Gloria Henry: Her Job Was a Menace

August 17, 2026February 17, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month’s blog theme is “They Are a Menace” about the cast of Dennis the Menace. Today we are going to learn more about Dennis’s mom Alice, played by Gloria Henry.

Gloria was born in 1923 in New Orleans. She was sent to the Worcester Art Museum School in Massachusetts for her high school years. In her late teens she moved to Los Angeles, working on radio shows, appearing in theater productions, and taping commercials.

She married Robert Lamb in 1943, but they divorced in 1948.

In 1946, she was signed by Columbia Studios and made her big-screen debut in Sport of Kings in 1947.

She was in 23 films before 1950. During the fifties, she bounced back and forth between films and television series. Her first television role was on Fireside Theater in 1952.

The same year she received her first recurring role on 16 episodes of The Files of Jeffrey Jones. This little-remembered show was about a law school student working as a private investigator. He gets a lot of his life and professional advice from a local bartender named Joe. Henry played his girlfriend Michelle.

She tried marriage again in 1949 with Craig Ellwood. They were married for almost thirty years. During her time on the show, she became pregnant and was written out of the series.

She continued working after the birth of her son and accepted roles on television shows throughout the fifties including Mr. and Mrs. North, Father Knows Best, Perry Mason, The Life of Riley, and The Thin Man.

In 1959, she got her big break, earning the role of Alice Mitchell in Dennis the Menace. No one was more surprised than Henry that she got the role. During an interview in 2011 with KTLA-TV, Gloria said that she clashed with Harry Cohn who ran Columbia. Cohn once told Henry, “You may get somewhere at this studio, but it’ll be over my dead body.” He was absolutely right. Columbia Pictures produced Dennis the Menace, so even though Henry auditioned, she assumed Cohn would never approve her getting the part. However, in February, Cohn died from a heart attack, and two days later she was offered the role of Alice.

For four seasons, she guided Dennis through his mishaps. Henry brought the right amount of patience and frustration while raising Dennis. During season three, Joseph Kearns, who played George Wilson, passed away. The writers wrote his brother and wife who bought the Wilson house into the scripts, but it was too hard to overcome the loss of Kearns. Also, Jay North was now 12 and the antics of an eight-year-old are very different than a preteen boy, and he was ready to move on.

When the show was canceled in 1963, Gloria had a hard time finding roles she wanted to do. She felt she was being typecast as a mother. After appearing on Hazel and The Farmer’s Daughter in the sixties, she didn’t work again until the mid-eighties. While she never had another cast role, you can catch her in episodes of Simon and Simon, Newhart, Our House, Dallas, and Doogie Howser MD, among others. Her only roles after 1992 were a movie in 2005 and an episode of Parks and Recreation in 2012.

She retired and passed away at home in 2021.

I’m not sure how Henry felt about her acting career from the sixties to the nineties. Being typecast is never easy to work around in the entertainment business, but we have seen actresses like Jane Wyatt from Father Knows Best and Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver go on to have longer careers, although not the careers they had hoped for. Alice Mitchell is a memorable character but probably not what Henry wanted her entire legacy to be. Jay North considered her a friend for life and always named her as his acting mentor. I wish I knew more about her life off the screen. Ninety percent of the articles I could find were obituaries.

I hope she appreciated her time as Alice Mitchell, was proud of her film work, and enjoyed her private life.

Jay North: No Longer a Menace

August 10, 2026February 17, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we continue our theme of “They Are a Menace,” today we get to know Jay North, who played Dennis on Dennis the Menace.

North was born in 1951 in Hollywood. His father was an alcoholic, and when he was four, his parents divorced. His mother worked for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. She arranged for Dennis to appear on his favorite program, Cartoon Express. A talent agent noticed him and asked his mother if she could represent him. In 1958 and 1959, he appeared in eight television series and three movies, including The Donna Reed Show and 77 Sunset Strip.

A nationwide search was being held in 1958 for the casting of Dennis the Menace for a new show. Hundreds of boys auditioned, and North was asked to come in to test with Herbert Anderson and Gloria Henry who would play his parents and Joseph Kearns, who would become George Wilson.

The show debuted in fall of 1959 on CBS on Sunday nights. North received about $500 an episode (equivalent today to about $4600). His aunt, who was his guardian on the set, often was abusive. North was not allowed to socialize with the other kids on the set and had to eat his lunch alone in his dressing room. By season three, North was earning $2500 per episode ($23,000 today). His aunt physically abused him when he messed up his lines. He kept this from his mother and coworkers.

