Barbara Billingsley: She Knows Jive

May 18, 2026April 17, 2026 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are in the midst of our blog theme, Model Parents, and today we get to know June Cleaver, also known as Barbara Billingsley.

Billingsley was born in Los Angeles in 1915. Barbara’s parents divorced when she was under five; her dad was a policeman, who was eventually appointed the assistant Chief of Police, and her mom worked at a knitting mill.

Her mother used to take her and her sister to the movies quite often, so she was exposed to all the top actors growing up. She also loved tennis and she said you could play at night. You put a quarter in this machine and it lit up the court so you got an hour to play.

Billingsley left college after a year to appear in a Broadway review. When the show closed after only five days, Barbara decided to stay and began working as a fashion model for Stephen Sondheim’s mother and later Hattie Carnegie. She didn’t have an easy time there; she said she was so innocent and no one had talked to her about life, so she grew up quickly.

She married her husband Glenn in 1941 and four years later she was offered a contract with MGM Studios. The couple moved to Los Angeles where Glenn opened a steakhouse. Unfortunately, their marriage didn’t last and they divorced in 1947, with two young sons.

She would appear in 46 films, most of them in the forties. One of her last movie roles was probably her most famous when she appeared in Airplane!

After 1950 most of her roles were on television. Her first exposure to television was in 1939 in a friend’s New York apartment. Unlike Jane Wyatt and her friends, Billingsley thought it was fascinating.

During the fifties she appeared in a lot of the dramatic playhouse series that were so popular that decade. Her first recurring role was as Barbara on The Box Brothers. In this show, imdb.com states “the two Box brothers were polar opposites who ran a photography studio in San Francisco. Gilly (Bob Sweeney) is the shy retiring sibling, while excitable Harvey (Gale Gordon) is domineering. Harvey dates self-assured Margaret while Gilly’s girl is quiet Marilee.”

In 1953 she married director Roy Kellino, and the marriage lasted for three years when he passed away. Her last marriage to Dr. William S. Mortenson began in 1959 and ended in 1981 when he passed away.

Her next recurring role would make her a household name. In 1957 she accepted the offer to star in Leave It to Beaver. The series was created for Buddy Ebsen and that’s who Billingsley tested with. She went for the audition even though she and her husband at the time were getting ready to leave for Spain where he was directing a movie. Her husband passed away before they left, so when she was asked about taking the part for the new sitcom, she said yes. In the pilot Ebsen was replaced by Max Showalter. It was an episode of Playhouse 57 called “It’s a Small World.” She said she was happy that Hugh Beaumont ended up with the part once the show was ready to begin taping, and she said that he was the best father on television.

The show became a big hit, airing for five seasons. She starred with Beaumont, who we’ll talk about next week; Jerry Mathers; and Tony Dow.

Billingsley was often stereotyped as the typical suburban mother cleaning her house while wearing pearls. However, the real story behind the pearls is a much simpler one. Barbara had a hollow in her neck that she was self-conscious about, so she thought wearing a string of pearls would help hide it. She was also made fun of vacuuming in high heels. She said she wore flats the first year or two, but when the boys began getting taller, the producers wanted her to wear heels, so they didn’t surpass her in height.

Barbara defended June Cleaver when others complained about sitcom life not being realistic. Billingsley said June “was the love in that family. She set a good example for what a wife could be. I had two boys at home when I did the show. I think the character became kind of like me and vice versa. I’ve never known where one started and where one stopped.” She said she thought most people would appreciate a mother like June. “Wouldn’t it be nice if you came home from school and there was Mom standing there with her little apron and cookies waiting?” Her “sons” on the show considered her a mentor and a second mother.

The one thing Billingsley regretted about the show was signing the typical contract that paid actors residuals for up to six reruns. Who knew Leave it To Beaver would still be on the air almost seventy years after it debuted.

She stayed close to the cast of Leave It to Beaver. She said, “No father on television was better than Hugh.” After his death, she said she missed “him very much because we were so close.” She was also close to Richard Deacon who she, like almost everyone else who knew him, described as incredibly funny.

Jerry Mathers talked about his friendship with Barbara after her death. “For me she was like the favorite teacher that we all had in school. I was lucky enough to work with her for six years and have a life-long relationship with her. She was a very kind woman and a generous philanthropist who supported many charities, always ready to give anyone in need a helping hand.

