Angel (1960)

 

Despite running only a single season of 33 episodes, 1960-61 sit-com Angel has received more than its share of 21st century coverage. Author David C. Tucker devotes an entire chapter to it in his 2010 work Lost Laughs of '50s and '60s Television, and Cary O'Dell provides an extensive examination of the series in "The Angel on Lucy's Shoulders" at the Library of Congress blog Now See Hear! The series was the creation of Jess Oppenheimer, credited as co-creator, producer, and head writer for the most successful sit-com to that time, I Love Lucy. Oppenheimer was regarded highly enough that he is featured, in animated form, in the opening credits of Angel, which O'Dell observes was "a most unusual occurrence for TV then, and now.” As many have noted, the show bore a considerable resemblance to I Love Lucy except that in Angel the wife is the partner born overseas, in this case France instead of Cuba. However, even Oppenheimer's pedigree was not enough to impress the executives at CBS, who initially passed on the pilot until, as Tucker relates from Gregg Oppenheimer--Jess' son, Bob Lewine of CBS Films took the pilot to sponsors General Foods and S.C. Johnson (makers of Johnson & Johnson Wax), and the sponsors insisted that CBS air the show or they would withdraw their sponsorship from all CBS series. Initially, Angel aired on Thursday evenings opposite two other family-oriented sit-coms, Bachelor Father and another new series My Three Sons, which had the advantage of starring veteran movie star Fred MacMurray and I Love Lucy alumnus William Frawley, whereas Angel was trying to break through with newcomer Annie Fargue (then billed as Annie Fargé) and experienced supporting player Marshall Thompson. The show received positive reviews after its debut, with Variety calling it "a winner" and "a truly funny show," and TV Guide proclaiming "it's a good one" in its Season Preview issue of September 24, with special mention of Fargue being "a charmer."

However, Tucker quotes critic Harriet Van Horne as having written that Fargue was "a superb comedienne" but that Van Horn couldn't understand her thick French accent. The accent was likely a problem for many viewers, and Angel never really caught on in the ratings, while My Three Sons took the lion's share of the time slot's viewers and finished 13th overall in the Nielsen ratings. CBS tried moving Angel to a different time on Thursday and then to Wednesday, where it faced off against Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall and crime drama Hawaiian Eye, but nothing worked. By the time Fargue was the subject of an April 29, 1961 TV Guide feature story, the series was headed for cancelation, and author Dwight Whitney described her as "the most enchanting 'failure' that TV has produced this season," while also trying to mimic her accent by quoting her as saying, "'I really deed love ze show.'"

But the show also had other problems besides Fargue's accent and time-slot competition. For one, Thompson's character, named appropriately John Smith, is nothing more than a lifeless straight man for Angel's antics and confusion. He works as an architect but otherwise has no distinct personality, no character traits, a generic American everyman that fails to spark even mild interest. Second, the show tries to get way too much mileage out of the idiosyncrasies of the English language. The first episode, "The French Touch" (October 6, 1960), begins with Angel becoming frustrated with the different pronunciations of words spelled similarly--enough, through, dough, bough, etc. In the third episode, "The Easy Touch" (October 20, 1960), Angel tells John she wants to stay up and watch the late show because it is a show that was very popular in France, but when she tells him the name, he cannot understand it because it turns out to be Hellzapoppin. Another introductory segment jokes about the silent "h" that begins some American English words but not others. This theme of pronunciation and spelling is repeated in several more opening segments, but by the eighth episode, the opening segment had been shelved in favor of going straight to the credits. Another problem is that the show relies too much on drawn-out sketches that seem like they were snatched from a variety show, with the same joke played out for several minutes as if making it longer would make it funnier. For example, in "The Easy Touch," there is an overly long sketch where Angel and a police investigator played by Lyle Talbot try describing how people look based on famous movie actors, only neither one can remember the actors' names and so they try to conjure them up by other movies they appeared in or physical attributes. In the same episode, there is another long sequence in which Angel tries to hide from John that the roof is leaking after she paid some sketchy door-to-door salesmen to oil the roof shingles. She first directs him into the kitchen with his eyes closed, telling him she has a surprise for him, and while she then tries to think up what the surprise is going to be, she has to catch drops of water falling from the ceiling, which make a very audible sound as they hit the pot she is using to catch them. This type of humor may have been fresh when I Love Lucy was ruling the airwaves, but by 1960 viewers were moving on to more nuanced comedy such as that on The Andy Griffith Show. The one extended sketch that actually works is Mel Blanc playing a door-to-door cleaning product salesman in "Angel's Temper" (November 10, 1960) who can only deliver his scripted pitch without interruption and has to start over if he is asked any kind of question. Blanc's routine is reminiscent of those he performed on The Jack Benny Program, but sadly the rest of Angel and its cast are not up to Benny's level of comedy.

