It's been 6 years since our post on the 1961 episodes of
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and
the biggest news since then, actually from 3 years ago, is that the entire
series has been issued on DVD by
MPI, both as a complete series box set and as
individual seasons. Finally we are able to view
all the episodes rather than the random selections included in
various incomplete anthology box sets and posted to YouTube, and the episodes
on the DVD sets have been remastered, providing much better video quality. The
DVD sets also include several commercials and sponsor messages featuring one or
more of the Nelsons, providing an even better feel for what it was like viewing
the program during its initial broadcast.
As for the content of the show itself, the episodes from
1962 pretty much continue to run over the same themes and format from previous
seasons. The show was clearly running on fumes as they recycle Ricky singing
his new single "Young World" at the end of three episodes, and the
final show of 1962, "The Game Inventors" (December 27, 1962), runs so
short that Harriet has to come on at the end of the story to admit they are
short and that they will fill the remaining time by replaying video segments of
two of Ricky's most popular hits--"Hello, Mary Lou" and
"Travelin' Man," which is actually played twice--once in front of a
staged audience of thrilled teenagers, and a second time with a video montage
of Ricky visiting the girl he has in every port. In the plots themselves, the
Nelsons continue to have a "failure to communicate," which leads to
myriad problems but no consequences. In "The Fraternity Pin" (January
4, 1962) Rick retrieves Wally's fraternity pin from the jewelers but then
decides to give it to his current girlfriend Norma Lane, partly because
everyone expects him to and partly because he doesn't know where his own pin
is, and he figures Wally won't need his pin back right away. He and Wally then
have to bend over backwards making up excuses about why Wally can't give his
pin to his girlfriend Ginger, and Rick finally realizes he really isn't ready
to commit to a relationship but is bailed out yet again when Norma confesses
that she isn't either. In "The Special Cake" (January 18, 1962),
David's wife June wonders if he remembers the anniversary of their first date,
but rather than ask him directly, she talks it over with Harriet, who tells her
that she and Ozzie have a tradition of her baking a special cake when it is
their anniversary, thereby sparing him the embarrassment of not remembering the
day while reminding him when he sees the cake. So this is the approach June
adopts, knowing that Dave is aware of the tradition, only he doesn't catch on
right away, and there is confusion and hurt feelings until he figures it out.
The pattern of avoiding direct communication because it is uncomfortable
extends to Dave's boss Mr. Kelly in "Losing Miss Edwards" (November
29, 1962) when Kelly thinks his secretary Miss Edwards is spending too much
time away from the office, but rather than telling her this himself, he
delegates the assignment to Dave, who is clearly the wrong man for the job.
Dave continues avoiding the task, fearing he will offend Miss Edwards, while
Kelly keeps hounding him to get it over with. When Miss Edwards then hands in
her resignation, before Dave has said anything about Kelly's displeasure, Kelly
blames Dave for handling the communication poorly. Then, rather than pressing
Miss Edwards about why she is quitting--she tells them she feels she just needs
a change, thereby also choosing not to communicate her real reason for
leaving--Dave takes Ozzie's somewhat chauvinistic advice that women need to
feel they are appreciated (implying that men don't). Dave and Kelly start
complimenting her, letting her have extra time for personal matters, etc., but
they don't completely win her back until they recruit a fake applicant for her
job, and have the applicant intentionally do poorly on a typing and dictation
test in order to make Miss Edwards decide she can't abandon them to this
obviously unqualified replacement. Of course, Miss Edwards is completely aware
of the game they are playing and tells them so when she agrees to stay on after
all.
