60's Comedy TV Series

Sally Field in Gidget. It lasted only one season from September 1, 1965 to September 6, 1966 with 32 episodes on ABC. Dan Potter played Gidget's father Professor Russell Lawrence. This was a spinoff from the three Gidget's films.



Like so many shows that didn't do that well, they created a life in syndication. This series did so well in that they did a couple of Television movies.

Funny, I thought it was on more than one season. By the way, it was up against CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies.

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The Patty Duke Show starring Patty Duke as Patty Lane. The show aired from September 1963 til May 1966 with 104 episodes on ABC. Her father, Martin Lane (played by William Schallert, played many shows and movies throughout the years.

Patty Lane (played by Duke) was a normal teenager living in the Broiklyn Heights section of New York City, who loved boys, ice cream, and sleepovers. In the first episode, her "identical cousin" Cathy Lane (also played by Duke) came over to the United States from Scotland to live with Patty's family. Their close physical resemblance to each other is explained by their fathers being identical twin brothers.

The dual role for Duke challengedspecial effects for its time, considering television special effects were rare in the early 1960s, particularly for a sitcom. When special effects weren't practical, child actress Rita McLaughlin was used as Duke's double (almost always seen only from behind). Ironically, McLaughlin's hair was bright red while Duke was a brunette. This proved not to be a problem for the show since the two actresses' hair shades appeared the same in monochrome.

Already a budding star in her own right, Duke was further thrust into the public consciousness through the show. As the series went on, her star power from the series allowed her to enter the realm of popular music, releasing a Top Ten single, "Don't Just Stand There", in 1965.

Although the series was still popular during its final season, ABC decided not to renew it for the '66/'67 season on the basis that filming it in color would have been prohibitively expensive.

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Dennis the Menace was a comic strip spin-off for a TV series with the same name. It aired on CBS from 1959 until 1963. Dennis was played by Jay North, Henry & Alice Mitchell (Dennis' parents) were played by Herbert Anderson and Gloria Henry. Jay North was only 8 years old when the series started. Mr. Wilson was played by Joseph Keerns and Mrs. Wilson by Sylvia Field. Keerns died in the middle of Season 3 of Cerebral hemorrhage and was replaced by Gale Gordon as Mr. Wilson's brother John Wilson. Later, his wife came in and stayed for the remainder of the seasons. She was played by Sara Seeger.

Of course all good things come to an end. Dennis became older and the plot was getting stale, so they ended it and well the rest is history, but the comic strip is alive and well.

I don't think it is out on DVD at this time.

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The Second Hundred Years was a sitcom starring Monte Markham which aired on the ABC for one season and 26 episodes from September 1967 through September 1968.

It was what was called a "high concept" show—one which was based on circumstances which were extremely unlikely to occur in real life. The concept here was that one Luke Carpenter had left for Alaska in 1900 as part of a gold rush, but soon after his arrival was buried in a glacial avalanche. His burial was evidently so complete and so rapid that he survived in a state of suspended animation for 67 years. He was then thawed out and soon brought to the home of his now-elderly son, Edwin (portrayed by Arthur O'Connell), in Woodland Oaks, California. The humor centered around how Luke was younger, both in appearance and attitude, than both his son, who was apparently around 70, but also his grandson Ken, who at 33 was the exact age at which Luke had disappeared and been preserved, and who was a near double for his grandfather (not surprising, as both characters were portrayed by Markham). Other than having to adjust to all of the technology of the modern era, Luke, who was an individualistic, light-hearted sort, was at some ways more at home in his new world than his staid offspring.

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Quote from chester7777

I never saw this show, but it sounds really interesting! I also enjoy Monte Markham. . . . . . . . . .

It did last only one season, and I haven't heard about it too. I don't think I've heard of Monte Markham. What did he do?

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Quote from chester7777

To be quite honest, my firmest memory of him is a guest appearance on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. . . . . . . . it seems he did lots of guest appearances on many sitcoms and other series, and is still alive (he was born in 1935). . . . . . .