A fourth shortcoming for Angel was predicted in the review printed in the October 24, 1960 issue of Time magazine: "the assembly line may soon run the ignorant-immigrant theme into the ground." There is really nothing inherently funny about an immigrant struggling to learn a new language and culture, but Angel, like many broad comedies of the era, assumes that anything outside white American culture is a joke. In "Angel's Temper," we are treated to a scene in which French Angel and Japanese gardener Mr. Saito struggle to understand each other, while both are speaking in English, because of their thick accents, and in Saito's case his stereotypical pronunciation of the letter "l" as an "r." Paradoxically, we are shown that laughing at an immigrant's pronunciation is boorish in "The Valedictorian" (December 15, 1960) when an old Army buddy of John's stops by while in town to borrow his golf clubs and then laughs uproariously at everything Angel says. She is naturally offended and John has to comfort her, and yet we have been encouraged to laugh at just this sort of speech in every episode up to this point. Besides her struggles with the English language, the character of Angel appears to have been raised under a rock because in "Togetherness" (December 29, 1960) she has no conception of the game of pool when she attempts to learn it after being advised by neighbor Susie to take on some of her husband's interests. It's understandable that the term "shooting pool" might be misinterpreted to mean some kind of hunting, but when Angel goes to an actual pool hall, she is not suddenly enlightened but instead tries to strike the cue ball with the thick end of the pool cue. Apparently we are to assume that the game of pool does not exist in France. To be fair, however, white American culture comes in for some criticism of its own in "The Museum" (December 22, 1960) when Boy Scout-like troop leader Mr. Davis, played by former Three Stooges member Joe Besser, fills his boys' heads with all sorts of misinformation, since he is culturally ignorant, while leading them on a tour through an art museum. Angel is insulted at his misrepresentation of French culture and dresses him down for misleading his youth, so he naturally is too happy to hand the tour over to her, since he has no real interest in art or in learning anything himself.

The question is whether Oppenheimer learned anything himself from Angel's failure to repeat the success of I Love Lucy. He tried twice more in the 1960s to launch shows based on strong female leads--with British actress Glynis Johns in Glynis, which lasted for only 13 episodes in 1963, and The Debbie Reynolds Show, which made it through a complete season of 26 episodes in 1969-70 (and was later parodied by Monty Python in a sketch about The Attila the Hun Show). Certainly other programs of the era succeeded with strong female leads, but if Oppenheimer failed to adapt to viewers' changing tastes, as he did with Angel, it would be no surprise that his other series also faltered. After that he wrote only a single episode of All in the Family under the pseudonym Joe Kerr. He and Lucille Ball became estranged when he sued her after she launched The Lucy Show, claiming that her character was essentially the same as Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy. While he certainly reached the pinnacle of the television industry with his landmark 1950s series, his lack of success with later ventures such as Angel proved that it wasn't all his doing.

