One Man's Family
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One Man's Family was an American dramatic series, created by Carlton E. Morse, which debuted as a radio series on April 29, 1932 in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, moving to the full West Coast NBC network the following month, sponsored by Snowdrift and Wesson Oil. On May 17, 1933, it expanded to the full coast-to-coast NBC network as the first West Coast show heard regularly on the East Coast.
The radio show featured Henry and Fanny Barbour and their five children, all of whom lived in the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco, California. The radio version ran for 3,256 episodes, finally ceasing production in 1959. One Man's Family was the longest running serial drama in American radio broadcasting, barely edging out Ma Perkins (although Ma Perkins produced over twice as many episodes). Organist Paul Carson played the background music and the opening theme, "Destiny Waltz."
[edit] Television
By 1949, when television expressed interest, the show focused on the Barbour children. Oldest daughter Hazel had twins, Claudia was rebellious and involved in romances, Claudia's twin brother Cliff had been married three times, and Jack was a 36-year old father of six daughters, including triplets.
One Man's Family had the rare distinction of airing both in primetime and daytime television. The first TV version (November 4, 1949 - June 21, 1952) ran in primetime once a week for a half-hour and reverted the stories back to the 1932 storylines. Hazel was a 28-year old who yearned for marriage, Cliff and Claudia were students at Stanford University and Jack was ten years old. The primetime version focused on Fanny's attempts to mediate between her old-world husband and her independent-minded children.
The primetime series featured such future stars as Eva Marie Saint (Claudia), Tony Randall (Mac), Mercedes McCambridge (Beth Holly #1), and Frankie Thomas (Cliff Barbour #1). Claudia married daredevil Johnny Roberts. The show was live, which led to a notorious blooper when Claudia and her father-in-law (Ralph Locke) went to track him down. The characters were in an airplane when Locke forget his lines. After a few moments, he yelled at Saint, "Well, if you can't say anything, I'm leaving!" and walked off the set, in spite of his character being in the middle of a flight! Lest viewers presume the character had killed himself, Locke was in his seat the following day. The theme music was "Journey into Melody."
The daytime show (March 1, 1954 - April 1, 1955) carried many of the same storylines as the primetime version but with a different cast. Anne Whitfield, who played Claudia's daughter Penelope on the radio version, simultaneously played Claudia on the TV show. It also had different theme music, "Deserted Mansion."
All versions of the show were written, cast, produced and directed by Carlton E. Morse. Bob and Ray satirized the show with "One Fella's Family," which featured the Butcher family.