Jay played Dennis for four seasons. During season three, Joseph Kearns passed away and he and his wife were written out of the show, with this brother and sister-in-law buying his house and moving next door to Dennis.

North was relieved when the series was cancelled. He was getting exhausted filming the show, doing commercials, and going to school on the set every day. He said in an interview with Filmfax that “between the pressures of the business and Joe’s dying, I became very serious, very morbid, and very withdrawn from the world. I was the antithesis of the little kid that I played on the television show.”

Jay was typecast as Dennis and had a hard time finding roles after the show was done. He took roles on several series, starring in another show, Maya which was canceled after a season. At that point he began providing voices for animation characters. He was married and divorced within a year in the mid-seventies.

Jay became disillusioned with the acting profession and joined the Navy. He was assigned to the USS Iwo Jima, stationed in Virginia in 1977. He received an honorable discharge in 1979.

He received a few roles when he returned, including some time on General Hospital. Luckily his mother had invested his money in real estate, so he was in a good financial situation. For several years he worked in the food industry.

When Paul Petersen, who had played Jeff Stone on The Donna Reed Show, phoned him to say a former childhood star, Rusty Hamer who was the son on The Danny Thomas Show, had committed suicide. North was given the name of a therapist Stan W. Ziegler who helped former childhood stars. Petersen started a new organization, A Minor Consideration, that North helped get running. This nonprofit, still around today, helps minors deal with the stress of show business.

📷extratv.com North with Jeannie Russell and Gloria Henry

North tried marriage again in 1991, but the couple separated after three months. In 1992, he met Cindy Hackney, a caterer. They were married a year later, and the couple moved to Cindy’s hometown of Lake Butler, Florida. He gained three daughters in the marriage. North made a break with Hollywood and worked as a correctional officer in Florida and helped troubled youth through the justice department.

He did keep a foot in the acting door appearing on talk shows, at memorabilia conventions, and he had a cameo on The Simpsons. In 1999, in an interview with E! he said that “I am so happy that I was able to have such a positive impact on people’s lives. I’m going to write my autobiography and then I’m just going to live a contented, happy life here in Lake Butler with the people I love, and kind of just vanish into the mists of time.”

North continued his friendship with Jeannie Russell who played Margaret on Dennis the Menace. She became a chiropractor, and he was one of her clients. He also was close to Gloria Henry after the show and always credited her as being his mentor.

Unfortunately, I could not find the book North wanted to write, but there is a book about hjs life and the inspiration he became to others. It’s by Richard Mayday and titled “Jay North: Beyond Dennis the Menace: The Life, Legacy, and Untold Struggles from Child Star to Advocate and Survivor of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Sadly, he passed away from colorectal cancer in 2025.The book was published the year North passed away, so I’m not sure if he contributed to the book or not.

North’s career started off out of his control, and once he was able to make his own decisions about his roles, he found himself typecast and unable to get the roles he wanted. However, he continued in the business, finding new ways to contribute with his talents. Luckily, his mother invested all his earnings. North said despite the large amounts of money he was making, she never lived off any of his proceeds. That enabled him to find happiness in Florida with a family he loved and a career that he found satisfaction in helping others. You can’t ask for a more rewarding life than that.

Dennis the Menace: A Well-Meaning Kid

August 3, 2026August 2, 2026 / thewritelife61 / Leave a comment

This month our blog theme is “They Are a Menace,” and we are spending time with some of the cast of the Dennis the Menace show. But, today, we are going to learn a bit about the show itself.

Dennis the Menace debuted in the fall of 1959. It was based on the comic strip by Hank Ketcham that began in 1951. Produced by Dariell Productions and Screen Gems, it was about a young boy and the trouble he mistakenly causes for his family and neighbors. Dennis (Jay North) lives with his parents Henry (Herbert Anderson) and Alice (Gloria Henry). He often causes difficulties for his neighbor George Wilson (Joseph Kearns), but Martha Wilson (Sylvia Field) is much more sympathetic to Dennis’s heartfelt attempts to “help” them. Dennis often refers to his neighbor as “Good Old Mr. Wilson.” George, despite his agitation with the mischief Dennis causes, does care about him.

Also seen on the show were Dennis’s friend Tommy (Billy Booth) and Margaret (Jeannie Russell), who has a crush on Dennis. We also get to know a lot of the community residents Dennis encounters on a regular basis. In six of these episodes, Ron Howard plays Stewart, one of Dennis’s friends before he moved to Mayberry.