The main theme and individual episode scores for Angel were composed by Eliot Daniel, though Jess Oppenheimer also receives co-credit for the theme. While his childhood and early career have not been documented, his earliest published song, according to secondhandsongs.com, was "The Old Sow Song," recorded and co-written by Rudy Vallee in 1937. By the mid-1940s he had become established in providing music for feature films, beginning with Make Mine Music in 1946. He provided compositions for Disney's Song of the South that same year, including "Uncle Remus Said," co-written with Johnny Lange and Hy Heath. In 1947 he composed for another Disney feature, Fun and Fancy Free, and co-wrote two more songs with Lange, the western standard "Shadows on the Blue Trail" and "Pecos Bill," both recorded by Roy Rogers. In 1949 he received an Oscar nomination for writing "Lavender Blue" for the Disney feature So Dear to My Heart. The song was later widely covered, most famously by Burl Ives. He received a second Oscar nomination in 1951 for the song "Never" from the film Golden Girl. That same year he composed the theme music for I Love Lucy but insisted that his name not appear in the credits because he worried that it would damage his reputation as a film composer since television was then considered lower class, and he was not convinced the TV series would be a success. After it became a hit, he changed his tune and was more than happy to accept the bountiful royalties from the series' long run and afterlife in syndication. Meanwhile, he continued working steadily in feature films such as With a Song in My Heart, Bloodhounds of Broadway, The I Don't Care Girl, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. His success on I Love Lucy eventually led to more television work, providing the theme music for December Bride, Willy, and Those Whiting Girls in the mid-1950s. Naturally, when Oppenheimer created Angel, he tabbed his I Love Lucy composer to provide the music. But after Angel was canceled, work largely dried up for Daniel. Perhaps he had burned too many bridges when he was president of Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians and led the union in a strike against six movie studios. His last credited works included composing and conducting for Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre in 1966, composing for a short titled Johnny Learns His Manners in 1968, and serving as choral director for the TV movie Hollywood Magoo in 1970. He died at age 89 on December 6, 1997.

The first 11 episodes have been released on DVD by Classic Flix, and the entire series can be viewed for free from the Library of Congress online screening room.

The Actors

Annie Fargue (aka Fargé)

Born Henriette Goldfarb in Etterbeek, Belgium on April 15, 1934, Fargue grew up in Pairs, but her parents separated when she was four years old. Her mother successfully ran a millinery factory and a drugstore until the Nazi invasion during World War II drove them out of the country. When they returned, her mother ran a plastics factory and sent Annie to a boarding school, where she first acted in plays and decided she wanted to become an actress. Initially her mother opposed the career choice, but when Annie won admission to the prestigious Conservatoire National at age 14, her mother relented. At 16 Annie graduated to the Comédie Francaise and went on to perform in some 20 plays in Paris as well as nearly a dozen television shows. According to Cary O'Dell's article about Angel, Fargue once worked with mime Marcel Marceau and was friends with author Albert Camus. In 1958 she married Dutch-born dancer-choreographer Dirk Sanders, and when he moved to New York while working for the Roland Petit Ballet Company, Fargue joined him. At a dinner party at Mary Martin's house, Fargue met producer-director Joshua Logan, who was then producing The World of Suzie Wong and having difficulty with its star France Nuyen. Logan arranged English lessons for Fargue and assigned her the role of Nuyen's understudy. When Fargue's agent heard that Jess Oppenheimer was looking for a French actress to cast in Angel, he sent a photo of Fargue to him, and Oppenheimer had her come to Hollywood to make the pilot in April 1960, though she was visibly pregnant at the time. Afterwards she returned to Paris and gave birth to her daughter Leslie but returned again to Hollywood when Angel was green lighted for production.

Despite glowing reviews about her performance in Angel and predictions by Oppenheimer that she would have a very big career in America, Fargue appeared in only a handful of American TV shows--Adventures in Paradise, The Rifleman, The Third Man, and Perry Mason--between 1962 and 1964 before returning to Paris, having divorced Sanders in 1961. She continued her acting career through 1968, appearing in feature films such as The War Is Over, Mon amour Mon amour, I Love You, I Love You, and Woman in Chains as well as several TV series and TV movies before switching careers to theatrical production. She specialized in theatrical musicals such as Hair, Godspell, Oh, Calcutta!, and Jesus Christ Superstar but also served as associate producer for the John Huston feature film Escape to Victory in 1981. Fargue entered into a relationship with French singer-songwriter superstar Michel Polnareff. When the performer fled France for the United States after his manager ran off with all his money and left him broke, Fargue joined him and assumed the role of his manager, continuing in this role even after the couple later separated. Years later she died from cancer at age 76 in Neuilly-sur-Seine on March 4, 2011.