Even though Dave has settled down in his marriage to June,
Rick continues to have a new girlfriend almost every week. Norma Lane makes it
through a couple of episodes ("The Fraternity Pin" and "The
Randolphs' Niece" [January 25, 1962]). He moves on to Sandy in
"Lending Money to Wally" (March 8, 1962), but she is quickly replaced
by Joan Carlyle in "The Client's Daughter" (March 29, 1962), only to
have her jettisoned for Paula Benson the next week in "The Student
Nurse" (April 5, 1962). Paula reappears in "The Apartment"
(October 11, 1962) after Rick has met and presumably dated an unnamed librarian
in "Rick and the Maid of Honor" (September 27, 1962) after worrying
that former girlfriend Roberta Jackson wants him to get married. Then in
"Rick and the Sculptress" (October 18, 1962) he is dating Roberta
again while being tempted by the titular sculptress Lory West. But they are
both a distant memory in "Rick Sends a Picture" (November 15, 1962)
because he is reunited with childhood friend Lois James (played by
Pamela
Austin, who also played the unnamed librarian). That lasts all of one week
because he is dating Gloria Taylor in "Rick, the Host" (November 22,
1962), who fares no better when he gets Dave to use Pamela Hale as his fake job
applicant in "Losing Miss Edwards" so that Rick can get in good with
Pamela. As we've noted before, the theme of having a different girl in every
port (as in his hit song "Travelin' Man") is particularly ironic
since the real-life
Ricky Nelson was a serial philanderer.
But despite most of the episodes dealing with the minor
troubles of Rick, Dave, their friends, or pint-sized neighbor Barry, the most
poignant and best-written episodes are those dealing with aging parents Ozzie
and Harriet. In "The Lonesome Parents" (March 15, 1962), we get a
surprisingly realistic portrait of parents with adult children who have lives
of their own and often go several days without spending time with their elders.
While younger son Rick is busy attending college, spending time at his
fraternity house (even though he lives at home), and dating his new girlfriend
of the week, elder son Dave is now married, working for a law firm, and shares
an apartment with his wife June. Harriet begins the episode writing a letter to
her own mother, who lives in another town, but every time she tries relaying
what Rick is up to, he announces a change in plans so that she finally gives up
and throws the letter in the trash. She then tells Ozzie they haven't heard
from Dave in a while, and when they go to the malt shop that evening for
dessert, they discover that apparently everyone else there knows more about
what has been going on with Dave and June than they do. In typical Nelson
fashion, rather than directly communicating with Dave, Harriet begins to wonder
if they have offended him and he is deliberately keeping his distance. Much of
the rest of the episode continues this pattern of making speculative
assumptions based on circumstantial factors rather than taking a direct
approach. Finally, Harriet is able to pin down a date for Dave and June to come
over for dinner but feels that perhaps they should do something different on
the assumption that Dave and June must be bored with their usual routine for
their visits, so Harriet suggests having a Japanese-themed evening, cooking on
the hibachi in the fireplace and wearing kimonos while sitting on the floor. Just
before Dave and June show up, she decides the idea is silly, and they are about
to abandon it, but Dave and June see the kimonos, find out about the Japanese
motif, and are game for the idea. However, the next evening Harriet gets a
phone call from her mother, asking why she hasn't heard from her in so long,
and Harriet remembers she never finished the letter she started at the
beginning of the episode, ironically bringing us full circle to show that even
aging parents can get so busy with their own concerns that they forget to check
in with
their parents. The episode is
noteworthy for its rare depiction of the lives and worries of empty-nest
parents and the way people of any age can take observations about another
person's behavior to construct completely inaccurate explanations for the cause
of that behavior.
