The height of the cycle towards fantastic comedies on American television was during the 1964-1965 and 1965-1966 seasons. At that point more fantastic comedies debuted than at any other point in American television history. By the fall of 1966, however, the cycle towards fantastic comedies was in decline. Only one fantastic comedy debuted in the fall of 1966, and it would only last one season.
It's About Time centred on astronauts Mac McKenzie (played by Frank Aletter) and Hector Canfield (played by Jack Mullaney), who find themselves hurled back in time through prehistory. There they made friends with a family of cave people led by matriarch Shad (played by Imogene Coca) and Gronk (played by Joe E. Ross). Shad and Gronk had two children, daughter Mlor (played by Mary Grace) and son Breer (played by Pat Cardi). In the Stone Age the two astronauts faced the constant threat of tribal chief Boss (played by Cliff Norton) and his muscle Clon (played by Mike Mazurki), who were suspicious of the astronauts, as well as anachronistic dinosaurs.
Like Gilligan's Island before it, It's About Time received overwhelmingly bad reviews from critics. Unlike Gilligan's Island, It's About Time would not be a success. In its first few weeks It's About Time did well in the ratings, but the ratings then began a gradual decline. With the ratings falling, a dramatic change was then made to the show's format. With the January 22 1967 episode, "20th Century Here We Come," the astronauts finally repaired their spacecraft and returned to the 20th Century, taking Shad, Gronk, Mlor, and Breer with them. It's About Time was then no longer about 20th Century astronauts trying to adjust to life in the Stone Age, but about Stone Age people trying to adjust to life in the 20th Century. Ratings for It's About Time did not improve and only seven episodes would be made with the new format. It's About Time was cancelled at the end of the season. Today the show's theme song (written by Gerald Fried, George Wyle, and Sherwood Schwartz) may well be better remembered than the show itself.
While only one fantastic comedy would debut in the fall of 1966, two more would debut at mid-season during the 1966/1967 season. What is more, both debuted on the same night, one after the other, albeit on different networks. Batman having been the smash hit of the 1965/1966 season, it should come as no surprise that both were superhero spoofs.
The first to debut was Mr. Terrific (not to be confused with the DC Comics character Mister Terrific). While Mr. Terrific debuted on January 9 1967, it took some time to get to the air. In fact, the original pilot was being prepared after Batman had only been on the air for a few weeks. The original pilot starred Alan Young, fresh from his success as Wilbur Post on Mister Ed, as shoe salesman Stanley Beamish, who becomes the titular superhero. For whatever reason, CBS did not pick up Mr. Terrific based on the original pilot, and the show was entirely recast and retooled.
By the time Mr. Terrific made it to the air, Stanley Beamish was a filling station attendant (played by Stephen Strimpell). Beamish was the only person in the entire world upon whom a "power pill" worked. The power pill gave Beamish super-strength and the power to fly provided he flapped his arms like a bird. Unfortunately, the power pill also lasted for only an hour. Also unfortunately, Beamish was a bit naive and a bit of a clutz. As Mr. Terrific, Beamish worked for a government agency, The Bureau of Secret Projects, where he reported to Barton J. Reed (played by John McGiver).
Mr. Terrific debuted to mostly negative reviews. The show began with strong ratings, and while they dropped over time, those ratings were still respectable. Unfortunately for Mr. Terrific its audience was primarily children rather than the adult demographic desired by the networks even then. CBS then cancelled Mr. Terrific after only seventeen episodes. With so few episodes it did not have a chance as a syndicated rerun, and after the advent of Political Correctness the fact that its hero gained his powers by popping pills would insure it would be rarely seen.
Over all Captain Nice received positive reviews. Unfortunately, it was scheduled against The Lucy Show on CBS and as a result it received less than stellar ratings. It was cancelled at the end of the season and is rarely seen today.
The 1967-1968 season would see the cycle towards fantastic comedies decline even further with only two shows debuting that season, although both debuted in the fall. What is more, the two comedies featured very little in the way of fantasy content beyond their initial premises. Both debuted on ABC. The first to debut was The Second Hundred Years. The Second Hundred Years was developed by writer Ed Simmons, based on an idea from Roswell Rogers. Ed Simmons had previously worked on such shows as The Colgate Comedy Hour and The Red Skelton Show. Roswell Rogers had worked on the classic domestic comedy Father Knows Best. The Second Hundred Years centred on 19th Century prospector Lucius "Luke" Carpenter (played by Monte Markham), who was frozen in a glacier in 1900. He was revived in 1967 and sent to live with his son Edwin (played by Arthur O'Connell), who is now 67 years old. Edwin had a 33 year-old son, Ken (also played by Monte Markham), who looked exactly like Luke. The humour on the show largely emerged from Luke attempting to adapt to the 20th Century and his conflicts with his much older son.
