"SHE PLAYED PICKLES ON THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" Yes, but so did Joan Shawlee...

The passing of Barbara Perry (1921-2019) answered the question of "who??" with:

"SHE PLAYED PICKLES ON "THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW."

Which is an odd way to be remembered, but you instantly get a mental picture of a dumb blonde showgirl married to a short, puckish one-liner expert.

Odd but true: Barbara only played PICKLES two times.

Her replacement, Joan Shawlee, only played PICKLES three times.

I'm not sure that any episode explained why Buddy nicknamed his wife PICKLES. Unless...it was her REAL NAME???

Barbara and Joan both had a LOT more credits than "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

Barbara Perry was only 12 when she made her film debut, and two years later, appeared in the Claude Rains classic "The Myster of Edwin Drood."

She was an expert dancer; a headline attraction in many well-known nightclubs including Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles and Cafe De Paris in...no, London.

Before turning into PICKLES, she appeared on Broadway in a variety of obscure 1950's productions.

Around the same time as being PICKLES, she took minor roles in other classic sitcoms, including "The Andy Griffith Show" and the monkey classic "The Hathaways" with Peggy Cass and Jack Weston.

After PICKLES, she was in a pair of Sam Fuller movies in 1963 and 1964: "Shock Corridor" and "The Naked Kiss."

She continued to work as a character actress through the years, turning up in sometimes minor roles in "Barnaby Jones," "St. Elsewhere," "Murphy Brown," "Murder She Wrote," "Married with Children," "How I Met Your Mother" and only two years ago, an episode of Louie Anderson's sitcom "Baskets."

Probably her personal favorite achievement was "Passionate Ladies," a one-woman show that took home prizes at the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.

As for Joan Shawlee (in case you're interested...and you're still reading...) she too began her career at a young age. She was a professional model at 14, and a nightclub singer at 16. When Joan died (1926-1987) she probably got "SHE PLAYED PICKLES" and "She was in "Some Like it Hot." In the latter, she was the brassy leader of the all-girl orchestra. She may also have gotten: "She was in a lot of episodes of 'The Abbott and Costello Show.'" where, in eight 1953 episodes, she tended to play eye candy as everything from an actor's home receptionist to a a marriage license clerk. A few Bowery Boys nuts might've added that she turned up in "Bowery to Bagdad" in 1955. She actually had her own sitcom, "Aggie," in 1957, but the 27 episodes don't seem to have been removed from the vault in over 60 years.

After PICKLES, Joan had small roles in "Adam 12," "Name of the Game, "Love American Style," "Columbo," "Mannix" and other 70's classics, and was a regular on the short-lived "The Feather and Father Gang" in 1977. She was still averaging a few appears a year in the 80's, turning up at 'Archie Bunker's Place," and, two years before her death, "Crazy Like a Fox" and "Highway to Heaven."

Have your pick on who was the BEST PICKLES. Either way, Barbara Perry and Joan Shawlee have many more tasty reasons to be remembered.