Hard to believe, but Ever Arden was the third choice to portray the sarcastic high school teacher Connie Brooks in this classic radio comedy; when first choice Shirley Booth and second choice Lucille Ball fell through, CBS then-chairman persuaded Arden to audition for the role. The show first aired on CBS Radio on July 19, 1948 and ran until 1957. The characters and all but one of the regular actors moved to CBS television on October 3, 1952, running until May 11, 1956 -- ending one year before the radio show.
In addition to Eve Arden, the cast included Gale Gordon as Osgood Conklin, the gruff high school principal; Jeff Chandler (sometimes billed under his real name, Ira Grossel, as the absent-minded and clueless biology teacher Philip Boynton, who was the object of Connie Brooks' affections -- Chandler was the one cast member who did not transfer to the television program, leaving the show after five years to focus on his film commitments; Richard Crenna as the goofy, squeaky-voiced student Walter Denton; Gloria McMillan as Harriet Conklin, Osgood Conklin's daughter and Walter Denton's girlfriend; and Jane Morgan as Margaret Davis, Miss Brook's absent-minded landlady. Others appearing over the run of the radio program included Virginia Gordon, Gale Gordon's wife, who played Osgood Conklin's wife Martha; Leonard Smith and Eddie Riley, who played high school athletes Stretch and Bones Snodgrass; and Mary Jane Croft who played scheming high school teacher -- and Connie's rival for Boynton's affections -- Daisy Enright. Another member of the radio cast was Minerva, Mrs. Davis's cat, whose piano sleeping would result in perfectly timed piano riffs.
In 1956, after the television show was canceled, a theatrical film was made in which Connie Brooks and Philip Boynton were finally engaged.
In "The Sweater," Conklin decides to boost morale for the school's losing football team by having one of the teachers become a cheerleader, and he felt that Miss Brooks would be a fitting candidate. Then he discovered that a rival high school principal was voted faculty cheerleader by the student body. Not to be outdone, he began thinking about taking the role for himself...
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meSmsnAOH0g
Our local CBS TV station ran reruns of OUR MISS BROOKS during the 1960s. I fell in love with Eve Arden as a teenager who wished Miss Brooks was my teacher....
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