Sunday Morning Coffee — May 25, 2025 — The Way We Were Pt. II
By Roy Berger, Las Vegas, NV.
When ‘The Way We Were’ appeared in Sunday Morning Coffee a couple of months ago (March 23, 2025 — royberger.com), it produced a hearty response of both memories and suggestions for trivia about other shows of the Boomer era. This morning, while we mourn the loss of George Wendt, we will go back in television history a couple of decades before Cheers. So, flick the television set on and let the tubes get warm; put some tin foil on the rabbit ears to bring the picture into focus and instead of a Swanson TV turkey dinner, let’s go for the fried chicken, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots and the apple and peaches combo for dessert. Don’t worry about all the grease and oil that collects on the bottom of the chicken, it’s part of the charm.
Dennis The Menace (1959-63, 146 episodes, CBS): Let’s start by paying homage to one of our favorite rascals back in the day- Jay North— who died this past April 6 of colorectal cancer at 73. Cartoonist Hank Ketcham created the character in 1950 when his wife Alice told him that their then four-year-old son Dennis had trashed his bedroom. Alice called him a “menace.” Within six months the Dennis The Menace comic strip appeared in 16 newspapers, eventually swelling to over 100. The television show had a fairly short run, four years, as North, who debuted at age seven, began to outgrow his character. It aired on Sunday nights following Lassie and right before The Ed Sullivan Show. Joseph Kearns, who played good ole Mr. Wilson, died unexpectedly in 1962 at 55, during the show’s third season. The writers never acknowledged his death, and the show ran for one more season. Character actor Gale Gordon replaced Kearns, playing the role of his brother. North was paid $500 per episode and by the third season $2,500 per. After his acting career lost momentum, North went to work as a corrections officer in Florida.
Staying consistent with TV Guide, we have to follow Dennis The Menace with The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-71, 1068 episodes, CBS). A Sunday night staple in our house and most everyone else’s, Sullivan’s drab personality yet incredible influence was unmatched as a television host. To this day it’s TV’s longest running variety show. Sullivan was a syndicated entertainment columnist writing ‘Toast of the Town’ for the New York Daily News. He also hosted two radio shows and agreed to try television, where he stayed for 23 years. Though it’s hard to picture, Ed was an outstanding high school athlete in Port Chester, NY, playing halfback on the football team, a guard on the basketball squad and his best sport was baseball as a catcher and team captain. My peeps no doubt remember the February 9, 1964, broadcast when the Beatles came into our living room for the very first time. The final Sullivan show aired on June 6, 1971. Comedian Alan King made the most guest appearances with 37. The highest paid act was Elvis who agreed to appear three times for $50,000. Sullivan died in 1974 at age 73.
The Addams Family (1964-66, 64 episodes, ABC) and The Munsters (1964-66, 70 episodes, CBS). These shows premiered within a week of each other and both had relatively short shelf lives. The Munsters got higher ratings than the Addams family but couldn’t compete against Batman in the same time slot on ABC. Size mattered in both shows. Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch in The Addams Family, was a 6’8” basketball player at Stetson University in Florida. Upon graduation he went into broadcasting and on November 22, 1963, he was on the air as a radio DJ on WFAA in Dallas when President Kennedy was assassinated nearby. He was among the first to interview eye witnesses. Cassidy’s arrival into show business was as Lurch but he double-dipped on the show also playing Thing. “You rang?” was Lurch’s family calling card. He died in 1979 at age 46. Fred Gwynn played the big guy in The Munsters as Herman Munster. He stood 6’5”. Gwynn’s talents went well beyond the screen—he was an accomplished singer, painter, and writer/illustrator of children’s books. After his Munster’s stint he was Patrolman Francis Muldoon in Car 54, Where Are You? and Judge Chamberlin Haller in his final film, the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny. Gwynn died in 1993 of pancreatic cancer at 66.
Get Smart (1965-70, 138 episodes, NBC ). The sitcom was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry for NBC after ABC turned it down for being “Un-American.” Don Adams was a comedic regular on Ed Sullivan before landing the part of Agent 86 when the producers shied away from their original choice, Tom Poston. Actually, Adams’ role as Maxwell Smart originated on the Bill Dana Show where Adams played an inept hotel detective. Smart was dubbed Agent 86 as a reference to a slang term that meant to eject someone from an establishment. Smart’s famed telephone was concealed in over 50 objects during the five years including a necktie, watch, clock, garden hose, bottle of perfume, headboard of his bed, a cheese sandwich and of course his shoe. Barbara Feldon, Agent 99, disguised her telephone in her makeup compact and her thumbnail. Johnny Carson appeared on the show twice. Despite some conventional guessing, CONTROL and KAOS are not legitimate acronyms and don’t stand for anything. The show ended after five seasons when Feldon, in real life, became pregnant with twins. In that same season she and Agent 86 were married and had twins. Many Maxwell Smart expressions have stood the test of time including, “Missed it by that much” and “Sorry about that, Chief.” Fang, the Labradoodle also known as CONTROL agent K13, undercover Morris, was written out of the show after two seasons and put on waivers to the pound. Producers determined he became too difficult to work with despite a previous successful run on Bachelor Father. Adams died in 2005 at age 82. Feldon, 92, lives in New York City. There’s no update on Fang.
Highway Patrol (1955-59, 156 episodes, ABC). HP was one of the first shows I remember watching as a kid and it scared the young jeepers out of me every time. Broderick Crawford played Dan Mathews, the gruff and fast talking head of a police force in a location that was never identified other than a Western US state. Crawford was a real life alcoholic thus the show had to be filmed early enough in the day so that his drinking didn’t take control. Ironically, off-set, he was stopped several times and charged with multiple DUI’s which eventually led to suspended driving licenses. Because of Crawford’s bottle habit and the hectic production schedule it caused, after four seasons the show ended. He died in 1986 at age 74. 10-4.
