Honestly, Celeste!

Honestly, Celeste!
Scott McKay and Celeste Holm.
Written by	Norman Lear Larry Gelbart
Starring	Celeste Holm Scott McKay Mike Kellin Geoffrey Lumb Mary Finney
Music by	Jerry Fielding
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	Black and white
Original release	October 10 – December 5, 1954

Honestly, Celeste! is an eight-episode 1954 CBS situation comedy starring Celeste Holm as Celeste Anders, a 37-year-old college journalism professor from Minnesota who accepts a reporter’s position on the staff of the fictitious New York Express newspaper.^[1]

Synopsis

In the series premiere, Celeste arrives at Grand Central Station in New York City, where she meets the recently released convict, Marty, as well as the staff members of the New York Express. In later episodes, Celeste finds an apartment in Greenwich Village, writes a feature story on modern art, and becomes concerned about an underprivileged family.^[2]

Cast

Holm’s co-stars were Scott McKay (1915–1987) as Bob Wallace, the son of the newspaper editor; Mike Kellin (1922–1983) as Marty Gordon, an ex-convict cab driver trying to become rehabilitated (Kellin had appeared in the preceding season on the NBC sitcom Bonino in the role of Rusty), Geoffrey Lumb (1905–1990), as Mr. Wallace, the editor, and Mary Finney (last acting role: 1962) as Mr. Wallace’s secretary. Among the guest stars was Ross Martin, later a co-star of CBS’s Mr. Lucky and The Wild Wild West^[3]

Production

The show was highly publicized ^[4] but soon plunged into ratings failure. Young Norman Lear, later a major television producer, and Larry Gelbart, who subsequently developed M*A*S*H for CBS television, joined the writing staff of Honestly, Celeste! but could not change the ratings. Jerry Fielding was the music director.^[2]

Honestly, Celeste! aired at 9:30 p.m. Sunday after the premiere season of Ronald Reagan's anthology series, General Electric Theater, and before the first season of Robert Young’s sitcom, Father Knows Best. Its principal competition was the alternating NBC series, The Philco Television Playhouse and Goodyear Television Playhouse^[5]

Cancellation

The program ran for only eight episodes from October 10 to December 5, 1954 before being canceled because of low ratings.^[4] In the United States at the time, it was uncommon for a show to end this quickly, with the exception of summer series.

In 1970, Holm again appeared as a journalist in a second short-lived sitcom, Nancy (NBC), in which she played the press secretary of the First Lady of the United States.

References