Howard discussed his time on the show during his Television Academy interview. He said the thing he remembered most about this show was that the agony North had to endure with his hair style. The producers were trying to force North’s hair into the tuft that the comic strip Dennis the Menace had. They put him in hair nets off to the side of the set when he wasn’t working and kept using gels and sprays to make it work. Howard said he looked miserable, and the second season, they just let his hair do its natural thing.

CBS placed the show on Sunday nights following Lassie. However, after reviewing the first three episodes, the network asked the “antics” to be toned down because they were afraid that children watching the show might try to imitate Dennis’s hijinks.

Sadly in 1962, Kearns passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage. After two episodes without the Wilsons, Gale Gordon moved in as George’s brother John. In the fourth season, John buys the house from George and Martha. Field was let go, and John’s wife Eloise (Sara Seegar) lives in the house and interacts with Dennis.

The show was canceled after that year. The series was #16 in season one, moved up to #11 in season two, stayed in the top twenty in season three at #17 but then fell out of the top thirty shows during the final season. Part of the loss of viewers probably had to do with Kearns and Field leaving the show. However, North was now 12 years old and no longer “fit” the well-meaning boy who causes trouble for everyone.

After the show was cancelled, North got into voice acting, playing the teenage Bamm Bamm on The Flintstones. He also voiced Prince Turhan on The Banana Splits Hour. In 1960 North released his first album, “Look Who’s Singing!”

North left the acting profession about 1990. He teamed up with Paul Petersen (Jeff on The Donna Reed Show) to start A Minor Consideration, dedicated to helping kids in the entertainment industry. North revealed that because his mom worked full time, he needed a guardian on the set, and his Aunt Marie took on that role, but she was often physically and verbally abusive, and he never told his mother or any of his coworkers. A Minor Consideration is still doing good work today. Later North worked with troubled youths in Florida’s juvenile justice system and as a correctional officer.

The other two kids on the show also left the acting profession. Booth became an attorney and taught business law at Cuesta College and Cal Poly, while Russell became a chiropractor, although she did take on a handful of acting jobs now and then.

If you’ve read my blog about the Warners Ranch lot, this show was part of it. The Mitchell house was the same house the Stones resided in on The Donna Reed Show. The Wilson home was the previous home of the Andersons on Father Knows Best and would later be where Jeannie caused mischief for Tony on I Dream of Jeannie.

Not surprisingly, this family show was sponsored by Kellogg’s and Skippy Peanut Butter. The sponsors wanted Dennis to do commercials for them, so he was in ads for Kellogg’s cereals, Skippy, Best Foods mayonnaise, and Bosco chocolate milk. They even talked Kearns into doing some peanut butter commercials with North.

One of the sad things I learned about the show was the unhappy life of the real Dennis Mitchell. Ketcham based the show on his son Dennis. His mother died from a drug overdose when he was 12. His parents had just divorced and three weeks after her death, his dad remarried. Ketcham moved his son to Switzerland, but he had trouble adjusting, so his father sent him to a boarding school in the states. Ketcham stayed in Switzerland with his second family until a divorce in 1968. Hank later remarried and returned to the United States. Dennis joined the military and fought in Vietnam. However, when he returned home, he suffered from PTSD. Even though he turned his life around before he joined the military, he had no relationship with his father. A New York Times reporter who interviewed the cartoonist in 1994 asked about this, and Ketcham said, “He’s living in the East somewhere doing his own thing. That’s just a chapter that was a short one that closed, which unfortunately happens in some families.” Very sad.

Dennis the Menace was popular in the fifties and early sixties. I understand the show lost viewers with the loss of Kearns and Field, but because of Dennis’ age and the change that was taking place in sitcoms in the mid-to-late sixties, the show would not have lasted much longer. It’s hard to learn that both Dennis Ketchum and Jay North suffered mental health issues and abuse during their youth. I’m glad they both were able to go on to live happier lives as adults.

McKeever and the Colonel: I Tried To Like It

July 27, 2026January 22, 2026 / thewritelife61 / Leave a comment

As we wind up our Military Upended posts, we take a look at a show that debuted in fall of 1962 and was canceled after one season. This was a different concept of a military show. McKeever and the Colonel is the kid version of McHale’s Navy. Instead of the crew causing problems for Captain Binghamton, this one is set in a school where cadet Gary McKeever causes headaches for Colonel Blackwell.

