| I Married Joan | |
|---|---|
I Married Joan intro screen |
|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Starring | Joan Davis Jim Backus |
| Theme music composer | Richard Mack |
| Opening theme | "I Married Joan" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 99 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Joan Davis James Bank |
| Producer(s) | P.J. Wolfson Richard Mack |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original run | October 15, 1952 – April 16, 1955 |
I Married Joan is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from 1952 to 1955. It starred veteran vaudeville, film, and radio comedienne Joan Davis as the manic wife of a mild-mannered community judge, Bradley Stevens (Jim Backus).
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The show announced itself each week as "America's favorite comedy show, starring America's queen of comedy, Joan Davis, as Mrs. Joan Stevens." The series focused on a married couple, Joan and Bradley Stevens. Joan Stevens usually found herself in numerous wacky jams, with or without the help of her younger sister (played by her real-life daughter, Beverly Wills). Episodes usually began with Backus as Judge Stevens recalling yet another merry mishap, followed by the unfolding of the mishap, and ending with Stevens summing it up.
Sponsored by General Electric, I Married Joan was aimed at the viewers who watched I Love Lucy, a year older and already television's top-rated situation comedy. Displaying Davis' considerable physical and verbal comedy talents, the show ran three seasons in first-run production before falling victim to weakening ratings and Joan's personal health problems.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Joan Davis | Joan Stevens |
| Jim Backus | Bradley Stevens |
| Hope Emerson | Minerva Parker |
| Wally Brown | Wally |
| Sheila Bromley | Janet Tobin |
| Sandra Gould | Mildred Webster |
| Hal Smith | Charlie Henderson |
| Geraldine Carr | Mabel Henderson |
| Sally Kelly | Sally |
| Beverly Wills | Beverly Grossman |
| Dan Tobin | Kerwin Tobin |
In the early 1980s, the series was rerun by the CBN cable network in a late-night block that included another TV sitcom, Gale Storm's series My Little Margie. The series was also aired on ION Television, and on the HOT (History of Television) network in New York (WKOB 42.4) and Dallas (K31GL 31.3).
Since 2004, Alpha Home Entertainment has released three volumes of various episodes from different seasons on budget DVD compilations.[1]
BearManor Media published a biography about Joan Davis, which includes a chapter dedicated to I Married Joan. Episodes of the series have been screened at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention held annually in Aberdeen, Maryland.