After the show ended, Barbara was typecast and couldn’t find a role she wanted. She traveled abroad off and on for about seventeen years. With the exception of an appearance on The FBI, she would not be seen on tv again until the 1980s after her role on the satire Airplane! While she is only on camera a couple of minutes, her role in the movie is memorable. As a jab at her very white suburban mom role of June Cleaver, Barbara comes to the aid of a stewardess who can’t understand two passengers having an argument. The passengers were Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs, and the sweet, grandmotherly Barbara tells the stewardess that she knows jive and she proceeds to talk to and berate the two for arguing. The script initially just said “speak jive,” so Billingsley went to lunch with Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs (the “Jive Dudes”) and they improvised the dialogue together.While she doesn’t even have a name in the movie, this cameo sparked her career and she continued to get fan mail for years.

During the 1980s she appeared on several shows including Mork & Mindy, Silver Spoons, and The Love Boat. From 1985-1989 she reprised her role of June Cleaver on The New Leave It to Beaver show.

She showed up in several shows in the nineties including Empty Nest and Murphy Brown. Her final credit was in a made-for-tv movie, Secret Santa, in 2003.

Billingsley passed away in her home in 2010.

When she wasn’t acting, her interests included gardening, watching movies, playing tennis, sewing, traveling, and spending time with her family.

One thing Barbara said she regretted was not getting an education in drama before becoming an actress. She said she was able to take some classes later, but the people who came to Hollywood with education degrees had much more confidence. And later she learned that the two key skills for actors are relaxation and concentration. Without both, the job is too hard.

When asked how she wanted to be remembered, she echoed Jane Wyatt, saying that she wanted to be known as a good mother and wife. She said she’d like people to remember Leave it to Beaver, but if they think she raised a good family, that’s important and she wants to be a good example.

I think it’s fascinating that our two moms in our “Model Parents” theme both focused on their family life rather than their professional life. They came from very different backgrounds with Wyatt growing up in a wealthy family where both parents chose to work and Billingsley growing up in a middle-class family where her mother had to work to help support her family. They proved by their actions that the mothers on Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver did live realistic lives, and these two moms chose to live this same life off the set as well.

Not Many of Us Can Compute Small Wonder

March 20, 2023November 11, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are in the midst of our blog series “I Robot.” If you read last week’s blog, you will remember we were discussing My Living Doll, a science fiction comedy from the mid-sixties created by Howard Leeds.

Today we are moving ahead two decades to look at another Howard Leeds’ show from the mid-eighties called Small Wonder, another science fiction sitcom.

The concept of the show is that Ted Lawson (Dick Christie) and his family–wife Joan (Marla Pennington) and son Jamie (Jerry Supiran)–live in a typical residential area. Lawson has created V.I.C.I., an android that contains Voice Input Child Indenticant whom he calls Vicki (Tiffany Brissette). Lawson created the robot to help handicapped children, and she looks like a ten-year-old girl. Lawson has to take her home to learn about family environments and be “trained” for home service. Similar to Rhoda on My Living Doll, Vicki has an outlet under her right arm, a data port under her left arm, and an access panel in her back. She possesses superhuman strength and speed. Seth Green auditioned for the role of Jamie and, Candace Cameron Bure was up for the role of Vicki, along with 398 other girls.

The Lawsons have to keep her identity a secret and pass her off for a daughter they adopted. Their neighbor, ten-year-old Harriet (Emily Schulman), a la Gladys Kravitz, was very nosy and made the secret hard to maintain. Jamie works hard to scheme and find ways to get Vicki to make his life easier.

Rounding out the cast were Brandon and Bonnie Brindle (William Bogert and Edie McClurg) who were Harriet’s parents; Brandon was also Ted’s boss; Reggie (Paul C. Scott), Jessica (Lihann Jones), and Warren (Daryl Bartley), Jamie’s friends.

The show was on for four seasons and, of course, Brissette continued to grow and age, so in season three Ted gives Vicki an upgrade which allows her to wear current fashions, eat, and drink, making it easier to conceal her identity.

Unfortunately for Leeds, this show has also been dubbed one of the worst sitcoms of all time, despite the fact that it was on for four years. Robert Bianco, TV critic for USA Today, wrote in 2002 that it was a contender for one of the worst TV shows of all time, and the BBC described it as the worst low-budget sitcom of all time (as an aside, the first season provided $300,000 per episode). Lest you think Leeds could not come up with a successful show; know that he also produced The Brady Bunch, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Silver Spoons, and The Facts of Life. He also wrote scripts for forty-two different shows.

Although it was not popular with critics, viewers seemed to enjoy it. The show was later sold to more than twenty countries, including Brazil, France, India, and Italy.