McKeever (Scott Lane), the son of an Air Force officer, is a mischievous kid, but we often root for him because Colonel Blackwell (Allyn Joslyn) is an arrogant guy. Other characters included Sergeant Barnes (Jackie Coogan) who sympathized with the cadet, Nurse Warner (Elisabeth Fraser), and fellow cadets Monk (John Eimen) and Tubby (Keith Taylor).

While they make life difficult for the Colonel, he is fond of the boys and most of their pranks are innocent enough.

The show was on ABC on Sunday nights, which tended to be a family viewing night. It was on at 6 pm before another new military sitcom, Ensign O’Toole. Ensign O’Toole was up against Lassie, which was in the top twenty that year.

I think there were two main issues working against this show. Harvey Bullock talked about his time working on this show during his Television Academy interview. He said that he was one of the creators who developed the show. When NBC picked it up, they said they didn’t need the original writers because they had their own. After ten episodes, they called Bullock and the other writers and asked them to please come back because the show was failing miserably. Bullock said they did return, but things had gone too far, and the ratings were too bad to come back from.

In combination with the writing problems, on Sunday nights most families tended to tune in to watch Lassie, Dennis the Menace, and The Ed Sullivan Show, another top twenty series. Considering that and the fact that this show was not in the prime-time lineup may have kept it from finding the viewership it needed. Ensign O’Toole was also canceled, but ABC replayed the episodes a year later to replace another canceled show. When the fall of 1963 schedule appeared, 49 shows had been canceled from the previous year, so McKeever had plenty of company.

I wanted to like this show, but it didn’t do much for me. The episode I watched was “The Celestial Bells.” The cadets weren’t happy because a new course was added, and it was ballroom dancing. They get the idea that they can go to the infirmary and try to catch a disease from an older boy but then learn that he has a sprained ankle. When that fails, they go to the malt shop to gorge themselves on ice cream treats until they get caught by the colonel. The jokes seemed a bit flat. For example, one guy asked another cadet if he knew anything about girls, and he replied he had three sisters and they were all girls. Sergeant Barnes comes in to give the guys a pep talk about girls just as they are thinking about going AWOL. The colonel then arrives with a asst colonel who is there to make sure they change and show up at class. Of course, McKeever tries to escape into the equipment locker at the dance, but when he opens it, all the equipment falls out. Just as he’s ready to be punished, Miss Dixon, the instructor, says he will stay and dance with her and after a few minutes of dancing, he falls in love. Like I said, I really tried to like it, but given the shows on the air in 1965, this is not one I would have watched a second episode of.

The show inspired merchandise during its short time on the air. Three Dell comic books were published; Milton Bradley introduced a board game, Bamboozle; and Halco Toys issued a set that consisted of a belt with a canteen, pistol, holster, and hand grenade.

It’s not a show you hear about often anymore. The series occasionally shows up a streaming service but is not part of Netflix or Hulu. Your best bet is to watch a few episodes on YouTube.

The Wackiest Ship in the Army: Couldn’t Find Its Viewers

July 20, 2026January 22, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are half-way through our blog theme for July, which is Military Upended as we look at military sitcoms that all debuted in the mid-sixties.

Like our show from last week, Mister Roberts, this one debuted in 1965 and ran for one season. This hour-long NBC series was produced by Harry Ackerman and Herbert Hirschman. It was loosely based on a film from 1960. Our show last week, Mister Roberts, was also based on a movie that starred Jack Lemmon. Lemmon was in this movie as well with Ricky Nelson.

The show is set in World War II and focuses on the crew of the USS Kiwi in the Pacific theater. This old schooner, flying a Swiss flag, carries out covert missions behind Japanese lines. The commander is Major Simon Butcher (Jack Warden) and Lieutenant Richard Riddle (Gary Collins). Butcher controls land operations while Riddle commands at sea. The Kiwi was previously owned by New Zealand.

Also in the cast were Chief Petty Officer Willie Miler (Mike Kellin), Radioman Patrick Hollis (Mark Slade), Machinist Seymour Trivers (Fred Smoot), Gunner’s Mate Sherman Nagurski (Rudy Solari), and Pharmacist Charles Tyler, the cook, (Don Penny).

The Kiwi was based on the USS Echo, a 40-year-old schooner given to the US Navy by New Zealand to use during the War. The ship was returned in 1944. Its poor condition made it useful for spying. The wooden hull did not show up on radar, its sailing power didn’t register on sonar, and the shallow draft allowed it to travel in shallow waters.