A few weeks later, "Little Handprints in the
Sidewalk" (April 19, 1962) dramatizes the tension between aging parents'
sentimental hanging on to mementos of their children's youth and the
practicality of what to do with those mementos. In this case, Ozzie and Harriet
decide to repair their front sidewalk after Ozzie trips over a damaged portion
of it, but one panel contains Dave and Rick's handprints from when the cement
was laid 17 years earlier. Harriet decides she wants to keep that panel, but
after the contractor they hire removes it, they can't decide where to put it--she
rejects putting it right in the living room where it is the first thing someone
will see when they enter the home, but she also feels uncomfortable when Ozzie
and Rick haul the heavy slab up into the attic, perched right above Ozzie and
Harriet's bed. Joe Randolph earlier offers to take the slab off Ozzie's hands,
saying he can use it for a boat anchor, which Ozzie finds impertinent. But when
he can't find a suitable place for it at home, Ozzie relents and lets Joe take
it away, only to have Harriet suddenly decide it could be placed over a muddy
patch by the back porch. However, Joe returns to tell him the slab never made
it out to the marina because he dropped it in a muddy spot by his back
patio--face down, meaning the handprints are now lost permanently. The upshot
is that despite the sentimental attachment that Harriet feels for the reminder
of what her boys were like when they were young, she and Ozzie ultimately have
to accept there is no place for a physical reminder of that time in their
current home, forcing them to let go of the physical past. The episode would
have been perfectly fine had it ended there, but instead another segment is
tacked on in which Ozzie forgets that the contractor has laid fresh cement
right outside the front door and then trips and falls into it before suggesting
to Harriet that they take his imprint and make a coffee table out of it, which
she wisely rejects. Ozzie then turns to the camera and breaks the fourth wall
by shrugging and throwing up his hands to the audience. This mugging for the
camera is used at the end of quite a few 1962 episodes, as if begging for one
final laugh, including by cook Mrs. Murry in "The Fraternity Cook"
(February 8, 1962), Ozzie talking directly to the camera from a hospital bed in
"Operation Barry" (February 15, 1962), Rick shrugging to the camera
in "Making Wally Study" (February 22, 1962), Barry speaking to the
camera about his best birthday ever in "Barry's Birthday" (April 12,
1962), Rick giving a knowing look to the camera at the end of "Rick and
the Maid of Honor," Ozzie smirking at the camera at the end of "The
Apartment" (October 11, 1962), Roberta winking at the camera while dancing
with Rick in "Rick and the Sculptress," Rick's girlfriend's little
brother Ronnie shrugging at the camera at the end of "Rick Sends a Picture,"
restaurant owner Tony turning to the camera and throwing up his hands at the
end of "Rick, the Host," Rick saying they like to end each episode
with a strange twist in "An Old Friend of June's" (December 13,
1962), and Ozzie once again saying to the camera that even when you win, you
lose at the end of "The Game Inventors." Though breaking the fourth
wall has a long history in television, particularly on
The Jack Benny Program, its use on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet seems, as mentioned above,
tacked on, not organic to the rest of each episode, nor a basic premise to show
the artificiality of television.
Speaking of connections to
The Jack Benny Program, one final trivial note on the 1962 episodes
involves the eventual stage name of iconic comedian
Rodney Dangerfield. In
"Rick Sends a Picture," Rick strikes up a dating relationship with
former childhood friend Lois James but accidentally sends her a photo of himself
inscribed "To my best girl" intended to go to his grandmother. Lois
thinks Rick is in love with her and reciprocates with a photo of herself, but
when she overhears Wally tell his friends about the pickle Rick is in over the
photo, she is hurt and angry and refuses to see or talk to him. So Wally
decides to get Rick a chance to explain by setting up a "blind" date
with Lois using connections at Ginger's sorority, but in order not to let Lois
know that Rick is her date, he has to choose an alias, and he chooses Rodney
Dangerfield.
According to real-life
Dangerfield biographer
Michael Seth Starr, the name was first used by
Jack
Benny in a 1941 radio show and again later in the 1950s. By 1962 the real
Rodney Dangerfield had been using his birth name Jack Roy but had found no
success and even left the business for a while. When he decided to try a
comeback, he thought it best to use a different name to avoid scaring off
prospective audience members who might have seen his act as Jack Roy (though
according to an article on
cracked.com, he was also trying to avoid being
spotted by the FBI after being indicted in a home-repair loan scam), so he told
George McFadden, owner of the Innwood Lounge in Manhattan, to bill him under
another name and left it up to McFadden to pick the name. McFadden chose Rodney
Dangerfield, though Dangerfield himself later said he had no idea where he got
it. Whether McFadden chose the name from Benny or
Ozzie and Harriet isn't clear, but
Ozzie Nelson surely was aware of
Benny and his work, and Ricky's alias in this episode must have come from
Benny. The parallels between Benny's show and
Ozzie and Harriet don't end there. Both series started out on radio--Benny
in 1932, the Nelsons in 1944--both presented a fictionalized version of real-life
show business stars, and as described above both broke the fourth wall, though
Benny's antics were more daring than simply winking at the camera at the end of
a self-contained story. Benny's portrayal of himself was also more
daring--showing him as a self-absorbed, miserly entertainer, whereas the
fictionalized version of Ozzie Nelson is just an unemployed husband and father
who dispenses bad advice and gets into arguments with his friends. The Nelsons'
world on
Ozzie and Harriet is
markedly more artificial and circumscribed by television sit-com conventions.