Does that help a little? :teeth_smile:

Mrs. C

Yes, I guess I've seen him, but don't recall any show in particular. So I guess he's the type that makes his rounds from show to show, but not the main star or even supporting cast.

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Mister Ed is an American television situation comedy.

It first aired as a syndicated program on January 5, 1961 to July 2, 1961 and then on CBS from October 1, 1961 to February 1966. Mister Ed was the first series ever to debut as a midseason replacement, occurring before the premiere of Batman, five years later.

The stars of the show are Mister Ed, an intelligent talking palomino American Saddlebred ("played" by gelding Bamboo Harvester), and his owner, architect Wilbur Post (played by Alan Young). Much of the program's humor stemmed from the fact Mister Ed would speak only to Wilbur. According to the show's producer, Arthur Lubin, Young was chosen because "he seemed like a guy a horse would talk to." Lubin, a personal friend of Mae West, scored a coup and persuaded the legendary screen icon to guest star in one episode.

The show was derived from the short story "Ed Takes the Pledge" by Walter R. Brooks, who is otherwise known for the Freddy the Pig series of children's novels, which likewise feature talking animals who interact with humans.

The concept of the show was similar to Francis the Talking Mule, with the equine normally talking only to one person (Wilbur), and thus both helping and frustrating its owner.

Mister Ed was voiced by character actor Allen "Rocky" Lane (speaking) and Sheldon Allman (singing, except his line in the theme song, which was sung by its composer, Jay Livingston).

Ed was trained for the show by Les Hilton. Lane remained anonymous as the voice of Mister Ed, and the show's producers would refer to him only as "an actor who prefers to remain nameless". The credits listed Mister Ed as playing "Himself." Mr. Ed's first words, after Wilbur mused, "It's been a long time since I was kid," were: "It's been a long time since I was a pony." A young horse is a colt; a pony is a miniature breed of horse. An example of writer ignorance as publicly disseminated misinformation.

The other main characters in the show were Wilbur's tolerant wife Carol (Connie Hines) and their neighbors the Addisons (Larry Keating and Edna Skinner) until 1963 (upon Larry Keating's death that year) and then the Kirkwoods (Leon Ames and Florence MacMichael).

For the final season, the Kirkwoods disappeared. Instead, the show focused strictly on the home life of the Posts, which was made a little more interesting with Carol's father moving in at the beginning of the season.

The theme song was written by the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and sung, for the show, by Livingston.

[INDENT]A horse is a horse
Of course, of course
And no one can talk to a horse of course —
That is of course unless the horse
Is the famous Mister Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse —
He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse
He's always on a steady course
Talk to Mister Ed!

People yakity-yak a streak
And waste your time of day,
But Mister Ed will never speak
Unless he has something to say!

A horse is a horse
Of course, of course
And this one will talk 'till his voice is hoarse
You never heard of a talking horse?
Well listen to this:
"I am Mister ED!"

[/INDENT]According to an urban legend when the theme song for Mister Ed was played backwards the words "Someone sung the song for Satan" and "the source is Satan" could be clearly heard. These phrases are heard by some listeners due to the phenomenon called phonetic reversal.

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The 1960's would never be the same without a secret agent show and a comedy was also the ingredants for Get Smart. The show debut on NBC back in September 1965 and lasted until April 1969 and the final season on CBS from Spetember 1969 through September 1970. Don Adams was Maxwell "Agent 86" Smart. Barbara Feldon was Agent 99. Edward Platt was the Chief.

The series centered around bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart, also known as Agent 86. His partner is "Agent 99", whose real name is only used in the second episode; even after Smart married her, he (and everyone else) continued to address her as "99" (or, occasionally, Mrs. Smart). Smart and 99 worked for CONTROL, a secret U.S. Government spy agency based in Washington D.C.(at 123 Main Street). Together, the pair investigated and opposed various threats to the world while Smart's bumbling caused complications. However, at each story's climax, Smart never failed to save the day, typically thanks to his own dumb luck and 99's competence. Looking on was the long-suffering Chief of CONTROL, who was always addressed as "Chief". Unlike Agent 99, Chief was revealed to have a first name — Thaddeus — on a few occasions.
The nemesis of CONTROL was KAOS, and KAOS's Vice President of Public Relations and Terror, Siegfried (Bernie Kopell), showed up often as Maxwell Smart's opponent, or would-be assassin. Though on opposite sides, Max and Siegfried clicked personally, and spoke fondly of one another—even when trying to kill each other.

