It's a Man's World

There are 19 episodes of the one-hour series which aired on NBC from Fall, 1962 until just after the turn of the year, 1963 - and was then canceled by NBC, over many protests nationwide. Copyright is owned by Universal and the "masters" (16mm I believe) are among the holdings of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Archives at UCLA. Director Peter Tewksbury and stars Glenn Corbett (Wes) and Ted Bessell (Tom Tom) are all now deceased. Star Michael Burns (a Yale PhD, author and retired professor from Mt.Holyoke College lives in Danville, KY); star Randy Boone still lives in southern California. How do I know? I worked on all 19 episodes of "It's A Man's World." Bill (Now ret. in Kansas City)

It's difficult to explain exactly why IAMW was such an extraordinarily fine piece of television theater. Partially, of course, is that it was produced at a time when most television drama was either heavy-duty major productions or amazingly stupid sit-coms. IAMW was well acted, well produced and well written. It showed a group of ordinary, nice people getting on with their lives as best they could. The dialog was intelligent. The characters were people you knew from your own life. There were no terrible crises, no violence, no darkness beyond people worrying about what the right thing to do was, but it wasn't Beaver Knows Best and Father is a Dope, which were your other choices. It wasn't bland. It wasn't simple. It wasn't boring. It was real and it was decent and it was interesting. What more can you ask for?

It was the most intelligent show on television at the time. I wrote to the Television Museum in New York when they first opened to see if they had this in their archives but they did not. I would really love to see this show again. I was only eleven years old when this show was on the air but remember how incredibly disappointed I was when it was taken off. I remember it being about a bunch of brothers that lived together and their issues around relationships. I think the show "Thirty Something" was close to the themes discussed in this show. Way ahead of its time for television. I felt it was a very deep and adult show and appreciated their appeal to my intelligence.

I can't believe there are other people out there who remember this show as well as I do--this internet thing will probably catch on! I was nine when this show aired--although I remember being much older--at least 13 or 14! I can't believe at nine I had the taste to be in love with both Glenn Corbett AND Michael Burns. The youngest brother was also on Wagon Train I think. Come to think of it, is Wagon Train ( the Ward Bond episodes, not the John MacIntire ones) available? or Have Gun Will Travel? But I digress. I was just talking about old TV with a co-worker and mentioned It's a Man's World, and it led me to google it and find this site. IAMW has achieved mythic status in my memory. The houseboat, the lack of any real "grown-ups", cute interesting men everywhere you looked... it was heaven. Reading the other comments it seems that the studio no longer has the series--but someone somewhere must have it. It would be like time travel to be able to see it now.

I was a junior in high school when It's a Man's World premiered in 1962. It is a shame that it received so little recognition and so few episodes were made. I think I saw every episode. It is sad to think that they no longer exist. My favorite episode is the one in which Vern decides that he will only tell people the "truth" for an entire day. The result of his decision is that his world descends into total chaos and everyone ends up hating him for telling them the truth.

I agree that the reason for the shows lack of success and untimely demise was that it was a head of its' time. The only modern popular show that comes close to it in terms of overall creativity is Seinfeld.