Mary Kay and Johnny (1947) Comedy Mary Kay and Johnny is an American situation comedy starring real-life married couple Mary Kay Stearns and Johnny Stearns. It was the first sitcom broadcast on a network television in the United States. Starring real-life married couple Johnny and Mary Kay Stearns, the series was the first program to show a couple sharing a bed, and the first tv. Mary Kay and Johnny Genre Sitcom Created by Mary Kay Stearns Johnny Stearns Starring Mary Kay Stearns Johnny Stearns Howard Thomas Nydia Westman Christopher William Stearns Country of origin United States Original language(s) English No. Mary Kay and Johnny Format Sitcom Created by Mary Kay Stearns Johnny Stearns Starring Mary Kay Stearns Johnny Stearns Howard Thomas Nydia Westman Christopher William Stearns Country of origin United States No. Learn and talk about Mary Kay and Johnny, 1. American television series, 1. American television series debuts, 1. American television series endings, 1. American television series. Posts about mary kay and johnny written by upperco. Welcome to another Wildcard Wednesday! Today’s post is the first in a duo of entries highlighting the television comedy research that I conducted in Los Angeles over my Spring Break (three weeks ago). Mary Kay and Johnny (Q6779998) From Wikidata Jump to: navigation, search No description defined edit Language Label Description Also known as English Mary Kay and Johnny No description defined Statements instance of American television sitcom CBS. Mary Kay and Johnny. Genre. Sitcom. Created by. Mary Kay Stearns. Johnny Stearns. Starring. Mary Kay Stearns. Johnny Stearns. Howard Thomas. Nydia Westman. Christopher William Stearns. Country of origin. United States. Original language(s)English. No. It was the first sitcom broadcast on a network television in the United States. Mary Kay and Johnny initially aired live on the Du. Mont Television Network before moving to CBS and then NBC. Broadcast history. The Stearnses created and wrote all the scripts. The program was broadcast live, most of the action taking place on a set representing the New York City apartment of the title characters, a young married couple. Mary Kay and Johnny was the first program to show a couple sharing a bed, and the first series to show a woman's pregnancy on television: . On December 3. 1, 1. Stearns' weeks- old son Christopher appeared on the show and became a character. After a year on Du. Mont, the show moved to CBS for half a year, much of the time being broadcast every weeknight, then ran for another year each Saturday night on NBC, which broadcast the final episode on March 1. Viewership. Nielsen Company would not begin measuring TV ratings until 1. Anacin decided to take a chance and sponsor the show. This decision worried the advertising executives at Anacin, who thought that they might be wasting money by sponsoring a show with a sparse audience. A simple, non- scientific scheme to gauge the size of the audience was hatched. During one commercial spot, Anacin offered a free pocket mirror to the first 2. As a precaution, they purchased a total of 4. Although the free mirror was offered only during that one spot, Anacin received nearly 9. In early 1. 94. 8, still broadcast live, the show was also recorded on kinescopes so that it could be shown, with some delay, on the West Coast. The entire series from then until 1. Many episodes survived in full as late as 1. Fragments of the show's last few episodes survive, most on 1. TV Land used a clip in an episode of Inside TV Land called. Today’s post is the first in a duo of entries highlighting the television comedy research that I conducted in Los Angeles over my Spring Break (three weeks ago). I spent one day at the West Coast branch of the Paley Center for Media, and one day at UCLA’s Cinema Archives. Today, we’re covering the shows I viewed that originally aired in the ’4. Mary Kay And Johnny (1. Du. Mont, CBS, & NBC)Untitled Episode (Aired: 0. NBC) Long cited as American television’s first situation comedy (which isn’t true, if we choose to count local sitcoms), this live audience- less domestic series starred real- life couple, Johnny and Mary Kay Stearns and aired for three years on three different networks in slots alternating between 1. Interestingly, the Stearns were the first couple to share a bed on TV, and pre- dating Lucy, the series featured the first on- air pregnancy, as the couple’s real life blessing was incorporated into the series. Lacking an audience, like most sitcoms