Still, it offers a comfortable medium between rule-breakers like Benny and the
rigid confines of formulaic sit-coms such as
Father Knows Best and
The Donna Reed Show.
The Actors
For the biographies of Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard
Nelson, David Nelson, Ricky Nelson, Skip Young, Lyle Talbot, Mary Jane Croft,
Constance Harper, and Jack Wagner, see the 1960 post on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. For the biographies of June
Blair, Joe Flynn, Barry Livingston, Frank Cady, Roberta Shore, and James Stacy,
see the 1961 post on The Adventures of
Ozzie and Harriet.
Charlene Salerno
Little has been written about Charlene Salerno, who appeared
39 times on
The Adventures of Ozzie and
Harriet between 1960 and 1965, playing Wally's girlfriend Ginger in all but
one of those. She was born November 19, 1938 in Los Angeles and had a brief
career as a child actor, appearing in uncredited parts in two feature films--
The Gay Sisters in 1942 and
The Adventures of Mark Twain in 1944.
Apparently, the Salerno family were friends with Ozzie and Harriet Nelson,
which led to Charlene being cast as Ginger in a semi-recurring role from Season
8 through the remainder of the series. She had only one other acting credit
during that time, appearing in a 1961 episode of
Insight. What she did after the cancelation of
Ozzie and Harriet has not been published, but she died of breast
cancer at the age of 47 on March 5, 1986.
Charley Britt
Charles William Britt was born in Augusta, Georgia on March
20, 1938. From an early age, Britt was a stand-out athlete, competing in
baseball, basketball, golf, track, and especially football. At North Augusta
High School, he was an All-State and All-Southern quarterback and defensive
back who helped lead his team to an undefeated season his senior year. His play
earned him a football scholarship to the University of Georgia, where he was
teammates with
Fran Tarkenton and future college football coach
Pat Dye. After
his college career, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams as a defensive back
and played for the team from 1960-63. While living in Los Angeles, he met Ricky
Nelson, who recruited Britt and other local football players as ringers to help
Nelson finally beat
Elvis Presley and his Memphis Mafia teammates in a running
series of competitive football games. While other members of the Rams, like
linebacker
Marlin McKeever, had occasional extra parts on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Britt's friendship with Nelson
won him a semi-recurring role as fraternity brother Charley beginning in 1961
through the duration of the series, appearing 26 times in the role. Britt even
lived with Nelsons during part of this period.
In 1963 Britt married actress
Pamela Austin, who also
appeared in multiple episodes of the series, and the couple had a son
Beau
before divorcing after little more than a year. In 1964, Britt played for the
Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers before retiring from professional
football. He had a single appearance playing an unnamed dancer in a 1967
episode of
The Lucy Show but then
pursued a career as a newscaster, first in the Los Angeles area before
returning home to North Augusta, where he was the news anchor and covered The
Masters golf tournament. Beginning in 2023 he was a guest columnist for the
local newspaper,
The North Augusta Star.
As of December 2025, he was still living at age 87 in North Augusta with his
wife
Tonya.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 10, Episode 12, "The Fraternity Pin":
Cheryl
Holdridge (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Leave It to Beaver) plays Rick's current girlfriend Norma Lane.
Henry
Hunter (Doctor Summerfield on
Hazel
and Mr. Abbott on
Days of Our Lives)
plays a jewelry store owner.
