One of my favorite television comedies as a kid was Our Miss Brooks with Eve Arden in the title role as the high school English teacher Connie Brooks infatuated with clueless biology teacher Philip Boynton.
Our Miss Brooks began as a CBS radio series in 1948. Arden was actually the third actress considered for the role; the first choice had been Shirley Booth, the second, Lucille Ball. Looking back, it's hard for me to view anyone but Eve Arden in the role.
Gale Gordon played the blustery Principal Conklin, Richard Crenna played the sqeaky-voicedteen-aged Walter Denton, Jane Morgan was the flighty landlady Margaret Davis, and Jeff chandler (later replaced by Robert Rockwell) played the hapless Mr. Boynton.
The radio show lasted through 1957. The television series with basically the same cast ran from 1952 to 1956. The final year of the television series moved Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin to a new school, dropping the other cast regulars. Luckily, the radio series did not veer from the original format and maintained the cast for another year after the television show died.
Unlike a number of other shows, Our Miss Brooks was FUNNY. The cast and the conceptblended together perfectly to make comedy magic.
The episode below, "Mr. Boynton Gigolo," first aired on October 23, 1953.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsQo1qZIxls
One of my favorites on both radio and TV. I'm sure Connie Brooks had something to do with my choice of professions.
ReplyDeleteShe was an inspiration to many, Bill!
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