Gale Gordon in his later years became very anti-TV/radio speaking out against the garbage ( sex, dirty words, etc..) one can find on both. According to one of my "Whatever became of..."books that I had since lost..they claimed that Gale was offered guest starring roles on The Love Boat, The Jeffersons, Alice and even Diff'rent Strokes...but turned them all down because he considered such shows "dirty and trashy".Back in the mid 80s Gale also turned down a guest shot on some talk show on NYC's WABC radio because at the time WABC was airing some sex advice talk show ( Toni Grant? ).
Anyway I kinda question any of this since both Lucie Arnaz & Desi Arnaz Jr..and I think even Jay North had all made the claim over the years that Gale Gordon was known in private to tell some really dirty jokes and used some spicy language himself. Of course then again...maybe he did change by becoming more conservative in his later years.
Or, perhaps, like Red Skelton, Gordon had the same dichotomy of being very ribald in private, while maintaining a moralistic persona for public consumption and avoiding doing any roles or appearing in anything risque?
What I find interesting (and there was a good discussion of this recently at the Termite Terrace Trading Post -- a classic animation board) is that, for some strange reason, Gordon had an long, ongoing feud with voice man Mel Blanc. He seemed to get along well with most everybody, but absolutely loathed Blanc, and no one can quite figure out why. The two men were never in competition for roles, and only rarely worked together in radio.