from the era, there’s little emphasis on laughter and writing designed to invoke it; instead, the stories are crafted to be . Mary Kay is a charming naif who talks with a Snow White voice, and, though not dumb, lacks the pure logic of Johnny, another charming and naive character. The story, about Johnny’s attempts to deal with a salesman who takes advantage of Mary Kay’s lack of “sales resistance,” is strikingly similar to the 1. When a salesman sells Mary Kay a broom, Johnny is determined to get a refund upon the salesman’s return visit. Naturally, Johnny ends up buying something even more expensive than his wife — “The Jim Dandy Mechanical Maid” — a complicated gadget that doesn’t work nearly as well as it should. He tries to hide the new toy from Mary Kay by placing it under the coffee table, but she (thankfully) sees it right away. To prove that his purchase was a sound one, he bets Mary Kay that the Mechanical Maid can pick up ALL the dirt that he’s just thrown on the floor, and that whatever it doesn’t pick up, he will eat himself. Mary Kay makes the bet, only to later tell her husband that the building electricity is out. It’s cute, predictable (partly because we saw it done eerily similar on a more polished later series), and only funny in its fulfillment of. Still, there’s something invigorating about seeing this live show — one of the first — that makes every moment fascinating. And, like Mary Kay, it’s utterly charming. Your Show Of Shows (1. NBC)Untitled Premiere Episode (Aired: 0. One of only two shows I screened over break not classified as a situation comedy, you can read about this 9. February tribute to Sid Caesar here. For 9. 0 minutes every Sunday evening, viewers were treated to LIVE excellence in sketch comedy, situation comedy (. Stemming from a brief live 1. Not only is it the premiere installment, but it also features the wonderful Gertrude Lawrence as a guest. There was lots of music in this opening installment — opera and otherwise. The standouts were Coca’s “Smorgasbord” number, Gertie’s comedic solo, “I Don’t Know,” and a big production number with the boys and Coca as a famous actress (a takeoff of Lillian Russell). The comic highlights of the first episode include a sketch in which Sid Caesar plays a bumbling Christopher Columbus, a monologue in which Caesar plays a man walking down the wedding aisle, a bit in which the Professor speaks about pain control, a pantomime in which Caesar and Coca play an innocent young couple on the day that he chooses to propose, and an extended sequence in which Lawrence plays Caesar’s unfaithful wife in two contrasting sketches: one deemed . Not everything in the 9. The theatricality, enhanced by the liveness, is tantalizing, and the variety — though my focus is mostly on the comedy — makes for rich viewing. Would love to see more of these released; such talent! Meet Millie (1. 95. CBS)“The Masquerade Party” (Aired: 0. After a year on radio, this “gay. The series starred Elena Verdugo as Millie, a smart New York secretary living in Queens with her mother (Florence Halop in the TV version), who’s constantly looking to marry off Millie. Other regulars included Marvin Kaplan as their aspiring poet/composer neighbor Alfred Prinzmetal, Millie’s regular beau, her beau’s father — also her boss, and her beau’s mother, played by Isabel Randolph. Very successful during its original run, the liveness, once again, has contributed to its relative obscurity. But when Millie learns that his honey, Babette (played by 1. Doris Singleton) is a gold digger, she schemes with Mama and Alfred to break the couple up at the masquerade party to which they’ve all been invited. Mama dresses in the same outfit as Babette, Alfred dresses like the Texan, but every time Mama gets the Texan alone to break up with him, it turns out to be Alfred. This continues several times until the real Texan overhears Babette’s nastiness and breaks the engagement. The story is predictable, but the episode is fairly funny — with the party sequence easily taking the prize for the installment’s highlight. Verdugo is sharp as Millie, and though not given a lot of comedy, plays everything with an appealing naturalness. Meanwhile, Falop, aged thirty years to look like an old woman, is entirely too hammy. While she has the best lines, I couldn’t help but wish she wasn’t so self- conciously determined to steal scenes. Meanwhile, Alfred is expectedly nerdy and weak- willed. I would really like to see more of this series — if only to get a better