The People's Choice

Jackie Cooper stars as New City councilman Socrates "Sock" Miller. Patricia Breslin plays Mandy Peoples, daughter of New City's Mayor, who has her eyes set romantically on Sock. Her father is very much against this relationship as he believes Sock is a bit too unstable to provide Mandy a decent future. Sock lives in a trailer court with his Aunt Gus who supports the relationship with Mandy. Other regulars characters include Sock's mooching service buddy Rollo and Crutcher, the former councilman and rival for Mandy that Sock beat in the election. The writing is clever, the cast is very good and it's all given a little extra craziness as the audience is allowed to hear what Sock's basset Cleo is thinking in relation to the action. Eventually Sock and Mandy get married but keep it a secret as long as they can. This show is more then just inventing the secret marriage ploy. It is genuinely funny. If you like the era it may be for you. If not or if you can't stand black and white (too bad because you miss out on many good programs)then avoid this. However, if you don't mind black and white and enjoy dialog that isn't one continuous sexual innuendo please take a look. Cleo is a great!

I was a little girl when I watched this program. Like many sitcoms from this period, it knew how to be cute and clever without falling back on tired innuendos. I remember that I enjoyed it, and I even remembered the names of the main characters, but most of all, I was in love with Cleo. She was cuddly and adorable and just gorgeous. I would love to see them again, but I've heard rumors that many of the episodes have been lost. I hope this is not true. My dad actually got me a Basset Hound puppy. We called him Leo, and he was a great dog who I still remember very fondly, especially since he was the last thing my dad ever gave me before his sudden, untimely death. It was also my introduction to Jackie Cooper, best known as a child actor until this point.

This is a fun show from the mid-50's. As far as I know there is only a 5 episode DVD available, however, there may be "copies" of all the episodes available from various vendors on the internet. Cleo the basset hound is hilarious with a personality similar to Droopy the Dog. For whatever reason this series seems to have been forgotten which is a shame. Jackie Cooper top notch as he was in Hennesey. Patricia Breslin and Paul Maxey (the mayor) standout as well. You may not know John Stephenson by name but you will recognize his voice when you hear it if you watched Hanna-Barbara cartoons. The voice of Cleo is Mary Jane Croft who many will remember as "Mary Jane" from The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy.

I was 5 years old when it debuted in 1955. I watched the reruns in the sixties and I believe in the late seventies it was on Nic. I wish I could see them now. Starz has a channel that shows just all westerns how about one that does sitcoms from the 50's and sixties, TV land has moved on into the 70's and that's when the comedy show started to have more tragedy and less laughs.As I recall Mr. Ed talked to his human, but Cleo only made comments to the audience. I checked out Cleo's voice person and was surprised to see that she was Clara Randolph from Ozzie and Harriet.Mr. Ed's voice was Alan Rocky Lane a favorite on the Western channel from Star.I recall in the past 3 or 4 years there was a c-span channel called I think good TV, they had quite a few of the early TV shows including some western favorites of mine, maverick, Cheyenne, Bronco Lane and Sugarfoot.I can only hope that my children get to see these classics as I did back in the time where every show didn't have a underlying moment of truth.

I used to watch The People's Choice reruns in the '60's when I was a kid. I loved it then, partly because I loved the funny things Cleo, the basset hound, had to say. Since I haven't watched the show as an adult, I can't say how I would like it now, but the cutesy romance and the basset hound grabbed the attention of a 12 year old. At the time I thought Jackie Cooper was a hotty, too. I loved to watch the young couple trying to put one over on dear old dad. I didn't really understand why they couldn't tell him they were married, but I guess I didn't let it worry me much. I understand that the shows are in public domain, now, and I'm trying to locate the complete series on DVD.