Other characters included Hymie the Robot (Dick Gautier), a powerful android who tended to take orders too literally; Agent 13 (Dave Ketchum), who was forever being stationed inside weird places such as mailboxes, washing machines, lockers, and other objects; Agent 44 (Victor French), who regularly suffered the same fate as Agent 13 (The main difference between them being that while Agent 13 grumbled and raged about his situation, 44 would pout and cry) ; Agent Larrabee (Robert Karvelas), the Chief's slow-witted assistant; Shtarker (King Moody), Siegfried's chief henchman; and Fang (Agent K-13), a badly-trained dog working for CONTROL..

Perhaps the most recognizable 'gag' from the show was Smart's shoe phone, which has become somewhat of a comic icon: Smart would communicate with CONTROL using a rotary-dialed telephone concealed in his shoe, similar to a modern cell phone. While such a device was decades ahead of its time in real life, its numerous design flaws — such as the loud bell and the need to take off his shoe to use it — led to various humorously awkward situations.

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I remember him in Rio Lobo. French has been in a lot of TV and movies.

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The Doris Day Show is an 128-episode that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 1968 until September 1973. In addition to showcasing Doris Day, the show is remembered for its many abrupt format changes over the course of its five-year run. It is also remembered for Day's claim, in her 1975 autobiography, that her husband Martin Melcher had signed her to do the TV series without her knowledge, a fact she only discovered when he died of heart disease on April 20, 1968.
Day had been a popular film actress in the 1950s and early 1960s. In this gentle sitcom, she was cast as Doris Martin, a widow and mother of two young sons who, when the series premiered, had just moved back to a rural ranch outside of San Francisco after having lived in big cities for most of her adult life.
Other characters during this initial phase of the program included Doris's father Buck (played by Denver Pyle) and their hired hand on the ranch, Leroy (played by James Hampton).
In the 1969-70 TV season, the Doris Martin character began to commute from the ranch to San Francisco, where she worked as a secretary for a magazine. New workplace characters were added. McLean Stevenson (who would later leave the series to star in M*A*S*H) played her boss, and her friend and coworker, Myrna Gibbons, was played by Rose Marie in a role similar to her more famous Sally Rogers role on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Pyle and Hampton were still seen during this season.
At the start of the 1970-71 season, Doris and her sons moved from the ranch to San Francisco, where they lived above an Italian restaurant. Doris began writing articles for the magazine at which she worked, Today's World. Most of the characters from the previous season remained, with the exceptions of Pyle and Hampton's characters.
The fourth season, 1971-72, saw the most radical change in the series. Perhaps inspired by the success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Day's character suddenly became a swinging single career woman. The entire cast, other than Day herself, was gone; even Doris Martin's two sons were no longer in the cast (or even referred to). Doris Martin now had a new editor, Cy Bennett (played by the great character actor John Dehner) , and she was no longer a secretary, but rather a full-time staff writer. (The character was now depicted as though she has always been a reporter, and no reference was ever made to her ever having been a secretary.) The series continued with this format until it was canceled in 1973.
The Doris Day Show was considered a rather lightweight comedy, and was never a huge ratings success (although it was popular enough to survive on primetime TV for five seasons). Even though it premiered at a time when rural comedies such as Green Acres were still the norm, it continued into the era when topical, relevant sitcoms such as All in the Family prevailed. In fact, The Doris Day Show was once, in 1971, referred to in an episode of All in the Family. As the bigoted white character Archie Bunker awkwardly attempts to make small talk with his new African American neighbor Louise Jefferson, he asks her: "Er, how did you like the Julia show last night?" Louise Jefferson replies, "Fine. How did you like Doris Day?"

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