The Bob Cummings Show
The Bob Cummings Show | |
---|---|
Bob (Bob Cummings) and Schultzy (Ann B. Davis) in The Bob Cummings Show | |
Also known as | ''Love That Bob'' |
Created by | Paul Henning |
Written by |
William Cowley Shirley Gordon Paul Henning Bill Manhoff Lawrence Menkin Phil Shuken Dick Wesson |
Directed by |
Rod Amateau Robert Cummings Fred DeCordova Edward Rubin Norman Tokar |
Starring |
Robert Cummings Ann B. Davis Rosemary DeCamp Dwayne Hickman |
Narrated by | Bill Baldwin |
Theme music composer |
Del Sharbutt Frank Stanton Richard Uhl |
Opening theme | "A Romantic Guy, I" |
Ending theme | "A Romantic Guy, I" |
Composer(s) | Lou Kosloff |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 5 |
No. of episodes | 173 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | George Burns |
Producer(s) | Paul Henning |
Running time | 30 mins.[1] |
Production company(s) |
Laurel Productions McCadden Productions Henning Corporation |
Distributor | NBCUniversal Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network |
NBC (1955) CBS (1955–1957) NBC (1957–1959) |
Picture format | Black-and-white |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | January 2, 1955 – September 15, 1959 |
The Bob Cummings Show (also known as Love That Bob) is an American sitcom starring Robert "Bob" Cummings, which was produced from January 2, 1955 to September 15, 1959. The Bob Cummings Show was the first-ever series to debut as a midseason replacement.
The program began with a half-season run on NBC, then ran for two full seasons on CBS, and returned to NBC for its final two seasons. The program was later rerun on ABC daytime and then syndicated under the title Love That Bob. A similar (but less successful) follow-up series, The New Bob Cummings Show, was broadcast on CBS during the 1961–62 television season.
Synopsis
The series stars Cummings as dashing young Hollywood photographer, Air Force reserve officer, and ladies' man, Bob Collins. The character's interest in aviation and photography mirrored Cummings' own, with his character's name the same as the role he played in the film You Came Along (1945). The series also stars Rosemary DeCamp as his sister Margaret MacDonald. In some episodes, Cummings also doubled as Bob and Margaret's grandfather, Josh Collins of Joplin, Missouri.
The Bob Cummings Show was important in the development of several careers. Its creator, producer, and head writer was Paul Henning, later producer of such major 1960s hits as The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres. Regulars in the show included Ann B. Davis, who twice won Emmy Awards for playing Bob Collins' assistant Schultzy. Henning apparently remembered cast members Nancy Kulp and Joi Lansing favorably, giving both of them roles several years later on The Beverly Hillbillies, Kulp as Miss Hathaway (secretary to banker Milburn Drysdale -- a character similar to Pamela Livingstone, the one she played on Cummings' show) -- and Lansing as Gladys Flatt, wife of Lester Flatt. A decade after The Bob Cummings Show left the air, Davis went on to play the housekeeper Alice in The Brady Bunch. In the 1995 film The Brady Bunch Movie, which featured another actress playing Alice, Davis reprised the role of Schultzy for a cameo that suggests the character went on to become a truck driver.
Olive Sturgess appeared in twelve episodes as Carol Henning, girlfriend to Bob's nephew, Chuck. Versatile character actress Kathleen Freeman appeared in six episodes as Bertha Krause. Perhaps the biggest career boost was received by young Dwayne Hickman, a student at Loyola University in Los Angeles who appeared as the nephew and became a favorite with young female viewers. During the last season of The Bob Cummings Show, he was cast as the lead in CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
This program represented the height of Cummings' television career. Although he later starred in two other early-'60s series -- The New Bob Cummings Show and My Living Doll — and made guest appearances on several other TV series, he never again achieved that level of success on television.
Cast
- Bob Cummings (Bob Collins) – A womanizing photographer.
- Rosemary DeCamp (Margaret MacDonald) – Bob's sister who always tried her best to raise her brother's moral level.
- Dwayne Hickman (Chuck MacDonald) – Margaret's son and Bob's nephew, a teenager always vying for his uncle's attention.
- Ann B. Davis (Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz) – Bob's young secretary who pines for him and occasionally sabotages his love schemes with other women.
Syndication
Reruns under the title Love That Bob appeared on ABC's daytime lineup from October 12, 1959, to December 1, 1961. Repeats were popular through the 1960s on local stations before reappearing on the CBN Cable Network in the mid-1980s. The series remains in syndication on some smaller stations today. The original opening credits for the series incorporated a commercial for Dunhill cigarettes and were replaced with the Love That Bob opening.
Episodes
Influence
Ann B. Davis's character, Schultzy, was the inspiration for the comic book character Pepper Potts, a supporting character in the Iron Man comics. Potts first appeared in Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963), and was depicted with brown hair in a style resembling Schultzy's. Eventually, it was decided by the editorial team that the resemblance was too great, and in Tales of Suspense #50, her appearance was altered to give her red hair and a different style.[2]
DVD release
The entire series has yet to be released on DVD. However, at least 20 episodes have lapsed into the public domain, and all were released by DigiView Productions in 2004, Critics' Choice Video in 2004-5, Platinum Disc, LLC in 2005, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment in 2005, and Alpha Home Entertainment in 2006, among others. Also, on March 20, 2012, MPI Home Video released a Region 1 DVD collection of episodes from Cummings' mid-1960s series My Living Doll, and a standalone episode of The Bob Cummings Show was included as a bonus feature.
See also
- My Living Doll (episodes)
- The Bob Cummings Show (episodes)
- The New Bob Cummings Show (episodes)
- [My Hero]
References
- ↑ Staff. "The Bob Cummings Show (original) aka Love That Bob! (rerun title)". IMDB. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
- ↑ Cronin, Brian (June 29, 2010). "Foggy Ruins of Time – Which Brady Bunch Actress Was Pepper Potts Based On?". Comic Book Resources.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Bob Cummings Show. |
- The Bob Cummings Show on IMDb
- The Bob Cummings Show at epguides.com
- The Bob Cummings Show at TV.com
- Love That Bob public domain episodes at the Internet Archive