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.