In 2015, Dave Nemetz spoke with Marla Pennington Rowan and Emily Schulman Webster about their time on the show. They both felt sorry for Brissette. She had a lot of skills such as singing, dancing, gymnastics, and piano playing, but all she could do on the show was to be a robot. She had to talk in a monotone while showing no emotions. Webster said it was so challenging for her but she was a pro. She mentioned that “she had to bite the inside of her cheeks to keep from smiling. That was tough. My heart sort of broke for her.”

Both stars mentioned how hard the special effect filming was for Tiffany. It might be her head spinning around and around or lifting the couch with one arm to clean under it. Those scenes were filmed on Thursdays with the use of green screen technology. Webster said it was not easy and that “Tiffany had to endure it, it would take a lot of trial and error.” In addition to these talents, Vicki could shrink down to the size of a doll, extend to ten feet tall, channel electricity through her hands, and she possessed unlimited learning ability to improve products.

Rowan and Webster said the cast got along great, just like one big family. However, the parents of the minor stars surely did not. Three tutors were employed on the set because the parents could not agree on choosing the same one. Rowan mentioned that apparently, the parents thought they were the stars of the show.

The show was very popular with kids especially. However, power struggles were not confined to overbearing parents; the corporate level had plenty of controversy as well. I’m not sure why, but the show was owned by five different companies, and they did not agree on much either. Once they knew there were enough shows to put it into syndication the show was done. No one knew if they were going to be picked up for the next season or not; they weren’t, so there was never any finale produced.

One of the most memorable parts of the show might be the theme song. It’s lyrics are:

She’s a small wonder; pretty and bright with soft curls.

She’s a small wonder; a girl unlike other girls.

She’s a miracle and I grant you, she’ll enchant you at first sight.

She’s a small wonder, and she’ll make your heart take flight.

She’s fantastic, made of plastic; microchips here and there.

She’s a small wonder, brings love and laughter everywhere.

We understand her pain at watching the show. Photo:smallwonderrevisited.blogspot.com

So how did it work out for the trying parent/managers? None of the three children are actors any longer. Brissette is a nurse in Colorado, Supiran was broke and homeless in 2012 but is in a better place today, and Schulman Rowan writes cookbooks and is considering acting again. Her last role was in the show Christy in the mid-nineties.

If you watch Antenna TV you might be very familiar with the show. It’s no longer in the rotation, but I have watched it several times on the network in the past. It definitely is not anything I would clear my schedule for. I’m not sure I would classify it as the worst sitcom of all time; it seems in the past 40 years, we have come up with some pretty bad options. However, I certainly would not spend my time watching this one. I’m just going to chalk it up to fulfilling a need in the eighties on Saturdays that does not age well.

Viewers Found Best of the West “So-So of the West”

June 8, 2020 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we continue the “Living in the Past: Timeless Comedies,” we travel back to the frontier for Best of the West. Like the show we discussed in my last blog, When Things Were Rotten, this series was also a rapid fire of gags, puns, and one-liners.

Westerns ruled the airwaves in the 1950s, but with the demise of Gunsmoke in 1975, the cowboys shows had all ridden off into the sunset. The Best of the West made its debut in 1981. The show, created by Earl Pomerantz, was a parody of the previous decades of oaters. Civil War veteran Sam Best (Joel Higgins) moves his family from posh Philadelphia to Copper Creek at the western border in 1865. He was not your typical western hero—more of a city slicker.

A store owner by trade, he knew little about guns or fighting. After arriving in the town, he accidentally scares off The Calico Kid (Christopher Lloyd), one of the “bad guys,” and the townspeople lobby him to be their mayor.

Sam’s nemesis is Parker Tillman (Leonard Frey), who runs the saloon with a slew of other bad guys, most notably his sidekick Frog Rothchild Jr. (Tracey Walter). With Sam are his southern belle wife Elvira (Carlene Watkins) and his smart-alecky son Daniel (Meeno Peluce). Sam is also friends with the town doctor, Jerome Kullens (Tom Ewell), who is a bit of a lush.

Sam reminds me a bit of F-Troop’s Will Parmenter. He’s a likable guy placed in a situation that he did not pursue. Sam’s family is not happy in their new setting. They had gotten used to the comforts of a big city. Elvira is beside herself because she can never get the dirt off the floor, until Sam reminded her it was literally a dirt floor.