Season 10, Episode 13, "The Backyard Pet Show":
Kim Tyler (Kyle Nash on
Please Don't Eat
the Daisies) plays Barry's friend Kim.
Laurie Nelson (shown on the right, niece of Ozzie and
Harriet Nelson) plays kitten owner Laurie.
Richard Gittings (Bob Anderson on
Days of Our Lives) plays neighborhood
father Dick.
Russ Thompson (host of Armed Forces Radio kids show
Let's Pretend With Uncle Russ) plays
neighborhood father Russ.
Gil Smith
(award-winning commercial photographer, son-in-law of Ricardo Montalban, played
Joey McDonald on
Dennis the Menace
and Steve Lindsey on
Peter Loves Mary)
plays a boy at the pet show.
Season 10, Episode 15, "The Randolphs' Niece":
Linda Evans (shown on the left, played Audra Barkley on
The Big
Valley, Marty Shaw on
Hunter, and
Krystle Carrington on
Dynasty) plays
the Randolphs' niece Shirley.
Cheryl Holdridge (see "The Fraternity
Pin" above) returns as Rick's girlfriend Norma Lane.
Season 10, Episode 16, "A Lamp for Dave and June":
Stanley Farrar (shown on the right, appeared in
The Beatniks and
played Dr. Talmadge on
The Real McCoys)
plays lamp shop owner Mr. Peters.
Sarah Selby (see the biography section for
the 1962 post on
Gunsmoke) plays Dave
and June's landlord Mrs. Howard.
Janet Waldo (see the biography section for the
1962 post on
The Jetsons) plays lamp
shop customer Mrs. Lee.
Season 10, Episode 17, "The Fraternity Cook":
Sarah
Selby (shown on the left, see "A Lamp for Dave and June" above) plays the fraternity
cook Mrs. Murry.
Jimmy Hawkins (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Donna Reed Show) plays fraternity
brother Jimmy.
Vera Marshe (appeared in
Monsieur
Verdoux,
Danger Street, and
The Space Children and played Mrs.
Franklin on
Meet Corliss Archer)
plays the first fraternity cook job applicant.
Season 10, Episode 18, "Operation Barry":
Kim
Tyler (shown on the right, see "The Backyard Pet Show" above) returns as Barry's friend
Kim.
Janet Waldo (see "A Lamp for Dave and June" above) plays Barry's
mother Ann.
Season 10, Episode 19, "Making Wally Study":
Jimmy
Hawkins (see "The Fraternity Cook" above) returns as fraternity
brother Jimmy.
David Lewis (Senator Ames on
The
Farmer's Daughter, Warden Crichton on
Batman,
and Edward L. Quartermaine on
General
Hospital) plays the college dean.
Lori Saunders (shown on the left, played Bobbie Jo Bradley on
Petticoat Junction,
Green Acres, and
The Beverly
Hillbillies, Betsy on
Dusty's Trail,
and Cynthia Harris on
The Young and the
Restless) plays a girl at the drive-in.
Season 10, Episode 20, "Lending Money to Wally":
Jimmy
Hawkins (see "The Fraternity Cook" above) returns as fraternity
brother Jimmy.
Lori Saunders (see "Making Wally Study" above) plays Jimmy's
girlfriend Linda.
Brian Davies (appeared in
Up
From the Beach,
American Gigolo,
and
The Age of Innocence and played
Scott Edgar on
One Life to Live and
Dick Hamilton on
All My Children)
plays freshman student Pete.
Bob Jellison (shown on the right, played Waldo Binney on
The Life of Riley and Bobby the Bellboy on
I Love Lucy) plays a restaurant waiter.
Season 10, Episode 22, "The Client's Daughter":
Edmon
Ryan (appeared in
Mystery Street,
The Breaking Point,
The Americanization of Emily, and
Topaz and played Judge Alexander on
Days of Our Lives) plays Mr. Kelly's client George Carlyle.