The show was scheduled for Sunday nights. The tough part of the schedule was that it was up against Candid Camera and What’s My Line, very popular programs at the time. However, it was helped by following Bonanza, the number one show that year.

The composer of the theme song was the celebrated Nelson Riddle. With more than 100 credits he worked on films including High Society and Guys and Dolls; did variety shows for Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Julie Andrews, and Rosemary Clooney; and lots of television series including The Untouchables, Route 66, Emergency, and Newhart.

Eddie Foy III talked about casting this show during his Television Academy interview. He said it was one of the best casts of any show he worked on. He said their producer brought the dramatic style the show needed to uphold the comedy. He said Danny Arnold was the talent behind this series and that Danny used to always say that writers aren’t funny and actors aren’t funny, but writers and actors who are successful think funny. Foy worked with him on That Girl and then continued as his casting director for years. Arnold gave everyone on the show freedom to do what they did best, so Foy did not have to run every casting decision by him.

The show was canceled after one season due to low ratings. I’m not sure if it was the quality of the show or if it was a victim of too many shows like this one. During the year this one debuted, we also had McHale’s Navy, F-Troop, Hogan’s Heroes, Gomer Pyle USMC, as well as tons of westerns, and extremely popular sitcoms like I Dream of Jeannie, Green Acres, Bewitched, That Girl, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Get Smart, Batman, Petticoat Junction, and My Three Sons.

When you take into account that you had to watch shows live and there were only three choices at a time, it’s easy to understand how some good shows that might be recorded now received low ratings then. That said, this show never seemed to be sure what it was either. It was listed as a sitcom, but it was an hour-long show which was unusual. It wasn’t filmed before an audience, nor did it include a laugh track. And, it sometimes had episodes where people died, not so funny. If you wanted to see a funny military show, there were a lot of other options. There were also lots of good sitcoms and good dramas that all knew what their genre was. If you want to give it a try, it’s available on Philo.

Mister Roberts: The Third Time Was Not the Charm

July 13, 2026January 22, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we continue with our theme of Military Upended where we are taking a lot at several military sitcoms, today we delve into Mister Roberts.

This series was based on a novel of the same name from 1946. The novel became a play in 1948 and a movie was released in 1955. A decade later, it hit the television air waves.

The show was set in World War II and follows the crew of the USS Reluctant AK-601 cargo ship, which the men called “The Bucket.” Like F-Troop that we discussed last week, it was a Warner Brothers show, produced by William T. Orr.

Lieutenant Roberts (Roger Smith) wasn’t happy on a cargo ship and wanted to be directly involved in the war. Ensign Pulver (Steve Harmon) tried to make things fun on the ship. Like McHale’s Navy, the entire crew was happy to stymie Captain Morton (Richard X. Slattery) in all of his efforts. Roberts wrote letters asking for reassignment to active duty, but they were all intercepted by Captain Morton and never sent.

Rounding out the cast was Doc (George Ives), Seamen Reber (Ray Reese), D’Angelo (Richard Sinatra), and Mannion (Ronald Starr).

The theme song was composed by Frank Perkins. Perkins had more than 70 music credits; he composed all the music for Hawaiian Eye.

The show debuted on NBC on Friday nights. Its competition was The Smothers Brothers Show and The Farmer’s Daughter. The Smothers Brothers Show followed three very popular shows. The Wild Wild West (a top 40) began the night, with Hogan’s Heroes and Gomer Pyle USMC, both top ten shows, following. I’m guessing many viewers stayed with CBS all evening, and if they did not, perhaps after watching two military sitcoms, they were ready to watch something different the rest of the night.

It sounds like this show could not draw viewers and could never it the same quality that the movie provided, so it was cancelled after the first season. Jack Lemmon won the Oscar for his role in the big-screen version. In 1984 a made-for-television movie was aired based on the play. I guess they just wanted to make it successful somehow. Currently, it’s not available for streaming. If you do have fond memories of this one, let me know.

F-Troop: Braving Fort Courage

July 6, 2026January 22, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we start our July blogs, the theme is Military Upended. We’re taking a look at military sitcoms and up first is F Troop. This was a western sitcom set in the 1860s. It debuted on CBS in September of 1965 and ran for two seasons.

If you and your siblings argue about whether this show was in color or black and white, you’re both right. The first season was in black and white, and the second season was produced in color.