Marshall Thompson

John Marshall Thompson, named after ancestor and Supreme Court Justice John Thompson, was born November 27, 1925 in Peoria, Illinois, the son of a dentist. When Thompson was 5, his family moved to Los Angeles, where Thompson attended University High School and was a classmate of Marilyn Monroe and Betty Lynn, a.k.a Thelma Lou of The Andy Griffith Show. In high school, Thompson appeared in a number of theatrical productions but also tried his hand at writing plays and had one of them, entitled Faith, staged by the Westwood Village Players. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Occidental College, initially planning to study dentistry before switching to drama while also acting in theatrical productions and running on the cross country team. He was spotted in one of his college theatre productions and signed to a contract by Universal Studios at the age of 18. He made his feature film debut in 1944, first in two uncredited parts before getting his first speaking role in Reckless Age. But later that year he moved to MGM, first appearing in the comedy Blonde Fever, followed by four more features in 1945--The Clock, The Valley of Decision, Twice Blessed, and They Were Expendable. He got his first lead role in Gallant Bess in 1946 about a horse rescued by a soldier during World War II, but was back to supporting roles in The Secret Heart and The Show-Off. After originally being introduced to each other by Roddy McDowell, Thompson reconnected with Barbara Long, sister of actor Richard Long, when they both appeared in a Laguna Playhouse production of French Without Tears in 1948, and the couple married the following year. Thompson continued appearing in multiple feature films through the remainder of the 1940s and into the early 1950s, most notably Homecoming, Words and Music, Command Decision, Battleground, Mystery Street, Devil's Doorway, and The Tall Target, the last film on his MGM contract in 1951. He then decided to freelance but found most of his roles in B-level fare such as Port of Hell and Cult of the Cobra, though he also occasionally appeared in higher-tiered films such as Martin & Lewis' The Caddy and the Audie Murphy war picture To Hell and Back. Beginning in 1952 he also began appearing on TV drama anthology series such as Fireside Theatre, Studio One, and Robert Montgomery Presents. By the mid-1950s he added regular comedy and drama series such as Public Defender, The Whistler, and Private Secretary, and his television roles began to outnumber his feature films. From a personal perspective, his most important late 1950s feature film was East of Kilimanjaro from 1957 because it was his first trip to Africa, and impressed by the wildlife he saw, he wanted to do something to preserve them. That would come later. In the meantime he finished out the 1950s appearing in the sci-fi classic It! The Terror From Space and got his first recurring TV role as the lead in the short-lived World of Giants, which lasted only 13 episodes in 1959. Nevertheless, it proved Thompson could handle a lead role, which no doubt helped in his selection to co-star with Annie Fargue on Angel the following year, though Jess Oppenheimer had initially tried to get Dick Van Dyke for the role.

After Angel was canceled, Thompson returned to low-budget fantasy and war feature films such as Flight of the Lost Balloon, No Man Is an Island, The Mighty Jungle, and A Yank in Vietnam, which he also directed and co-wrote. The film was shot on location in Vietnam, and reportedly the Viet Cong put a price on Thompson's head for depicting them negatively. His next feature film, which he also co-wrote, made use of his love for African animals, Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion, produced by Ivan Tors, who had spotted the real-life Clarence at the Africa U.S.A. animal compound near Los Angeles. The film's success led to the TV series Daktari in which Thompson continued playing the lead veterinarian Dr. Marsh Tracy. The series ran for 4 seasons from 1966-70. During this time Thompson also acted in and directed the documentary series Orphans of the Wild depicting the plight of African baby animals orphaned by poachers. He also supported various animal preserves in Africa to protect wildlife from poachers. Just as Daktari was nearing its end, he became narrator and host for another Tors-produced, African-themed series, the Saturday morning children's show Jambo!, a wildlife anthology series filmed on location in Africa which ran from 1969-71. In 1972 he continued his animal-themed work but switched to Switzerland for the St. Bernard shaggy dog feature film George! which he also co-wrote. The movie led to another spin-off TV series, George, with Thompson in the lead, running for 26 episodes in 1972-73. The remainder of Thompson's acting career would find him as an actor for hire on TV series such as The Streets of San Francisco, Ironside, Charlie's Angels, Quincy, M.E., Lou Grant, and Murder, She Wrote. He also found occasional work in feature films such as The Turning Point, Bog, and his last work McBain in 1991. He died the following year from congestive heart failure at the age of 66.

