Her husband thought she was crazy and the Stephens caused all the confusion. Poor Gladys!
sharePoor Gladys?? If she had simply minded her own business and had a life,
she wouldn't be the wiser and wouldn't be upset. And while we'd naturally
have more sympathy for Pearce's Gladys, she was still NOSY and had to
suffer the consequences.
I agree about poor Gladys. Her first encounter with Samantha and Endora was the changing appearance and landscaping of the Stevens' new home. That had nothing to do with snooping. Keeping tabs on that house was a normal response after what she witnessed.
shareIn past postings, people have complained that it didn't make sense that
Gladys was the only one to see things going on across the street. First
of all, we don't know that (just because freaked out neighbors aren't
shown, doesn't mean they didn't notice things). Secondly, Gladys
frequently trespassed in an attempt to see things. Kind of hard to have
sympathy with somebody like that.
When I was a kid, we had neighbors with several teenage boys. Being boys,
they often walked around their living room in their briefs. A neighbor
caught the elderly woman who lived directly across the street seated in
her garage, peering at the boys with binoculars!! Seems there's at least
one Gladys Kravitz on every block.
Gladys's first encounter with Stevens magic was not the result of snooping. Snooping is sticking your nose where it doesn't belong. Any eyewitness of such extraordinary events would have followed up and monitored the Stevens'activities. That's not snooping,just trying to uncover the truth.
share"Snooping is sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."
And that's what Gladys did for the entire series. Sorry.
After the unexplained shenanigans Mrs. Kravitz experienced, I don't blame the lady for keeping a very close eye on that house. I would have done the same, even more. Were infrared goggles around then? LOL!
shareThe POINT is that she was still trespassing - you know, breaking the law.
And in the case of Sandra Gould, she could be utterly ridiculous when
just peering out the window. For instance, in "Samantha's Wedding Present",
she spies Darrin driving home mid-day. Accusingly, she mutters, "That's
peculiar." WHAT'S so peculiar? Maybe Darrin had the day off, or worked
a half-day. To remark on a neighbor returning home early from work is
just plain twisted.
That's silly. No one trespassed more than the witches popping in and out of locations they didn't belong, often committing mayhem as well. Gladys never did that.
shareYour apology neither needed nor wanted. Just a difference of opinion.
shareTrespassing is a FACT, not an opinion. And trust me when I tell you
the "apology" was not heartfelt.
As far as I'm concerned, for all the trouble the witches caused her, poor Gladys had every right to uncover the truth.
shareDo you WATCH this series? What "troubles" did they CAUSE her that wouldn't
have upset her if she'd been minding her own business?? As far as
"uncovering the truth", who was she going to report it to? - the FBI?
The police thought she was nuts.
You must be having a senior moment. If you've ever watched the series, you'd know all the weird happenings started with her looking out her front widow.
shareWhether someone should feel sorry for Gladys, the topic of this thread, is based on opinion, not fact.
BTW, who can trust someone they don't know?
Right. Why should we feel sorry for someone who is repeatedly breaking the
law by trespassing? (Including entering someone's back yard because they
think there's a new pool there).
You've almost got it.
That's de minimis stuff compared to what Sam perpetrated (assault/battery) over the series.
shareYes, I sometimes feel sorry for Gladys Kravitz. I agree that when she's snooping around peeping in the Stephenses' living room window before knocking on the door, etc., she's trespassing, and since she is, she probably deserves what she gets in these instances. Who knows what anyone might uncover if they kept looking in their neighbors' windows unannounced?
On the other hand, many times when Gladys witnesses the strange goings on, she's not doing anything wrong. As someone's already pointed out, the first time she witnesses the witches' magic is when Samantha and Endora are practicing "instant landscaping" on the house, and all she's doing is watching the "new neighbors" who might be moving in from her living room window. The supernatural phenomena she witnesses several times (trees, lawns, hedges and window dressings, instantly appearing, disappearing, moving around, etc.) are spectacular and not "one time events," so I don't blame her for her curiosity and even, her fear, being piqued.
And in several other episodes, she's also not doing anything wrong when she's subjected to witchcraft.
In another early episode, Abner and Gladys are in the checkout line at the local supermarket when Gladys spots new neighbor Samantha a few customers in front of them. She points out Samantha to Abner, with no indications of malice or resentment, and then sees Samantha going to exit through the automatic door. The door is out of order, but Samantha, unwilling to go through the right door, gives it a twitch and it opens. When Gladys tries to exit through the same door moments later, her shopping cart crashes through it. Abner comes over to make sure she's alright and exasperatedly asks: "Why'd you go through the door when it says it's "Out of Order." Gladys replies: "For everyone but Samantha Stephens!"
In the episode where Sam convinces Gladys she has supernatural powers because Gladys sees her magically moving paintings around, again, I don't think Gladys is doing anything wrong. She spots Darrin leaving for work and tells him she's on her way to see Samantha to return a pot Samantha loaned her. Darrin tells Gladys that Samantha's having problems hanging some pictures and suggests that maybe Gladys can help her out, which Gladys very kindly offers to do. As Gladys approaches the front door, it's open. She walks in, sees Samantha, is about to announce herself, sees the pictures floating in the air, and faints.