The characters lived at Fort Courage, an army outpost. Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry) runs, or tries to run, the fort. One of the running gags is that Parmenter comes from a long line of military heroes that stopped with him. However, he served during the Civil War. After being told to pick up the general’s laundry near Appomattox, he begins sneezing. Union soldiers think it’s a command to charge which turns the tide of the battle. Then while Parmenter’s father is pinning the Medal of Honor on him for this feat, he pricks his chest, drawing blood for which they gave him a Purple Heart.

Parmenter is sent to Fort Courage where all the captains have failed. Two of the three commanders before him deserted, and one had a nervous breakdown there.

Parmenter is “aided” by Sergeant O’Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Corporal Agarn (Larry Storch). However, these two are there just to make a quick buck however they can; they often work with Chief Wild Eagle (Frank de Kova) to find the next shady business deal. For example, the government thinks 30 men are at the fort; in reality, it’s 17 and the pay for the other 13 is put into a fund by the two men to fund their plans. However, the two men, while willing to take advantage of his gullibility, do like Parmenter and protect him. Parmenter is kind and well meaning.

What Wil really needs protection from is marriage. The local store owner-postmistress Jane (Melody Patterson) has set her cap for him. She’s a beautiful tomboy who knows what she wants and usually gets it. She is also a telegrapher and is the best sharpshooter in the territory. She often rescues Wil with her good aim.

Patterson auditioned for this role at age 15, lying about her age. The show didn’t find about that till half-way through the first season. When the series started, she was 16 and Berry was 32. During the second season, when she turned 17, the producers allowed a more serious relationship between the two.

Rounding out the cast was Private Dobbs (James Hampton), a bugler who only knows two songs; Trooper Vanderbilt (Joe Brooks), the lookout who is almost blind; and Trooper Duffy (Bob Steele) the lone survivor of the Alamo who is too old to help much.

We also get to know several members of the Hekawis tribe headed by Chief Wild Eagle. They are 50/50 partners with O’Rourke and Agarn. They make souvenirs for sale and produce whiskey. They claim to be a peaceful nation because most of them are cowards like the men at the fort. The Chief has many wise sayings and often gives advice although when asked to explain some of them, he says he has no idea. His second in charge is Crazy Cat (Don Diamond).

Not surprisingly for the time, none of the tribal members are played by Native Americans. There is a lot of politically incorrect dialogue on the show. The Hekawe (pronounced “heck-ow-ee”) tell the story of how they got their name: Two indigenous people fell off a cliff and one asked “Where the heck are we?” which they chose for their name.

A lot of stereotypes exist not only about Native Americans but military heroes and the west in general. History is presented tongue in cheek with characters showing up who never would have been there and sly references to things that were happening in the sixties.

A number of guest stars somehow end up at Fort Courage. These include Jamie Farr, Bernard Fox, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Harvey Korman, Paul Lynde, Lee Meriwether, Julie Newmar, Vincent Price, and Don Rickles.

The popular theme music was composed by William Lava with lyrics by Irving Taylor. Lava had more than 500 television credits for composing. While he worked in animation a lot, he composed for Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train, and 77 Sunset Strip. His collaborators included Henry Mancini and Sammy Kahn.

The series featured a lot of great writers including Stan Dreben who wrote for Green Acres, Seaman Jacobs and Howard Merrill from The Dick Van Dyke Show, and James B. Allardice who wrote for a lot of shows including My Three Sons and Hogan’s Heroes.

Storch was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role. His competition included Brian Keith for Family Affair, Bob Crane from Hogan’s Heroes, and Don Adams from Get Smart who won. I admit I was surprised to see his nomination given the classic television sitcoms that were on the air at the time.

ABC placed the show on Tuesday nights for season one which helped its ratings because there wasn’t a lot of competition. It was up against Red Skelton which was waning in its popularity, and it followed McHale’s Navy, and the same type of audience who enjoyed that show probably liked F-Troop as well.

After the second season, the show was ranked 40^th out of 113 shows. According to Forrest Tucker, Warners Brothers was sold to Seven Arts, and they made the decision to cancel the show because they felt it used too much of the Warner Ranch for its setting and they weren’t thrilled about the added costs of producing this one in color.

Fun fact, a replica of the fort was built in Houck, Arizona on Route 66. The Fort displayed F-Troop props, and they sold F-Troop merchandise. Among the amenities were a coffee shop, gas station, grocery store, pancake house, trading post, motel units, trailer park, and campground.