The plots on this show were a bit similar to many of the story lines we became familiar with from decades of westerns. In one show the doctor’s mail-order bride is described as having a vivid personality with a past to match. In one episode, Sam and Tillman try to convince the railroad company to connect with Copper Creek. Another example is when Sam shoots himself in the leg and the jail begins to fall apart, and the town reconsiders his ability to lead them, or the classic tale of Elvira and Daniel exploring a cave that is booby-trapped and ready to collapse around them.

The show never seemed to catch on with viewers. It was hard to fault the writers. David Lloyd, Sam Simon, and Earl Pomerantz were working together on Taxi, and they would go on to write for Cheers in 1982.

The show also had some amazing celebrity guest stars: Dixie Carter, Chuck Connors, Andy Griffith, Al Lewis, and Betty White.

For a while, parodies like Airplane! were all the rage, and maybe the fad had just played out.

Perhaps, western fans, with their fond memories of growing up with Bonanza and The Rifle Man, just weren’t ready to make fun of their childhood shows.

It was hard to find information about the show. As you can see in these photos, the majority of them came from imdb.com; there just aren’t many photos out there otherwise.

ABC didn’t outright cancel the show, but they took a lot of time trying to decide whether to renew it or not. In the meantime, Joel Higgins got tired of waiting and accepted the role of Edward Stratton on Silver Spoons. With the star gone and the ratings mediocre, the show ended after 22 episodes.

Silver Spoons would be the show that brought Joel Higgins success. However, he had an interesting career. He graduated from Michigan State with a degree in advertising. He went to work for General Motors for six months. When he enlisted in the Army, his title was Special Services Sergeant in Charge of Entertainment. This role seemed to redirect his path. Post-Army life, he was busy with both television roles and theater performances. He also started a business with two friends. They wrote more than 200 jingles for a variety of products, including Kool-Aid, M&Ms, Schwepps Soda, and Coors beer, as well as several themes for shows such as Life with Lucy, one of Lucille Ball’s many shows.

His family members Carlene Watkins and Meeno Peluce never found their “Silver Spoons.” Carlene had been on The Secret Empire in 1979. After Best of the West, she would go on to be part of the cast of five more shows–It’s Not Easy, Mary, The Tortellis, Dear John, and Bob–none of which lasted very long. Peluce was part of the Bad News Bears from 1979-80 and later would land a regular role on Voyagers from 1982-83. He did make appearances on many shows, including Silver Spoons in 1984.

Many viewers seem to have fond memories of this show. If you want to see what the show was like, CBS-DVD released the show as a manufactured-on-demand DVD in 2017. While this series might not portray the best of the west, it certainly was not the worst of the west either.

Who’s the Boss? On This Show Everyone Acts Like a Boss

August 26, 2019 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As I finish 1980s Rewind today, I chose a heart-warming show that followed the typical formula by standing it on its head, Who’s the Boss. The show was created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter. Cohan was a producer and writer for The Bob Newhart Show and wrote for many other shows including The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Hunter wrote and produced episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati.

Instead of the successful senator who hires a housekeeper like The Farmer’s Daughter, on this show Angela Bower (Judith Light), an advertising executive, hires Tony Micelli (Tony Danza), a former baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals) to be her housekeeper. Instead of Uncle Charlie like My Three Sons, the show has Mona (Katherine Helmond), Angela’s mother giving wise advice and sarcastic comments. Tony has a daughter Samantha (Alyssa Milano) and Angela has a son Jonathan (Danny Pintauro). All together they form one typical family unit. The show was on ABC for eight years from 1984-1992, so viewers literally watched the kids grow up. Tony is laid back and flexible, while Angela is a bit more uptight and organized. Angela and Tony functioned as parents on the show, but they also had the possibility of a romance between them.

After a shoulder injury, Tony is forced to change careers. He wants his daughter to experience a better life. The Bowers live in Connecticut in an upscale neighborhood. Originally, the show was titled “You’re the Boss,” but it was changed to plant a question of who really ran the house. However, viewers all realized that the kids were really the bosses.

WHO’S THE BOSS? – “Angela Gets Fired: Part II” – Airdate: September 30, 1986. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images)ALYSSA MILANO;DANNY PINTAURO;KATHERINE HELMOND

The cast jelled very well together. They had their differences of opinion, but they grew close and experienced the normal family ups and downs when five very different people spend so much time together. Mona’s wit and targeted observations kept things light and funny.

