The Men from Shiloh

The Governor and J.J.: You Didn’t Often Hear “Yes, Guv’nor”

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In June, our theme is “Funny Duos,” and we are taking a look at a few shows that are not so well-known.

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Up first is The Governor & J.J. This show debuted in September of 1969 and ran for one season on CBS. Starring Dan Dailey and Julie Sommars, it was about a Midwestern governor and his daughter Jennifer Jo, or JJ, who acted as first lady for him. Her day job was an assistant curator at a local zoo. Of course, she and her dad had very different opinions as he was more conservative and she was more liberal. Although in real life, Sommars was a dedicated Republican. Rounding out the cast were secretary Maggie (Neva Patterson), press secretary George (James T. Callahan), and housekeeper Sara (Nora Marlowe). Eventually the Drinkwaters’ basset hound Guv also became a character.

The casting of Sommars and Dailey was true chemistry. Dailey became a surrogate father for Sommars and was reportedly the first one at the hospital pacing the floors when she had her baby.

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Leonard Stern created the show. He was the producer and writer behind many successful shows including McMillan and Wife, Holmes and Yo-Yo, The Honeymooners, The Phil Silvers Show, and the amazing Get Smart.

Although it didn’t get nominated for any Emmys, it did win the Golden Globe for best comedy, best actress in a comedy and best actor in a comedy. Dailey was a well-known and respected actor when this show began and would have been a big draw for the show, although it was created to showcase Sommars.

The show was on Tuesday nights for the first few months and then was switched to Wednesday nights an hour earlier. Tuesdays it was up against the movie of the week on both ABC and NBC. When it moved to Wednesdays, if faced Room 222 and The Men from Shiloh.

Leonard Stern discussed the casting of the show during his interview with the Television Academy. He said one night his kids were watching The Man from UNCLE and he heard a voice and called his wife in and said he wanted to write a script for the character. He watched the rest of the show, trying to find the actress’s name and later asked Casting to send her over for a meeting. When the woman showed up, it was the wrong actress. He said it was a Bronx accent he heard on the show and this was a very Midwestern actress wearing gloves. However, he subsequently learned that she was the same actress when she went into her Bronx accent. So, he wrote the show for her. Then Sommars and Stern went to see Dan Dailey in “The Odd Couple” and he was hired. Carroll O’Connor was brought in as an Archie Bunker type of character, Orrin Hacker. He had starred in the pilot for All in the Family, but it had not sold. However, during this show, another network bought it and O’Connor left. Stern replaced him with one of his favorite actors from Get Smart, Edward Platt.

Fun fact is that in 1970 three comic books were issued by Gold Key.

Many viewers seemed to enjoy the show. However, one of the faults might have been that father and daughter, while on separate sides of political issues, they really weren’t in much conflict. I would say their differences of opinion weren’t so much left vs right as doing things the way they have always been done vs trying something new. That might have been fine for the show had All in the Family not debuted the same season. The differences between Archie Bunker and his son-in-law Mike were truly conflicting. When the Governor and J.J. was canceled after 39 episodes, it was replaced with To Rome with Love which got displaced for All in the Family. To Rome with Love made it 48 episodes before its removal while All in the Family not only lasted for 207 episodes but then morphed into Archie Bunker’s Place about Archie’s life after Edith passed away; it ran for another 97 episodes.

This seemed to be a well-written and well-casted show. In the episodes I watched for this blog, I admit that I had a hard time with the shows. I liked the interactions between the Governor and JJ, but I found the laugh track annoying and some of the characters like Jack Cassidy’s role as a speech consultant were a bit grating. If it had debuted five years earlier, it would probably have been a hit for a few seasons, but things were changing so much in television at this time, it never caught on.

The Virginian: Where Nobody Knows Your Name

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As we get ready to “Go West Young Man,”  today our blog series is getting to know the The Virginian (which is sometimes confusing because it was renamed The Men from Shiloh later for part of the series). This series debuted on NBC in 1962. It produced 249 episodes, running until 1971, making it the third longest-running western (Gunsmoke and Bonanza were the top two).

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Lew Wasserman was involved with Universal, and they produced Wagon Train which was on NBC. Universal sold the series to ABC in 1962 after it had been on the air for three years, and NBC was not happy, but Wasserman told them that he had a new show for them, The Virginian.

It was also the first 90-minute western. Like Stagecoach West, it was set in the Wyoming Territory. While the pilot was black and white, the rest of the series was filmed in color.

The series was based on an Owen Wister novel, The Virginian: Horseman of the Plains which was published in 1902.

The series featured a foreman at the Shiloh Ranch near Medicine Bow played by James Drury. The foreman was never referred to by his name. Drury once said, “Nobody knows the name of my character, not even me.” His sidekick was Trampas (Doug McClure). Sheriff Abbott (Ross Elliott) also shows up on and off throughout the nine seasons. For the first four seasons, the ranch owner, Judge Henry Garth (Lee J. Cobb) and his daughter Betsy (Roberta Shore) also live there. The cast changed fairly often throughout the series, but Drury and McClure were along for the entire ride.

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The plots of the show often revolve around themes of prejudice, injustice, being a responsible and hard worker, and standing up for the right thing.

During the final season, the show changed its title, and the series changed quite a bit. There was a new theme song, and it took on more of the character of the popular spaghetti westerns. Stewart Granger and Lee Majors joined the cast. While the ratings increased, the network was intent on cancelling the show, along with the rural purge that happened at that time.

Later when the show was no longer on the air, Drury discussed two of his castmates, one he admired and considered a friend and one he did not! About Grainger who joined the show for the last year, Drury said, “He was a disaster, and I couldn’t stand him. He wanted everything changed to make him the star of the show.  . . . He also fired the whole camera crew and hired a new crew for his episodes.” However, on reflecting about his co-star Doug McClure, Drury recalled “off-screen Doug was quite like his character, and you couldn’t help but smile when he walked into a room because he was full of good humor and good spirits all the time. He could cheer anybody up. He became my best friend, and I still miss him terribly—you couldn’t ask for a better co-star.”

As you can imagine, being on the air for nine years meant a lot of guest stars showed up on the series, including Eddie Albert, Charles Bronson, Robert Culp, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Patty Duke, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, Jack Lord, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Leonard Nimoy, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, George C. Scott, William Shatner and Franchot Tone.

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The Virginian was on Wednesday nights for its entire run. When it began, it was up against Wagon Train on ABC while CBS ran CBS Reports and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Both The Virginian and Wagon Train managed to hit the top thirty that year. The next year, its biggest competition was The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet followed by The Patty Duke Show. The Nelsons hit the top thirty and The Virginian and The Patty Duke Show were in the top twenty. The show continued to be in the top twenty or top thirty for the rest of its run, hitting the top ten in 1966, despite being on at the same time as many popular sitcoms during those years, including Batman, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Gomer Pyle USMC, Lost in Space, Mister Ed, and My Living Doll. It was still in the top twenty when it was canceled.

This show is fondly remembered by viewers who tuned it at the time. It’s been in syndication for decades, racking up new generations of fans. In one of his later interviews, Drury talked about the appeal of the show. He said, “People now tell me about their grandkids who discover the show on cable and start watching it. It’s a wonderful feeling to know the show is still viable after all these years.” That alone is reason to be proud of working on this show.