Doris Singleton

Born Dorthea Singleton on September 28, 1919 in Brooklyn, her father, A.J. Singleton, was the CEO of Texaco, and her mother Ruth was a secretary and artist. Singleton was an only child. Before she entered high school, her family moved to Laguna Beach, California, but after she graduated at age 16, the family returned to New York, where she attended the Tamara Daykarhanova School of Theatre. Singleton trained as a ballerina from the age of 4 and also studied piano and singing. Her theatrical debut came in Leonard Sillman's Calling All Men, which had opened in Dennis, MA but had then moved to New York. However, while she was waiting for the show to open in New York, Singleton had been hired as a singer on WNEW and had three shows a week. When Sillman's production finally started rehearsals, the scheduled conflicted with her radio job, and Sillman told her she had to choose one of the other, so she chose to continue singing. However, the designer for Sillman's show suggested to Singleton that she return to studying dance with Russian-born dance teacher Leon Fokine, so she did, which eventually led to being called to audition by the Ballet Theatre, later renamed the American Ballet Theatre, and was selected to join the company, which she stayed with for 2 years. But Singleton did not want to make a career out of being a ballerina, so when she learned in the late 1930s that band leader Art Jarrett was looking for a new vocalist, she auditioned and won the spot. But she did not stay with the band for long, and when her mother went to California to help Singleton's aunt with a new-born baby in Long Beach, Singleton joined them. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Hollywood, where Singleton met comedy writer, director, and producer Charles Isaacs, who lived in the same apartment hotel. Isaacs at that time was writing for Rudy Vallee's radio program with future Beverly Hillbillies creator Paul Henning. The couple married in 1942, then moved to New York when Isaacs was hired by radio personality Herb Shriner. The couple moved back to California and Isaacs enlisted in the Coast Guard, serving as a gunner during World War II, while Singleton began working as a radio actor after being introduced to S.H. "Sandy" Barnett, then working as  producer and director of Lux Radio Theatre. She was eventually hired for that program in late 1942 as well as appearing on Screen Directors Playhouse, The Whistler, and Richard Diamond, amongst many other programs. She had a regular role playing Alan Young's girlfriend Betty on The Allan Young Show, taking over from Jean Gillespie in 1946. She had a semi-regular role as Mary Livingstone's maid Pauline on the radio version of The Jack Benny Program, taking over when Butterfly McQueen left the show, and she was one of several actors to play Miss Duffy on Duffy's Tavern. She played various parts on The Great Gildersleeve, first on radio and then continuing as one of Gildersleeve's many girlfriends Lois Kimball when the series moved to television in 1954. One show she did not make the transition to television with was December Bride on which she played the character Ruth Henshaw on radio, but the rights to the show were then acquired by Desilu, and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz wanted to cast Frances Rafferty in the Ruth Henshaw role. However, she became lifelong friends with Ball when she began appearing on her radio show My Favorite Husband beginning in 1948, playing a variety of characters, and would accompany Ball to television playing the semi-regular role of Lucy's rival Caroline Appleby on I Love Lucy beginning in 1953. But before that she was able to gradually work her  way onto television by first doing commercials, as she first did in getting on radio. Being under contract to Lux for Lux Radio Theatre gave her opportunities to do commercials when Lux began hosting Lux Video Theatre in 1950, and her commercial work introduced her to many of the producers who would wind up doing series on television as well. One of her first TV shows was appearing on The Colgate Comedy Hour, hosted by Eddie Cantor. She appeared on Crown Theatre With Gloria Swanson in 1952 and episodes of The Adventures of Superman and Meet Millie (a series she had also appeared on in radio) in 1953, the year she first appeared on I Love Lucy. Singleton credited playing the role of Jackie Cooper's sexy former Army sergeant in a 1956 episode of The People's Choice with getting her a starring role in the 1957 feature film An Affair in Reno playing opposite John Lund. Through the remainder of the 1950s she found frequent work guest starring on a number of TV series, including Perry Mason, The Danny Thomas Show, State Trooper, and Frontier Doctor, before receiving her first co-starring role, thanks to her past experience with Jess Oppenheimer, on Angel.