During most of the series, Tony and Angela try to avoid the romance developing between them. They both date other people. They also become best friends, relying on each other as a husband and wife would. They often discuss issues the kids are having. They both “parent” each of the kids. They both grow and change during the course of the series. Angela becomes less tense and risks opening her own firm. Tony enrolls in college. Producers always seem to waiver “between should they get together or not.” Shows like Castle, That Girl, and Friends struggled with keeping the magic alive and keeping the show realistic. Somehow the producers and writers for Who’s the Boss kept the tension and potential romance alive for seven years. During the last season, they realize they are in love with each other.

There were many stars who appeared on the show during the years including Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Mike Tyson, and Leslie Nielsen. One of the episodes was when Robert Mandan appeared on a few episodes as Mona’s love interest. Mandan had played her husband on the show Soap.

The theme song lyrics were written by creators Cohan and Hunter. Titled “Brand New Life,” the music was composed by Larry Carlton and Robert Kraft. Three different versions were used over the years: Larry Weiss sang it from 1984-1986; Steve Wariner from 1986-1989; and Jonathan Wolff from 1989-1992.

WHO’S THE BOSS? – “Samantha’s Growing Up” – Season One – Airdate: January 8, 1985. (American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.) ALYSSA MILANO, JUDITH LIGHT, KATHERINE HELMOND, TONY DANZA

Early reviews were lukewarm. Critics liked it but they were a bit dismissive of it being a real hit. Viewers didn’t agree. They loved the show. During its tenure, the show was nominated for more than forty awards, including ten Primetime Emmys and five Golden Globes. From 1985-1989, it ranked in the top ten.

The show aired on Tuesday nights for the first seven years. In the fall of 1991, the network moved the show to Saturday nights against The Golden Girls. The ratings went down after the move and the network decided to cancel the show. There was a great debate about whether Tony and Angela should marry in the finale. Sam had married earlier in the season and Tony and Angela admitted they were in love. However, Danza was opposed to the marriage and there was a concern that if a wedding took place, it might affect the syndication options. Instead of a wedding, Tony and Angela break up. But in the last scene, Tony is at Angela’s house applying for the job of housekeeper, very similar to the very first episode of the show.

The show created a spinoff but in a far-reaching definition of spinoff. In one episode, Leah Remini was a friend of Sam’s, a homeless model. Beginning and ending in 1989, the show Living Dolls starred Remini, Michael Learned, and Halle Berry.

While Tony went back to school during the series, Danza emulated him in real life. He graduated with an education degree. He wrote a book, I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High. He taught English at a school in Philadelphia.

The cast of Who’s the Boss was a close-knit one, and they still keep in touch almost twenty years later. Light commented that they are all still close and she said she probably kept in touch with Tony the most. “He checks in all the time just to see how the kids are doing, he’s very sweet.” Danza once discussed how emotional it was for him to give Milano away as a bride on the show. “She was like my little girl, you know. She started on this show when she was 10. Now she’s 19, we married her off. I mean, it’s easy to get emotional, it really is.”

Milano was also very close to Light. A couple of years ago, the two stars ran into each other for an event, and Milano tweeted, “Nothing makes me happier than seeing Judith Light. Nothing.”

They were all saddened by the death of Katherine Helmond in March of 2019. Danza also discussed Helmond in an interview. “Katherine Helmond was a remarkable human being and an extraordinary artist; generous, gracious, charming and profoundly funny.” After her death, he commented that “She was such an influence on me. No matter what problem I had, I could go to her. Very few people could match her. She was a consummate professional. She never made a mistake and she always got the laugh. She was the sexy older lady who could keep up with the young people. She just had a way about her.”

Editorial use only. No book cover usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock (1646629a) Who’s The Boss , Katherine Helmond, Tony Danza Film and Television

Light also discussed Helmond. “She taught me so much about life and inspired me indelibly by watching her work. Katherine was a gift to our business and to the world and will be deeply missed.”

Her television grandchildren also remembered her fondly. Milano paid the following tribute to her: “My beautiful, kind, funny, gracious, compassionate rock. You were an instrumental part of my life. You taught me to hold my head above the marsh! You taught me to do anything for a laugh! What an example you were!” Pintauro said she was “the best TV grandmother a boy could ask for. Even still, I’m just as devastated as I was when I lost my real grandma. A beautiful soul has left us for the next chapter, may you make them laugh Katherine!”

This is another one of those undervalued shows. Although there were some really great shows on television during the mid and late 1980s, some of the top-rated shows on in this decade included Knot’s Landing, Charles in Charge, Diff’rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, and Facts of Life. Who’s the Boss was a much better written and acted show than any of these. The show combined the best elements of sitcoms and created a fresh approach to a family comedy.