This show is a tougher one to evaluate now. Like so many shows from this era, Native Americans were not portrayed respectfully. However, truth be told, Natives were often portrayed as smarter than white men on this show. Like The Simpsons, everyone on this show was made fun of. It could be compared to The Phil Silvers Show or Hogan’s Heroes. It does have the military money-making schemes that Sergeant Bilko attempted but that was seen as a small part of a respectable military.

For me there was too much emphasis on slapstick humor apart from some of the uncomfortable dialogue. If you want to check it out and see what you think, which is what I always recommend, the series is available on DVD. It’s also on Prime and Roku.

Ichabod and Me: Critics Were Not Fans

June 29, 2026January 4, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Today we wind up our Funny Duos theme with Ichabod and Me. The show was on for one season from 1961-1962. Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher served as executive producers for the show. They were also the creatives behind Leave it to Beaver.

Widower Bob Major (Robert Sterling) and his six-year-old son Benje (Jimmy Mathers) relocate from New York City where he worked for the New York Times to Phippsboro in New Hampshire. Bob purchased the newspaper there from its longtime owner Ichabod Adams (George Chandler). Ichabod and Bob don’t see eye to eye very often as Bob tries to move the town to a new progressive direction. However, Ichabod not only owns much of the town, but he is the mayor, the school superintendent, and traffic commissioner. Ichabod tries to advise Bob with fatherly wisdom about navigating local conflicts.

Had the show been more successful, Jimmy Mathers might have become as well known as his brother Jerry Mathers who was the Beaver.

Eventually Bob dates Ichabod’s daughter Abby (Christine White). Rounding out the cast is housekeeper Aunt Livvy (Reta Shaw), high school employee Jonathan (Jimmy Hawkins), townsmen Olaf (Burt Mustin) and Colby (Forrest Lewis), hardware store owner Martin (Guy Raymond). Many of Bob’s conflicts are with Olaf and Colby who are on the City Council and listen in on the town’s party line to many of the phone calls in the town.

The characters of Bob and Ichabod were originally created for a dramatic episode that aired on Robert Montgomery Presents titled “Goodbye, Grey Flannel.”

The opening and closing numbers were performed by Pete Rugolo and His Orchestra.

Unfortunately, the critics were not kind to the show. Associated Press critic Cynthia Lowry wrote that “Ichabod and Me amounted to a pretty tired, clumsy effort” and that it was more likely to offend New Englanders than attract them as viewers. Harriet Van Horne said that “a network that would by Ichabod for prime evening time would buy the Brooklyn Bridge from a tavern drunk—and pay cash.” And Variety said it was “just another run-of-the-mill situation comedy, typically innocuous in its content and wholly bland in its approach . . . there were no surprises and few laughs on its first outing.”

The show aired on Tuesday nights. The series competed against The New Breed on ABC and The Dick Powell Show on NBC. After the miserable reviews, it wasn’t surprising that the show failed to attract viewers and it was cancelled after 36 episodes.

Sometimes critics get it wrong, but it sounds like this show was not a great one. That’s too bad because they had a great cast. There were not a lot of successful shows debuting this year. The only ones that are remembered today include The Dick Van Dyke Show, Ben Casey, Mister Ed, and Hazel.

Mr. Adams and Eve: Not Quite Paradise

June 22, 2026January 4, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

Funny Duos is our blog theme for June. Today we look at a partnership that’s a little different than the other shows we checked out so far. Mr. Adams and Eve, starred Howard Duff and Ida Lupino, a couple that was married in real life. Another difference with this series is that it made it two seasons before being canceled.

In an interview with the Television Academy, Sol Saks said he was very proud of this show. He said it was the first time Lupino had done comedy and she was great to work with. He said he met with the couple and just hanging out at their home, he heard several plots for shows. For example, he heard their maid making horse bets on the phone and at one time, Lupino answered the door and a vacuum salesman was there and wanted to sell her an appliance, but she said she would have to ask their financial people and get back to him. Saks then learned that Lupino didn’t know how to purchase an appliance by herself. So many of the stories from their real life ended up in scripts.

Saks left this show because he was tired of always writing for one show over and over and decided to write movie scripts and pilots.

The show debuted on CBS in January 1957. The series follows two Hollywood stars who live in Beverly Hills. Eve (Lupino) grew up in a family in the entertainment business and is more dramatic and over the top while her husband Howard (Duff) is a humble and quiet man.