grasp of the storytelling and how it used its ensemble. My Favorite Husband (1. CBS)“The Big Fight” (Aired: 0. Yes, this is the television adaptation of the radio series that starred Lucille Ball and Richard Denning, and served for the inspiration of. Unfortunately, without Ball or those radio scripts — most of them later parlayed into episodes of I Love Lucy. The series aired for two and a half years on CBS and starred Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson. The first two years were live — with an audience, but the shortened third season, which starred the recast Vanessa Brown, was filmed. The secondary couple, the Cobbs, were played by Bob Sweeney (one of Our Miss Brooks. Few episodes have been seen since the original run, though many seem to exist in the archives and in personal collections. Naturally, even after Harry and Barbara leave, an argument breaks out between the Cobbs and between the Coopers. The wives end up staying the night in Liz’s room (good thing there are twin beds), while the husbands wind up downstairs on a pull- out mattress. Harry and Barbara return (with their baby) and each go to their separate corners. Finally, hunger brings everyone together when the couples’ bachelor friend comes over with a full meal. Not only is the story painfully ordinary — with the requisite trite argument to launch the proceedings– but there’s also nothing distinguished, memorable, or funny about the storytelling. Sorry to say, I did not laugh — nor did I feel like laughing — once during the screening. Meanwhile, the regulars are bland. The only redeeming thing about this series, judging from this episode, is the liveness, which forces the action to occur with a limited number of actors on a limited number of sets. The episode really does feel like a one act, and though it’s not comedically (or even dramatically) satisfying, there’s a visual intimacy that, at the very least, can be appreciated. But if you’re in the mood for. Mister Peepers (1. NBC)“Mrs. Gurney Learns To Drive” (Aired: 0. Probably one of the best of the live sitcoms ever (and the best that I viewed over my break), Mister Peepers starred Wally Cox as a shy Junior High science teacher. Others in the regular cast include Tony Randall as history teacher Harvey Weskit. The first 5. 2 existing installments have been released on DVD. I do not own this collection, and one of my reasons for selecting an episode to screen at UCLA (who helped produce the sets), was to test the waters before making a purchase. The first set goes until mid Season Two, and the second set goes to early Season Three.) Excitingly, I can report that I was pleased with what I saw! Also, I knew that the episode, given its title and premise, would feature a lot of Lorne. Additionally, I was aware that the supremely funny Reta Shaw (you may remember her from Mary Poppins or even as Aunt Hagatha on Bewitched) appeared in this installment in her recurring role as Mr. Peepers’ throaty Aunt Lil. Fed up with riding the bus, Mrs. Gurney heeds the advice of Peepers and Weskit and decides to learn how to drive. Using Aunt Lil’s 1. Aunt Lil proves herself to be a veritable speed demon), Peepers, Weskit, and Aunt Lil each take turns teaching the nervous English teacher how to operate a motorized vehicle. Gurney eventually gets her license, but then realizes, what good will it do her? She doesn’t own a car. Lorne shines brightest in this episode, and there are many laughs, even though the writing never tries to hit you over the head with humor. It’s gentle — even with Lorne’s clowning. Great ’5. 0s television! The Marriage (1. 95. NBC)“Inside Bobby Logan” (Aired: 0. The sitcom — if we can even call it that — which lasted for a mere eight episodes, was a short summer replacement series, and is notable today only because it’s the first scripted series broadcast in color. Of course, the episode that I viewed was in black- and- white, which is actually a good thing; free of the mystique of glorious color, I could assess the series based solely on its quality. Unfortunately, despite believable performances and that anticipated intimacy predicated by the liveness, I can report that the TV version of. Thus, the greatest disappointment about what I saw was not that it was poorly told, just that it was told without laughs. The story concerns the bonding of Tandy’s character with her daughter’s boyfriend (the title’s Bobby Logan) while Cronyn works and the daughter’s away.
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