Following Angel's cancelation after a single season, she continued to find plenty of work on other series such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Checkmate, The Real McCoys, Gunsmoke, and Hazel. In the mid-1960s she appeared on programs such as The Fugitive, The Munsters, The F.B.I. (an episode in which she recalled she was socked very hard on the jaw by Charles Bronson), and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. She was reunited with Lucille Ball when she appeared in two episodes of The Lucy Show in 1966-67, towards the end of that show's run, and was originally intended to be a regular cast member on Ball's next show, Here's Lucy, appearing in the pilot episode in 1968 as Gale Gordon's efficient morning secretary, with Lucy playing his bumbling afternoon secretary, but Ball then decided she wanted the show to focus more on her character's family life and feature her own children, so Singleton's part was written out, though she did appear on three more episodes in later seasons as different characters. She appeared twice on My Three Sons as Meredith MacRae's mother Helen Morrison, with the later episode featuring MacRae's character marrying the oldest son Mike, played by Tim Considine, who left the show shortly thereafter. Then in Season 11 in 1970 she appeared 6 times as Margaret Williams, mother of Chip's girlfriend, whom he eventually eloped with. Also in the early 1970s she appeared on All in the Family, Marcus Welby, M.D., and Love, American Style, but by this time the number of roles for Singleton had diminished considerably from the previous two decades. In 1976 she played the character of Kay Stanhope on 4 episodes of Days of Our Lives, but she later commented that the part lasted only two weeks because the family she was a part of was not dysfunctional enough to last any longer on the show. In 1980 she reunited with Ball one more time for the TV movie Lucy Moves to NBC in which Ball is supposed to create a new series for the network. By the 1980s she appeared in only two series--Dynasty and Just Our Luck--and a pair of TV movies before virtually retiring from film acting (never officially), though she did continue doing voiceovers and commercials, such as for Hills Brothers coffee. Her husband Isaacs passed away in 2002, and Singleton herself died from complications from cancer almost a decade later on June 26, 2012 at the age of 92.

Don Keefer

Born Donald Hood Keefer in Highspire, Pennsylvania on August 18, 1916, Keefer was the son of a butcher and a homemaker. After moving to New York, he enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1939. Later that year he performed in excerpts from the plays of Shakespeare at the 1939 World's Fair. He made his Broadway debut as a replacement for the part of Albert Kundoy in Junior Miss which ran from 1941-43. He then played the part of Roderigo in a 1945 Broadway production of Othello but had his breakout role four years later when he played Bernard in the original production of Death of a Salesman, a role he reprised in the feature film version in 1951. He made his television debuts in 1947 on The Borden Theatre and on three episodes of Kraft Theatre, one of which was a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. That year he was also one of the first 50 actors selected to study at The Actors Studio (as was Marlon Brando) founded by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford. and Robert Lewis. In 1948 he appeared on two more episodes of Kraft Theatre, and in 1950 he married actress Catherine McLeod (who would later have a semi-recurring roles as neighbor Marion on Angel). The couple remained married until her death in 1997. In 1952 he appeared in his last Broadway production in Flight Into Egypt, which ran for only a month, but he also appeared in his second feature film The Girl in White as well as an episode of the TV series Manhunt. Through the remainder of the 1950s he averaged about one feature film per year, sometimes in uncredited roles such as in The Caine Mutiny while also appearing on several TV series. Notable feature films from this period included Riot in Cell Block 11, The Human Jungle, Six Bridges to Cross, Hellcats of the Navy, and Torpedo Run. Besides appearing on many anthology series, he guest starred on Navy Log, Code 3, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, State Trooper, Peter Gunn, Have Gun -- Will Travel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Gunsmoke (on which he would appear 10 times over a span of 17 years). Guest spots continued in 1960 on Rawhide, Father Knows Best, Wagon Train, Hotel de Paree, and U.S. Marshal before being cast as neighbor George Carpenter on Angel. Fellow cast member Doris Singleton, who played his wife Susie, later said in an interview that Keefer was extremely nervous during production of Angel, and she speculated that it was perhaps due to his inexperience in playing comedy.

