Boomerific: Seven Underrated Icons of 1960s Cool

BEFORE IT BECAME A CATCH-ALL SYNONYM for "nice," "highly proficient," or "congratulations, now leave me alone," cool was a sharply defined concept that paid its dues in the jazz and beatnik scenes of the 1940s and '50s. Cool meant maximum self-definition with minimal energy -- standing out by not trying too hard to stand out. During a sleepless interlude last night I thought back to the characters I most enjoyed as a Baby Boomer kid sitting in front of the TV. Who were the characters too busy being cool to seem cool? Here are a few. Feel free to add your own.

#1 - Gomez Addams. Who wouldn't want to be a rich guy with a hot wife, a loving family and a seven-foot butler for a sparring partner? As played by John Astin, Gomez was so out he was in ... absolutely loving life in his double-breasted pinstripe zoot suit, while the rest of the world affected skinny lapels and stovepipe pants from Carnaby Street. But Gomez also had unexpected depths, bringing yoga and kendo into American homes long before the hippies got wind of them. And who else spoke Swahili when calling his African witch doctor for an appointment? “Jambo to you too, Doctor!”

#2 - Sheriff Andy Taylor. I'm talking about the beloved Mayberry cop not as a wildly successful TV icon, but as man of action. Andy always favored defusing tense situations with a joke or a song, and God only knows how much patience it took to keep Barney Fife from shooting up the town. But once in a very great while he'd go to that gun rack in his office and pull down a rifle, and things got REAL in a hurry. Like Atticus Finch without the pompous moral fiber, that country boy was not going to miss if he pulled the trigger. The bad guys sensed it and always blinked first.

#3 - Peggy Fisher. I don't include detectives, spies or Starfleet officers in this list because they're written to be cool, but the single mom who answered the phones and typed letters on "Mannix" was different. Today's woke screenwriters would make Peggy a militant PhD kung fu expert in go-go boots, but this African-American trailblazer was too busy being a rock-solid gal friday to worry about color lines. So we really didn't notice them much either, and that made her cool.

#4 - Bill Davis. The reluctant adoptive father in "Family Affair" lived in a Manhattan penthouse, traveled all over the world building stuff and dated hundreds of accomplished women who were all eager to get a ring on his finger. Yeah, we envied his lifestyle. But when his brother died and three kids were orphaned, what we admired was gruff old Unca Bill stepping up and working through his awkwardness like a construction crew boring a mountain tunnel. A man's man.

#5 - Barbara Gordon. Call me contrary, but Yvonne Craig's high-kicking portrayal of Batgirl was pretty annoying. She was such a wannabe, trying to one-up Batman all the time. As Commissioner Gordon's daughter, however, her efforts to convince everyone that she was just a drab librarian put Obi-Wan Kenobi's jedi mind tricks to shame. Dressed to the nines, more curves than a 12-month Playboy calendar, and regularly betraying an IQ at least three times that of anyone in her dad's office — how do you overlook all that? But Miss Gordon excelled at hiding her light under a bushel. And that bushel was fine.

#6 / #7 - Barney Collier and The Professor. People who are hyper-competent are often cool, but this unlikely pairing of "Mission: Impossible" and "Gilligan's Island" technogeeks was special. Each week we'd see them rig up the most amazing things with only a few alligator clips and coconuts, yet they never seemed impressed with themselves. While the rest of the Impossible Missions Force made arch remarks and played it cool, electronics genius Barney hung out with blue-collar muscleman Willy so he could pose as the only black utility worker in Eastern Europe. The Professor was equally stealthy about his four college degrees and inexhaustible knowledge, with an added dimension: as the only good-looking guy for a thousand square miles, he fended off Ginger, Mary Ann AND Zsa Zsa Gabor because he'd rather be inventing. When an attempt to get off the island required him to lock lips with Ginger for a breathless five minutes, he explained it away by noting that he used to do a lot of scuba diving. Again, hidden depths. | DC |

There you have it: a list of seven very cool customers who did it their own offbeat way on Sixties TV. Opinions can vary and there are many other beloved characters worthy of discussion (Sam Drucker comes to mind), so why not leave a comment or nominee from your own personal pantheon?