It's interesting to note that while the controversial Vietnam War was still on, this "service comedy" had good ratings. It helped that the show took place at boot camp, but it also helped that kindly Gomer (and exasperated Sgt. Carter) were likable in their comic give and take.
While some were not too thrilled with Jim's strangely gooey baritone, he sold a lot of records featuring sentimental music and "easy listening" hits. He was a favorite at the INDY 500 singing "The Star Spangled Banner," and turned up in dinner theater productions of "The Music Man" and "Man of La Mancha," somehow able to win over audiences who couldn't have imagined him in either role. And yes, he played Vegas and, had his own variety shows, and was good at sketch comedy with Carol Burnett.
Burnett booked him as a "good luck charm" at the start of every season, and it was Carol who pulled some strings to get Jim a liver transplant in the 90's.
Obits have noted that Jim was in a relationship for about 38 years with the man he finally married when it became legal in 2013. No, he was never in a relationship with Rock Hudson.
Gays and old women seem to love malicious gossip. There was Kenneth Anger's often error-filled "Hollywood Babylon," and there's currently "Perez Hilton," who won fame by drawing penises over the mouths of female celebrities on his website. There's also Harvey Levin, who runs what is most certainly the most powerful and obnoxious gossip website on the Internet, TMZ. The old bags, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons are long dead.
The infamous Rock Hudson-Jim Nabors wedding rumor was concocted, as Hudson himself grimly admitted, by "middle-aged homosexuals who live in Huntington Beach," a clique who thought they were being funny with their catty, campy games. For their screechy annual party, they sent out wedding invitations insisting the event would include the marriage of Hudson and Nabors. At the time, gay rumors could destroy the career of a leading man like Hudson, who was quite closeted.
Somehow the merriment of this catty gay "humor" at its most nasty, gained traction. Since it emanated from the gay underground, it was taken as fact. Did anyone who sent out those invitations ever hold a press conference and apologize? Of course not. They probably figured they were doing a great service, "outing" somebody who deserved it.
As many look back on his many enduring achievements, it's inevitable to look back on that highly unpleasant, invasive and destructive example of hurtful "Gossip" and campy humor. Hopefully, as the headlines indignantly talk about the crude treatment of ass-patting men (Al Franken) and crotch-touching men (Kevin Spacey), there will come a new awareness and disdain for gratuitous, invasion of privacy gossip, abuse of intellectual property, "fake news" and the cheerful joy of showing off stolen nude photos of people.
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