After Angel was canceled, Keefer continued to find plenty of work on television, including playing a memorable role on The Twilight Zone in the episode "It's a Good Life" in 1961. He would appear in two more episodes of the series in 1963-64, as well as showing up on Car 54, Where Are You?, The Real McCoys, The Fugitive, My Favorite Martian, and The Tycoon, a series created by Singleton's husband Charles Isaacs and starring Walter Brennan. In the later 1960s he worked prolifically on shows such as The Munsters, Ben Casey, The Farmer's Daughter, The Virginian, Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, Mission: Impossible, Peyton Place, The Andy Griffith Show, Star Trek, Death Valley Days, and The Guns of Will Sonnett. He also had a memorable role in the feature film The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming and a forgettable part in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In 1970 he had a supporting role in the feature film version of John Updike's Rabbit, Run as well as appearing in The Grissom Gang, while 1973 would prove a banner year for feature film appearances as he had supporting roles in Walking Tall, The Way We Were, and Sleeper. The rest of the 1970s were not so stellar for his movie career, as he appeared in such fare as The Candy Stripe Nurses and Billy Jack Goes to Washington. Fortunately, he had plenty of TV work to pick up the slack on series such as Bonanza, Columbo, Marcus Welby, M.D., Kung Fu, Barnaby Jones, and The Waltons, to name but a few. As with most aging actors, there were fewer roles in the 1980s as Keefer was now in his 60s, but he still appeared on Quincy, M.E., The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, All My Children, Alice, and Highway to Heaven in addition to a few TV movies and the feature film Creepshow. Keefer continued working in his 70s during the 1990s, appearing on ER, Picket Fences, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in addition to the Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz biopic TV movie Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter. His last credit was playing a beggar in the Jim Carrey comedy Liar Liar in 1997, but after his wife died that year, he retired from acting. He died 17 years later at the age of 98 on September 7, 2014.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 1, "The French Touch": Herb Vigran (shown on the near left, played Muley Evans on The Life of Riley, Ernest Hinshaw on The Ed Wynn Show, and Judge Brooker on Gunsmoke and voiced Glum on The Adventures of Gulliver and Mr. Dinkle on Shirt Tales) plays dinner guest Stan. Catherine McLeod (shown on the far left, played Claire Larkin on Days of Our Lives) plays his wife Marion. Maurice Marsac (appeared in This Is the Life, The Caddy, Holiday in Spain, King of Kings, What a Way to Go!, and The Pleasure Seekers and played Maurice La Blanche on Our Miss Brooks) plays grocer Mr. Martand. Marc Cavell (appeared in Thunder in the East, The Purple Gang, Bus Riley's Back in Town, The Wild Angels, and Cool Hand Luke and played Gray Hawk on Pistols 'n' Petticoats) plays his clerk.

Season 1, Episode 2, "Voting Can Be Fun": Joseph Kearns (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on Dennis the Menace) plays voter registrar L.R. Gregson. Sheila Bromley (Janet Tobin on I Married Joan, Ethel Weiss on Hank, and Mrs. Riley on Days of Our Lives) plays his assistant Miss Dorsey. Meg Wyllie (Mary Elizabeth Kissell on The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Doris Roach and Lila Morgan Tolliver Quartermaine on General Hospital, and Aunt Lolly Stemple on Mad About You) plays voter Ellen J. Prentiss.

Season 1, Episode 3, "The Easy Touch": Don Megowan  (Captain Huckabee on The Beachcomber) plays roofer Dick Donovan. Al Hodge (Captain Video on The Secret Files of Captain Video and Captain Video and His Video Rangers) plays his brother Doug. Lyle Talbot (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays police investigator Det. Martin.

Season 1, Episode 4, "The Maid": Mary Wickes (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays the Smiths' new maid Betty Crawford. Howard McNear (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Andy Griffith Show) plays camera shop proprietor Mr. Hopkins.

Season 1, Episode 5, "Angel's Temper": Mel Blanc (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Flintstones) plays door-to-door salesman Melvin Jerome. Bob Okazaki (Bruce on Archie Bunker's Place) plays the Smiths' gardener Mr. Saito.

Season 1, Episode 6, "Democracy": Jack Albertson (starred in Days of Wine and Roses, Kissin' Cousins, The Flim-Flam Man, and Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and played Lt. Harry Evans on The Thin Man, Walter Burton on Room for One More, Lt. Cmdr. Virgil Stoner on Ensign O'Toole, Paul Fenton on Mister Ed, and Ed Brown on Chico and the Man) plays street salesman J. Morton Fenway. Willard Waterman (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays the City Council chairman. Emory Parnell (Hawkins on The Life of Riley and Hank the bartender on Lawman) plays the Jasper Construction Company representative. Catherine McLeod (see "The French Touch" above) returns as neighbor Marion. Fred Sherman (Tommy the tailor on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and Burt Purdy on Cimarron City) plays a drunk.