There was a large supporting cast in this show. It includes their studio boss Joe J.B. Hafter (Alan Reed), director Max Cassolini (Lawrence Dobkin/Christopher Dark), agent Steve (Hayden Rorke), housekeeper Elsie (Olive Carey), Eve’s mother Connie (Lee Patrick), and the Stewarts (Frances Robinson and Dan Tobin), their good friends. Their daughter Bridget also pops up on one episode portraying Mary Pickford.

While some of the plots are about their domestic life, most of the action involves their professional challenges.

David Rose was brought on as composer. I’m not sure how awkward it was or was not, but Lupino’s ex-husband Collier Young was the creator and executive producer.

The show originally aired on Friday nights. Its competition was Treasure Hunt and The Joseph Cotton Show. I would think with two stars of their magnitude, they would win the ratings for this time slot, but the show was moved to Tuesdays during the second season. The competition that night was a bit tougher with established shows Cheyenne and The Eddie Fisher Show.

Lupino and Duff made the decision to end the show when they didn’t get the viewership they were hoping for to pursue individual projects for the following year. Duff starred in Dante about a nightclub owner which only lasted one season. While both stars appeared in many different television series over the decades, neither of them starred in another show. The couple’s marriage lasted much longer than their show but it did end in divorce in 1984.

Lupino was nominated for an Emmy both years and Richard Kinon was nominated for director. Lupino had some tough competition. In 1958 she competed against Spring Byington (December Bride), Eve Arden (The Eve Arden Show), Jane Wyatt (Father Knows Best), and Jan Clayton (Lassie). In 1959 other nominees were Byington, Wyatt, Ann Sothern (The Ann Sothern Show), Gracie Allen (Burns and Allen), and Donna Reed (The Donna Reed Show.) Wyatt won both years, and the directing Emmy went to Peter Tewksbury also for Father Knows Best.

Perhaps one of the best things about this show was its opening. It had cartoonish figures similar to the Bewitched opening, but they were in a real setting, another show Sol Saks worked on. One of my favorite characters was Eve’s mother Connie who Eve called Connie. She brought a lot of fun to every scene she was in.

The episodes I watched were pretty good, especially for the late fifties. At least the Duffs made a successful transition from the movies to television and ended the show on their own terms. There is a DVD of shows out there as well as episodes on YouTube.

Wendy and Me: We Liked Wendy, But We Loved Gracie

June 15, 2026June 15, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we continue our theme of Funny Duos, today we delve into Wendy and Me, starring George Burns. This one debuted on ABC in fall of 1964 and was canceled by the next season.

Gracie Allen passed away from a heart attack in 1964. She had quit the Burns and Allen show to get away from the fast pace of show business. Burns wasn’t ready to retire, so he agreed to star in this sitcom with Connie Stevens.

Burns, a former entertainment performer, owns an apartment building where Wendy Conway (Stevens) lives with her husband Jeff (Ron Harper). Burns practices singing for five or six hours a day just in case he is able to make a comeback. There were a lot of complaints, so he had to buy the building to keep practicing. Also in the cast was Danny Adams (James T. Callahan), a friend of Jeff‘s who’s a playboy, and Mr. Bundy (J. Pat O’Malley), the superintendent.

Like his previous show, Burns can watch a television playing Wendy and Me and talk to the audience about the events. This show was also similar to Burn and Allen in that George is the straight man while Stevens is the naïve, bit ditzy, scatterbrained blonde who is an airline stewardess and Jeff is a pilot. As George says, “having Wendy help you is like being lost in a desert for four days and then having someone give you a glass of sand.”

A running gag on the show is that Wendy celebrates everything from when she and Jeff had their first date to when she first put sugar in his coffee.

The show aired Monday nights. It was sandwiched between No Time for Sergeants, a military comedy, and The Jack Benny Show. However, its competition was The Lucy Show and The Andy Williams Show. The Andy Griffith Show was on before The Lucy Show, and both were top-ten hits so the struggle for viewers was challenging.

Actually the show was well written and I thought the dialogue was great. If this had been the original version of this show, it probably would have been a big hit. I’m guessing that it was hard to compete with Gracie and with her having just passed away, it felt wrong to cheer for me to root for someone else in her place. While those feelings might have come into some of the audience draw, I’m guessing the tough competition was this show’s biggest hurdle. It probably could have drawn viewers from younger generations who never saw the original Burns and Allen, but when it was up against The Lucy Show that followed The Andy Griffith Show, the viewers chose NBC. The Andy Williams Show also struggled in this time slot. If you want to check out a fun show from the sixties, this would definitely be a fun one to watch.