Joan
Staley (shown on the left, Playboy Playmate who appeared in
Cape
Fear,
Roustabout,
Valley of the Dragons,
Johnny Cool, and
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and played Tiger on
The Lively Ones, Hannah on
77
Sunset Strip, and Roberta Love on
Broadside)
plays his daughter Joan.
Pat McCaffrie (Chuck Forrest on
Bachelor Father and Dr. Edgar Harris on
Outlaws) plays a drunk in the restaurant.
Season 10, Episode 23, "The
Student Nurse":
Nina Shipman (appeared in
Blue Denim,
The Oregon Trail,
and
High Time) plays Charley's
hospital nurse Paula Benson.
Dorothy Abbott (shown on the right, played Ann Baker on
Dragnet) plays the nursing school receptionist.
Dorothy Ford (appeared
in
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy,
3 Godfathers, and
Jack and the Beanstalk and played Queen Riva on
Space Patrol) plays another nurse at the
hospital.
Barbara Eiler (wife of Ozzie's brother Don Nelson) plays the dean of
the Nursing School.
Season 10, Episode 24, "Barry's Birthday":
Janet
Waldo (shown on the left, see "A Lamp for Dave and June" above)
returns as Barry's mother Ann.
Kim Tyler (see "The Backyard
Pet Show" above) returns as Barry's friend Kim.
Gil Smith (see "The
Backyard Pet Show" above) plays one of Barry's friends.
Season 10, Episode 25, "Little Handprints in the
Sidewalk":
Ben Bennett (shown on the right, half of the comedy team Bennett & Patterson,
appeared in
Operation Bottleneck and
It Happened in Athens and played the
court clerk on
Days of Our Lives)
plays sidewalk repairman Mr. Hayes.
Season 11, Episode 1, "Rick and the Maid of Honor":
Jimmy Hawkins (shown on the left, see "The Fraternity Cook" above) returns as fraternity
brother Jimmy.
Lori Saunders (see "Making Wally Study" above) returns
as his fiance Linda.
Pamela Austin (starred in
Hootenanny Hoot,
Kissin' Cousins, and
The
Perils of Pauline) plays an assistant librarian.
Season 11, Episode 2, "Mrs. Bradford's Recipe":
Enid Markey (shown on the right, appeared in
The Cup of Life,
Civilization,
The Yankee Way,
Tarzan of the
Apes (1918),
The Romance of Tarzan,
Snafu, and
The Boston Strangler and played Aunt Violet Flower on
Bringing Up Buddy) plays Mr. Kelly's
long-time client Mrs. Bradford.
Howard Smith (see the biography section for the
1961 post on
Hazel) plays notoriously
touchy Judge Turner.
Season 11, Episode 3, "The Apartment":
Nina
Shipman (shown on the left, see "The Student Nurse" above) returns as Rick's girlfriend
Paula Benson.
Season 11, Episode 4, "Rick and the Sculptress":
Lory
Patrick (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Tales of Wells Fargo) plays sculptress Lory West.
Brian Davies (see
"Lending Money to Wally" above) plays Ginger's cousin Brian Mayfield.
Roberta Shore (see "Rick and the Maid of Honor" above) returns as
Rick's date Roberta Jackson.
Season 11, Episode 5, "The Trip to Mexico":
Pedro
Gonzalez Gonzalez (shown on the left, played Pedro Vasquez on
The
Texan) plays a Mexican street vendor
selling maracas.
Ben Bennett (see "Little Handprints in the Sidewalk"
above) plays a travel agent.
Pat McCaffrie (see "The Client's
Daughter" above) plays a cab driver.
Season 11, Episode 6, "The Tigers Go to a Dance":
Ronnie
Dapo (appeared in
-30-,
The Music Man, and
Kisses For My President and played Flip Rose on
Room for One More and Andy on
The New Phil Silvers Show) plays Ronnie,
a boy who backs out of going to the dance.
Pat Thompson (son of actor Russ
Thompson) plays Barry's friend and Tiger member Pat.
Gil Smith (shown on the right, see "The
Backyard Pet Show" above) plays Tiger member Jimmy Dugan.