Bewitched (1964-72, 254 episodes, ABC). The show cruised for the first five seasons and then came off the rails riddled with behind the scenes drama. In its initial season, 1964, Bewitched was ABC’s top rated show and the best rated sitcom among all three networks. Bewitched aired on Thursday nights sandwiched in between My Three Sons and Peyton Place. The producers originally wanted stage actress Tammy Grimes to play Samantha, but Grimes questioned if she had all these Samantha powers why couldn’t she use them to stop wars or deal with Los Angeles traffic? Not kidding. Undoubtedly the producers eyes rolled and soon after Elizabeth Montgomery got the gig as Samantha Stephens.
Things progressed well for the show for the first four seasons but started to become unglued in the fifth. Dick York, who played Samantha’s husband Darrin, departed mid-season because of ongoing back issues. Dick Sargent was signed to be his replacement. Ratings began to fall. Then both backstage and on-set snipping between cast and producers was running rampant. Not the least of which was Agnes Moorehead’s (Samantha’s mother Endora) open disdain for Sargent which brought him to tears on multiple occasions. It also resulted in tension between Montgomery and Moorehead. Montgomery was married to William Asher, a producer-director on the show. The gossip pages wrote that Asher reportedly cheated often on Montgomery so in turn she took up with Richard Michaels, also a Bewitched producer-director. After the eighth season, with two more still remaining on the contract, Montgomery couldn’t twitch her nose at the show’s ills and said no mas. The show was canceled. Ms. Montgomery died in 1995 at age 62 from colon cancer.
The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71, 274 episodes, CBS). If show creator Paul Henning had his way The Beverly Hillbillies would have been The Fifth Avenue Hillbillies but production costs in New York were too expensive so instead they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly. Hills, that is. Swimmin’ pools and movie stars. The critics panned the series, but audiences loved it and within three weeks of its premiere became number one in the ratings. Originally Buddy Ebsen, Jed Clampett, was written to be gullible and naive but he objected and consequently that role went to Jethro. The result was Max Baer Jr. had a difficult time landing future jobs because of the way he was typecast. Baer, 87, is the only surviving member of the cast. John Wayne had a cameo in one episode (season 5, episode 20, “The Indians Are Coming”). Instead of being paid a fee, the Duke chose a fifth of bourbon as his royalty. Mr. Drysdale, no doubt, approved.
Leave It To Beaver (1957-63, 234 episodes, CBS/ABC). A Boomer staple, but LITB never cracked the top-30 in Nielsen ratings. CBS aired the first season and then axed the show. ABC picked it up for the rest of the five-year run. Eight-year old Jerry Mathers didn’t want to audition for the role of Beaver, instead he wanted to attend his Cub Scout den meeting. So, he arrived early to the audition in his scout uniform, auditioned, went to the meeting and got the part. Mathers’ agent negotiated a perpetual share of the show’s merchandise sales for his client. Today the Beav, 76, lives in Santa Clarita, CA and rakes in dough from every LITB comic book, lunch box and tee shirt sold.
The Twilight Zone (1959-64 156 episodes, CBS): The original first series of The Twilight Zone ran for five seasons on CBS. The first three seasons had 30-minute episodes; it went to an hour in the fourth season, 1962-63, and then back to a half-hour in ‘63-64. Rod Serling was the creator/head writer/show runner. He was a political activist; ran into network censors on more than one occasion and ultimately helped shape industry standards. The producers originally wanted Orson Welles to be the shows’ narrator, but his price was too high. Serling offered to do it instead. He became a fixture but didn’t appear on-camera until the second season. In 1960 the episode “The Big Tall Wish” was among the first in American TV history to feature Black actors in a lead role. A 1964 episode entitled “The Encounter” was banned from syndication for 52 years because of its racial overtones with a WWII veteran harboring resentment towards a Japanese American man. It didn’t appear again in syndication until 2016. The Twilight Zone was notable for becoming a launching pad for young actors before they became famous. Among those making their TV debuts were above Bewitched stars Dick York and Elizabeth Montgomery along with Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, Cloris Leachman, Carol Burnett, Dennis Hopper, Martin Landau, Robert Duvall, Ron Howard, Jonathan Winters, Dennis Weaver, Jack Klugman and Peter Falk. Serling, a three to four pack a day chain smoker, died in 1975 at age 50.
“Wait,” you say. “What about The Dick Van Dyke, Shindig, Hullabaloo, Gilligan’s Island, Gidget, Ozzie & Harriett and of course All In The Family?”
Next time.
I’m proud that Medjet is sponsoring Sunday Morning Coffee. I spent 20 wonderful years with Medjet in Birmingham, Alabama, and can tell you unequivocally they are the standard-bearer for medical assistance membership programs. A talented staff, who cares about its members, is at the forefront of the company’s success. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, domestic or international, a Medjet membership should be an important part of your travel portfolio before you leave home. Check out the Medjet website at medjet.com or just tap on the Medjet logo and you’ll be able to get a look at Medjet’s services, rules and regulations, pricing, and an overview of the organization. And remember, any opinions expressed in Sunday Morning Coffee content or comments belong to the author and not the sponsor. Safe travels with your Medjet membership! — Roy Berger
Thank you for the trip down memory lane Roy! I loved all of those shows. Please do some more!!
You made my day with the additional info on the shows.
Bronco, another great trip down memory lane. We grew up watching and enjoying all of those shows. Rarely stressed out. Now we get the MAGA President and the trumpets. Wow ! How times have changed. Thanks for the memories.