Season 1, Episode 7, "The Trusting Wife": Veola Vonn (shown on the left, wife of actor Frank Nelson, appeared in Burma Convoy, South Sea Woman, Spy Chasers, and The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock) plays movie star Lola Valdez. Rolfe Sedan (Mr. Beasley the Postman on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and Mr. Briggs the Postman on The Addams Family) plays grocer Pierre Martand. Edgar Barrier (appeared in Phantom of the Opera (1943), Adventures in Silverado, Macbeth (1948), and Snow White and the Three Stooges and played Don Cornelio Esperon on Zorro) plays his cousin Paul. Norman Alden (Lucius Grundy on Not for Hire, Johnny Ringo on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Captain Horton on Rango, Tom Williams on My Three Sons, Coach Leroy Fedders on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Al Cassidy on Fay, and Frank Heflin on Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and voiced Aquaman on Super Friends and The All-New Super Friends Hour and Hank McSummers on Devlin) plays a talkative Texan party guest.

Season 1, Episode 8, "The Contest": Howard Wendell (appeared in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Big Heat, Prince Valiant, The View From Pompey's Head, and The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake and played Judge Willoughby on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays John's boss Mr. Blake. Harry Shannon (appeared in Young Tom Edison, Citizen Kane, This Gun for Hire, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Hunt the Man Down, and High Noon) plays their client Mr. Peyson. Shirley Mitchell (shown on the right, played Yvonne Sharp on Sixpenny Corner, Kitty Devereaux on Bachelor Father, Janet Colton on Pete and Gladys, Marge on Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and Clara Appleby on The Red Skelton Hour) plays Angel's friend Blanche. Catherine McLeod (see "The French Touch" above) plays returns as neighbor Marion.

Season 1, Episode 9, "The Driving Lesson": Jonathan Hole (shown on the left, played Orville Monroe on The Andy Griffith Show) plays accident victim Mr. Davis. David Huddleston (appeared in Slaves, Norwood, Rio Lobo, Brian's Song, Blazing Saddles, and The Big Lebowski and played Lt. John Ponce on Petrocelli, Jasper T. Kallikak on The Kallikaks, Mayor Michael Cooper on Hizzonner, and Grandpa Arnold on The Wonder Years) plays a policeman.

Season 1, Episode 10, "The Valedictorian": William Lanteau (appeared in Li'l Abner, The Honeymoon Machine, Sex and the Single Girl, and Hotel and played Seth Duncan on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Chester Wanamaker on Newhart) plays Angel's English teacher Mr. Vance. George Tobias (starred in Sergeant York, This Is the Army, and Yankee Doodle Dandy and played Pierre Falcon on Hudson's Bay, Trader Penrose on Adventures in Paradise, and Abner Kravitz on Bewitched) plays fellow student Mr. Koenig. Argentina Brunetti (appeared in It's a Wonderful Life, The Great Caruso, and The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao and played Filomena on General Hospital) plays fellow student Mrs. Giavanno. Don Diamond (El Toro on The Adventures of Kit Carson, Cpl. Reyes on Zorro, and Crazy Cat on F Troop) plays fellow student Mr. Papolas. Gordon Jones (shown on the right, appeared in The Green Hornet, Flying Tigers, My Sister Eileen, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and McLintock! and played Mike Kelley on The Abbott and Costello Show, Pete Thompson on The Ray Milland Show, Hubie Dodd on So This Is Hollywood, and Butch Barton on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays John's old friend Hank Thorpe.

Season 1, Episode 11, "The Museum": Joe Besser (shown on the near left, replaced Shemp Howard as the third of The Three Stooges and played Stinky Davis on The Abbott and Costello Show, Mr. Jillson on The Joey Bishop Show, and voiced Putty Puss on The Houndcats, Babu on Jeannie and Scooby's Laff-A-Lympics, Scare Bear on Yogi's Space Race and Galaxy Goof-Ups, and Elmo the Elephant on Shirt Tales) plays boys' troop leader Mr. Davis. Rusty Stevens (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Leave It to Beaver) plays his son Johnny. Howard Wendell (see "The Contest" above) returns as John's boss Mr. Blake. Dayton Lummis (Marshal Andy Morrison on Law of the Plainsman) plays his client.

Season 1, Episode 12, "Togetherness": Ken Lynch (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on Checkmate) plays pool hall proprietor Oscar. Gerald Trump (Crump on Ensign O'Toole) plays 15-year-old pool player Larry.