Kim Tyler (see
"The Backyard Pet Show" above) returns as Barry's friend Kim.
Janet
Waldo (see "A Lamp for Dave and June" above) plays dance hostess
Janet.
Laurie Nelson (see "The Backyard Pet Show" above) plays dance
attendee Laurie.
Season 11, Episode 7, "The Women's Club Play":
Barbara
Stuart (shown on the left, played Bessie on
The Great Gildersleeve,
Alice on
Pete and Gladys, Bunny on
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Peggy Ferguson on
The McLean Stevenson Show, Marianne
Danzig on
Our Family Honor, and Alice
on
Huff) plays women's club member
Mary Snyder.
Janet Waldo (see "A Lamp for Dave and June" above) plays
women's club member Janet.
Cheerio Meredith (Emma Brand on
The Andy Griffith Show and Lovey Hackett on
One Happy Family) plays women's club member Mrs. Gregory.
Season 11, Episode 8, "Rick Sends a Picture":
Pamela
Austin (shown on the right, see "Rick and the Maid of Honor" above) plays Rick's
English-class mate Lois James.
Ronnie Dapo (see "The Tigers Go to a
Dance" above) plays her younger brother Ronnie.
Barbara Eiler (see
"The Student Nurse" above) plays a camera shop clerk.
Stuffy Singer
(national and world handball champion, played Donnie Henderson on
Beulah and Alexander Bumstead on
Blondie) plays fraternity brother
Stuffy.
Mikki Jamison (first wife of musician Jimmy Griffin of the group Bread,
played Jean Reed on
Adam-12) plays
Lois' sorority sister Betty Wilson.
Season 11, Episode 9, "Rick, the Host":
Vicki
Trickett (shown on the left, appeared in
Pepe,
Gidget Goes Hawaiian, and
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules) plays
Rick's latest girlfriend Gloria Taylor.
Stuffy Singer (see "Rick Sends a
Picture" above) returns as fraternity brother Stuffy.
Don Orlando (appeared
in
Park Row,
Kansas City Confidential, and
The
Broken Land and played Pinto on
The
Adventures of Tugboat Annie) plays restaurant owner Tony.
Season 11, Episode 10, "Losing Miss Edwards":
Rachel
Stephens (shown on the right, appeared in
Hound Dog Man,
One Foot in Hell, and
Richie Rich) plays secretarial job
applicant Pamela Hale.
Ben Bennett (see "Little Handprints in the
Sidewalk" above) plays an elevator operator.
Season 11, Episode 11, "An Old Friend of June's":
Dick
Sargent (shown on the left, starred in
Bernardine,
Operation Petticoat, and
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and played
Dick Cooper on
One Happy Family, Lt.
Maxwell Trotter on
Broadside,
Terrance Ward on
The Tammy Grimes Show,
the second Darrin Stephens on
Bewitched,
and Richard Preston on
Down to Earth)
plays June's old friend George Radcliffe.
Joan Staley (see "The Client's
Daughter" above) plays Dave's temporary secretary Joan McWhorter.
Season 11, Episode 12, "The Game Inventors":
Mack
Williams (shown on the right, appeared in
Command Decision,
Destination Big House, and
Cape Fear) plays game manufacturer Mr.
Harris.
Stuffy Singer (see "Rick Sends a Picture" above) returns as
fraternity brother Stuffy.