The Second Hundred Years debuted on September 6 1967 to largely negative reviews. The show initially did well in the ratings. Its debut even beat the season premiere of The Beverly Hillbillies on CBS and the final half hour of a rerun of The Virginian on NBC. Unfortunately, ratings for The Second Hundred Years dropped dramatically in its second week and continued to rapidly decline. ABC moved the show from Wednesday night to Thursday night starting March 21. It was only a few weeks later that ABC announced that it was cancelling The Second Hundred Years.
The Flying Nun was not particularly a hit with critics, but the show proved to be a hit with audiences, receiving spectacular ratings in its first few months. The Flying Nun would not maintain this momentum as the season progressed, but it still did very well during its first season. Unfortunately, The Flying Nun would falter in the ratings in its second season, along with the rest of ABC's Thursday night line-up except for Bewitched. Ratings for The Flying Nun continued to drop in its third season, so that ABC moved it to Friday night at mid-season. The show's ratings never recovered and it was cancelled at the end of the 1969-1970 season. While rarely seen today, The Flying Nun did have a respectable run as a syndicated rerun.
By the 1968-1969 the trend towards fantastic comedies on American television was very nearly over. The season saw the debut of only one fantastic comedy, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. The Ghost & Mrs. Muir was very loosely based on the 1947 movie of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1945 novel of the same name by R. A. Dick. It was developed by Jean Holloway, who had worked on such radio shows as The Kate Smith Show, The Hallmark Radio Hall of Fame, and Mayor of the Town and later moved into television to write for such shows as Wagon Train and Dr. Kildare.
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir centred on widow Carolyn Muir (played by Hope Lange), who moved into Gull Cottage in Schooner Bay, Maine with her two children and her housekeeper Martha Grant (played by Reta Shaw). It is not long before she learns the cottage has another resident, the ghost of 19th Century sea captain Daniel Gregg (played by Edward Mulhare). Daniel Gregg had various ghostly powers as well as a bad temper, which sometimes caused problems for Carolyn. The only other person to know about the captain's ghost was his great nephew Claymore Gregg (played by Charles Nelson Reilly). Captain Gregg was ashamed of Claymore, while Claymore was absolutely terrified of the captain.
This was not the end of The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, as it was promptly picked up by ABC. ABC moved The Ghost & Mrs. Muir from the Saturday time slot in which it had aired on NBC to a Thursday night time slot. Once more The Ghost & Mrs. Muir would receive an Emmy Award for Hope Lange. It was also nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series as well as Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series for Edward Mulhare. Unfortunately, ABC had scheduled The Ghost & Mrs. Muir against another popular CBS sitcom, Family Affair, which ranked no. 5 in the ratings for the 1969/1970 season. As a result the show's ratings suffered and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir was cancelled for a final time at the end of the season. The Ghost & Mrs. Muir would have a respectable run as a syndicated rerun.
If there was any sign that the cycle towards fantastic sitcoms that had dominated the mid-Sixties was over, it was the fact that no new fantastic comedies debuted at the start of the 1969-1970 season. The trend on American television in sitcoms for that season was now towards such family comedies as To Rome with Love, The Debbie Reynolds Show, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, and The Brady Bunch. When a new fantastic comedy debuted at mid-season during the 1969-1970 season, it should come as no surprise that it fit in with the new crop of domestic comedies on television.
Nanny and the Professor was created by A.J. Carothers and Thomas L. Miller. A.J. Carothers had written for such TV shows as The DuPont Show with June Allyson and My Three Sons, as well as such movies as Emil and the Detectives (1964) and The Happiest Millionaire (1967). Nanny & the Professor centred on the nanny of the title, Phoebe Figalilly (played by Juliet Mills). Nanny worked for Professor Harold Everett (played by Richard Long), who had three children: oldest son Hal (played by David Doremus), middle child Butch (played by Trent Lehman), and youngest Prudence (played by Kim Richards). Nanny appeared to be psychic. She often knew someone was at the door before they even rang the doorbell. She could also see into the future at times. On rare occurrences she could even make events happen so that they appeared to be coincidences.
Unfortunately, the new time slot would prove disastrous for Nanny and the Professor. In the time slot it faced two highly rated shows, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on NBC and Gunsmoke on CBS. Worse yet, many ABC affiliates elected to air Nanny and the Professor in entirely different time slots, so that it might air at one time in one market and a completely different one in another. Naturally, this led to ratings for the show entirely collapsing. In the end Nanny and the Professor went off the air at mid-season, on December 27 1971
Of course, not only were there several sitcoms with fantastic premises to air in the Sixties, there were also several straightforward sitcoms that might feature fantasy content in individual episodes from time to time. As early as its second season Dobie Gillis featured an episode involving ESP. In its third season there was an episode involving a Stone Age caveman, while the fourth season had Maynard gain the abilities to analyse hit songs from a robot and Maynard gain super-strength through pills. Gilligan's Island would feature even more fantastic content, with episodes featuring "voodoo," a robot, seeds that granted Gilligan telepathy, mad scientists, and yet more. Similarly, The Monkees featured several episodes that included such fantastic elements as a mad scientist and his Frankensteinian creation, aliens, a magical monkey's paw, mind control, and even the Devil himself. Other shows, such as The Beverly Hillbillies and particularly Green Acres could often be so surreal that they could be considered as bordering on outright fantasy.