In the episode where Endora zaps up a house on a vacant lot across the street from the Kravitzes' Gladys does do the sensible thing, she calls the police. The police come to investigate, and confirm that the property is supposed to be, as Gladys keeps insisting, "a vacant lot." The police go in to investigate, and find that the house is fully operational, then, after they leave the house, it suddenly disappears. Afraid that everyone will think THEY'RE crazy, and to protect their jobs, the two officers agree not to report what really happened.
In the same vein, in the Halloween episode where the house makes another inexplicable appearance, Gladys calls her local councilman. He and his campaign manager go to investigate, and thanks to Uncle Arthur's magic, they can't enter the house because each time they try to get through the back way, they consistently find themselves in the front yard. At one point, the councilman sees some inexplicable magic and asks the campaign manager: "Did you see that?!" and the campaign manager replies, "No! And if you know what's good for you, neither did you!"
So, while I think it is possible that other people may have witnessed the witches' magic, they always dismiss it because they think others will think they're crazy if they tell anyone. The police who investigate Endora's house undoubtedly knew that Gladys was telling the truth, and, at very least, if she was imagining the whole thing, so were they, but they're not as honest about what they've seen as she is, and the same goes for the councilman and the campaign manager. It can be argued that Gladys may be nervous and excitable, but she's simply more honest than the others are
Yes, but after the landscaping stuff, and after several other things
that she clearly could not prove, she should've let it GO. Running
up and peering in your neighbors' living room window is creepy in
of itself. And she was only ASKING for more stress and, well, terror!
Since most fans tend to feel much fonder towards Pearce's Gladys, I
would think most of the so-called "sympathy" would be directed at
the first two years, rather than with Gould's Gladys, who - while
amusing in her own right - was judgmental and bitchy.
True, Gould's Gladys was nastier than Pearce's endearing eccentric, but, as I said in a couple of the examples above, sometimes I can't help feeling sorry for her, too.
Even though she's probably snooping in the "Thanksgiving" episode (which results in her getting caught up in Aunt Clara's time-travelling spell), I always feel sorry for her when she's popped back to the present in her pilgrim garb and excitedly runs home to show Abner her "evidence," only to have Sam pop her back in her contemporary dress just as she's reaching her front door.
I think Gould is just terrific here as she goes from triumphant: "Abner, when you see THIS, you'll realize all the other times you THOUGHT I was just dreaming (sees her contemporary dress) to defeated: "You'll KNOW I was just dreaming!" without missing a beat. I also like her "whining" in the dream sequence: ("I don't like this dream! It's too much work. Maybe it ins't a dream...but if it isn't a dream, what is it?")
I know, Pearce is, by general consensus, everyone's favorite "Gladys." She's mine, too, but I thought Gould was terrific in the role and absolutely made the right choice (assuming it was hers to make), not to attempt an imitation of Pearce (which probably wasn't possible), and to play Gladys in a manner that would suit her own considerable talents. I enjoy her "bitchy" take on Gladys a lot. ( for example, she's the only thing I like in the "Weeping Willow" episode.)
Wow. I've NEVER felt sympathy for either of them, especially Gould's
Gladys (and I'm among the few that seem to love Gould). I feel
nothing about her Thanksgiving excursion emotionally, although I think
she's funny ("I don't like this dream - it's too much work").
Gladys was a busybody who deserved what she got a lot of times. But I can maybe understand the motivation behind the (First Gladys) nosiness. Her husband always looked at her like she was crazy and kept saying "Take your medicine Gladys."
I wonder if she was doing a lot of her snooping to try to prove herself right so that her husband would not look at her like she was insane.
It was funny and pathetic at the same time when she took her medicine and looked like she was about to cry. I think she was fighting to prove her sanity.
There was no excuse for the second Gladys' actions. She was just plain nosy.
no--you don't stick your nose into other people's lives.
share[deleted]
Not really, because it was almost never a case of her casually noticing something that was too odd to ignore. She was always *looking* for something to see, found it...and her punishment for being nosy was no one believing her when she would insist on all the abstract things she actually saw. It was karma.
shareThere was one time I DID feel sorry for Mrs. Kravitz (in an episode played by Alice Pearce). In season 1's "A Vision of Sugar Plums," Gladys overhears the Stephen's "Christmas foster child" telling the Kravitz' child about how Samantha took him to the North Pole on her broom to visit Santa Claus.
I felt sorry for her because she wasn't snooping or anything; the window was open (in Connecticut in December??) and she heard the boys talking. It was so sad seeing her pleading with the boy: "Tommy, pleeeeease tell Mr. Kravitz what you heard! The broom? The North Pole?!" Tommy doesn't tell her because he "crossed his heart." Defeated, she slowly walks back into the house, looking yet again like a nut to Mr. Kravitz.
An honorable mention for feeling for her was when Sam's powers are on the blink after being exposed to a black Peruvian rose. In an attempt to open the window, she turns it into a door. When Mrs. Kravitz later comes to claim her soup bowl (and yes, do some snooping), someone knocks on the door from the outside (Aunt Clara). In a daze, Gladys comes down the stairs repeating over and over, "Knock knock knock knock."
I felt sorry for Gladys more as portrayed by Alice Pearce than Sandra Gould. I found Gould's portrayal to be more of a charicature of Gladys.
shareYes, because Gladys was already on meds and then she was "seeing things"
shareI only felt sorry for Gladys Kravits because most everyone was condescending to her (mostly her husband and the usually charming Samantha) and didn't respect her---despite the fact that she DID in fact see strange things. Of course, on the other hand she kind of brought it upon herself being so nosey.
share