In our post on the 1960 episodes, we covered the origins of
perhaps the first realistic western TV program, Death Valley Days, an anthology series whose individual stories
were based in some measure on real historical events. However, these stories
are often modified for dramatic effect, and in some cases the factual content
is minimal at best. For example, "The Red Petticoat" (March 29, 1961)
revolves around the loyalty of Lt. Phillip Sheridan, later a Civil War hero as
a general in the Union Army, to an Indian scout named Kahlu while stationed in
Oregon in September 1854. In the TV version of events, the civilians and even
some of Sheridan's own men think that Kahlu is unfaithful to their cause
because several soldiers have been killed in ambushes while Sheridan and his
men have been out trying to capture renegade chief Tajin. Because he is an
Indian, the whites believe Kahlu is in cahoots with his own people, but
Sheridan refuses to waver in his loyalty to Kahlu, who once saved his life. As
a sign of civilian disgust with Sheridan, his girlfriend gives him her red
petticoat to brand him a girlyman, but he instead insists on having one of his
men tie it to his rifle like a flag, and at episode's end The Old Ranger says
he continued that tradition during his Civil War exploits. In the world of
facts, Sheridan was not assigned to the California and Oregon territories until
November 1854, according to his own memoir. And there is no mention of a red
petticoat or an Indian scout named Kahlu. However, he did reportedly have a
Rogue River Indian mistress called Frances by her white friends during this
period, though he does not mention her in his memoir either.
Likewise, "White Gold" (February 15, 1961) takes a
historical incident and fashions a good versus evil tale out of it. The Death Valley Days episode takes a flour
shortage in the isolated mining town of Virginia City, Montana and spins a
morality tale about capitalist greed. In the TV episode, set in 1864, general
store proprietor "Doughy" Lucas, who has for years been the sole
importer of flour from remote Salt Lake City, creates a panic and a business
opportunity by claiming that due to snow in the mountain passes between his
town and Salt Lake City, no flour can be brought in and he has sold out of his
supply. Actually, though Lucas is still able to get his supply but divvies up
small portions to other local businessmen, who then raise the price from around
$25 a sack to $40 and eventually to $100 a sack. When the sheriff refuses to
take action after receiving complaints, newspaper editor Ed Cullen urges
citizens to take the law into their own hands, and miner Milt Baxter leads a
vigilante mob to seize and redistribute flour held by one hoarder, which only
forces Lucas and his cohorts to go more underground and raise prices higher. But
then Cullen meets cowboy Ab Garza who just came through the supposedly
snow-bound pass quite easily, and he unravels Lucas' plot by taking Garza with
him to Salt Lake City and bringing back more flour and an armed group of
deputies to break up Lucas' ring of dirty dealers and send them to jail. In
reality, the shortage took place in the spring of 1865 and was due to the
isolated community being cut off from any supplies. Those holding stores of
flour did raise the prices from about $25 to $100 per sack, but it was not part
of some underhanded and coordinated conspiracy, just merely ordinary price-gouging,
and there was no secret supply line being snuck in under cover of night. However,
the citizens did summon an army of some 480 men who marched in from Nevada and
seized and redistributed hoarded flour. The role of the Montana Post newspaper in these actions is not entirely clear: a
group of citizens formed a Flour Committee, and the newspaper printed a
statement dictating that the price of flour would henceforth be between $27 and
$30 a sack. But a few days later a different group of citizens calling
themselves the Flour Committee published a statement saying that they had never
mandated the price of flour. A little over a week later the paper reported that
a few sacks sold for $80 and that there were no more to be had. Another three
weeks would pass before any more flour would appear on the market at a price of
$28 to $30, presumably because winter had passed and trading routes were open
again. The televised version makes newspaper editor Cullen the hero, bringing
law and order as well as the food supply back to a town strangled by business
greed, but the newspaper's role in the actual events is a bit more ambivalent,
and flour prices did not revert to normal levels until nature took its course.
Season 9, Episode 21, "White
Gold": Charles H. Gray (shown on the left, played Officer Edwards on Highway Patrol, Pico McGuire on Gunslinger,
Clay Forrester on Rawhide, and Bill
Foster on The Young and the Restless)
plays Virginia City, Montana newspaper editor Ed Cullen. Paul Bryar (Sheriff
Harve Anders on The Long, Hot Summer)
plays general store owner Doughy Lucas. Larry J. Blake (played the unnamed
jailer on Yancy Derringer and Tom
Parnell on Saints and Sinners) plays disgruntled
customer Milt Baxter. Sam Reese (Dr. Dan Shanks on Dr. Kildare) plays cowboy Ab Garza.