As to why fantastic sitcoms came to dominate American television in the Sixties, there can be little doubt that there were multiple factors. Chief among these was the president of CBS at the start of the decade, James T. Aubrey, whose formula for the network was once summarised by another CBS executive as "broads, bosoms, and fun." Aubrey placed an emphasis on escapism, debuting such comedies as The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Gilligan's Island. CBS saw great success with James T. Aubrey's formula of pure escapism so that ABC and NBC soon followed suit in airing escapist shows. It was to a large degree James T. Aubrey who sparked the cycle toward fantastic comedies in the Sixties by bringing the syndicated hit Mister Ed to CBS and putting My Favourite Martian on the air.
Of course, the escapist television shows that James T. Aubrey put on the air would not have succeeded had there not been a demand for them. In many respects the Sixties was a very volatile decade. It was the decade of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam War. It was the height of the Cold War. It should then not be surprising if audiences wanted escapism on television in the Sixties. Indeed, in the weeks following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, The Beverly Hillbillies set records in the Nielsen ratings that stand to this day. Even given the success of My Favourite Martian, it should then come as no surprise that the 1964/1965 saw the beginning of a cycle towards fantastic comedies.
While the fantastic comedies of the Sixties can be counted among the many escapist television shows of the decade, that it is not to say that they did not acknowledge the social changes of the times. In particular, the producers of Bewitched seemed to recognise that the times were changing. After all, the central premise of Bewitched was a mixed marriage (that is, a witch married to a mortal). Over the course of its run Bewitched dealt with issues that other, more mainstream shows could not, including bigotry, capitalism, and feminism. Some have even seen a gay subtext on the show, and not simply because some of the cast (such as Paul Lynde) were gay. There were those who interpret the underground culture of witches as a metaphor for the underground culture of homosexuality at the time. Of course the show could also be considered an allegory for civil rights in general.
While most of the other fantastic comedies would not touch upon issues of the day in the way that Bewitched did, in some respects they also acknowledged the changing times. While the Sixties saw a counterculture arise that rejected the societal norms of the Fifties, the theme of nonconformity ran through many of the fantastic comedies. On Bewitched most witches and warlocks paid no heed to the rules of human society. The Addams Family refused to conform to society's expectations, preferring their own macabre outlook on life instead. Such "fish out of water" comedies as My Favourite Martian, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Second Hundred Years sometimes pointed out the absurdity of modern, American life. It certainly cannot be denied that the fantastic comedies served as an escape from the realities of the Sixties by many viewers, but at the same time the shows acknowledged that the times were changing.
There were likely other factors that caused the proliferation of fantastic comedies in the Sixties, making it difficult to assess all of them. As to why the cycle towards fantastic comedies came to an end, that is a bit easier to determine. To a degree cycles in American broadcast network television can be considered fads. In the book Fads, Follies, and Delusions of the American People by Paul Sann, it is noted that often the more intensely a fad is adopted, the shorter its duration will be. Given the sheer number of fantastic comedies that the networks debuted in the 1964/1965 and 1965/1966 seasons, it should come as no surprise that the cycle would come to an end after a time.
Of course, here it must also be pointed out that the cycle towards fantastic comedies in the Sixties was one of the larger cycles in the history of American television. Ten different fantastic comedies aired on the American broadcast networks during the 1965/1966 season alone. It would not be a surprise if audiences grew tired of the genre and wanted to see some other sorts of shows. It seems significant that the majority of fantastic comedies to debut in the 1964/1965 and 1965/1966 seasons saw some degree of success, but the fantastic comedies that debuted in the 1966/1967 season did not. Like other cycles, such as the cycle towards Westerns in the Fifties or the cycle towards police procedurals in the Naughts, audiences simply grew tired of those types of shows and wanted to move onto the Next Big Thing.
The last original episode of Bewitched aired on March 25 1972, making it the last of the fantastic comedies of the Sixties. Since that time several more fantastic comedies have aired on American television, some of which proved to have some degree of success. Despite this, at no point since the Sixties has there ever been a cycle towards fantastic comedies that has been as large as the one during that decade. What is more, an argument can be made that none of the fantastic comedies that have aired since the Sixties have seen the level of success that such shows as Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Get Smart have seen. In the end, many of the fantastic comedies of the Sixties would prove to be among the most successful shows of all time.
I've enjoyed this excellent series on Fantastic Comedies of the Sixties, and most of these shows I remember very well, a few were favorites. I've often thought about the stream of such shows in that era and perhaps why they were the trend at the time, but your series of posts is a terrific study on the subject. Well done!
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