say that Seinfeld was set in the fictional town of New York City, Arkansas but I think we’d have a hard time selling that idea.
