The Baileys of Balboa

When I was in college from 1971 - 1975 I met a divinity student named William (Bill) Morris. Bill was a big man - very tall and very heavy. His choice of a career in the ministry was not his first choice. He had been an actor. In fact, he appeared in many productions at my college, including one that I was in. Bill and I once were talking about his acting career, and he mentioned that a decade earlier he had appeared (usually in crowd scenes) in television sit-coms. He appeared in HANK and he appeared in THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA. Well, it was nothing to write home about - not like being in the cast of say THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, THE GOLDEN GIRLS, M.A.S.H., or ALL IN THE FAMILY, but it was of interest. After all, he worked with Paul Ford, Sterling Holloway, John Dehner, and Judy Carne (in THE BAILEYS). He recalled having one line of dialogue with Ms Carne's character. Judy Carne is the daughter of the snobbish Commodore Wyntoon (Dehner) who wants to see the Bailey family driven off the Balboa wharfs (Wyntoon wants them reserved for the local yacht club he heads). Ms Carne is in love with Paul Ford's son. However, there is a body of would-be romeos, members of the yacht club, including Bill, who want to date Ms Carne. After some situation in the plot of the episode leads to her and Mr. Ford's son having a big argument, Ms Carne is in the mood for anything. Bill's character goes over to her and asks her if she'd like to go out on a date. Hitherto she has told him to get lost. Now she says "Yes!". Bill just looks stupified, and his jaw drops.

I have never seen any episode of THE BAILEYS since 1964, and the episode I vaguely recall was not worth much as a memory. But I have vivid memories of Bill Morris as a consummate professional actor on the stage at my college. I am sure he gave his all for that little minute of celluloid magic. Bill eventually got his divinity degree, but he died in the 1980s. He's not a great or famous name, but he was a good actor, and I feel this is as good a place to mention him as any. Rest in peace Bill.

Holy cow, does anyone even remember this one? Evidently unavailable in general circulation (hmmm, any trade tapes out there?), it is certainly a lost gem of TV land of the 60s. If memory doesn't fail me, Paul Ford is the patriarch of a goofball family that make its living off the wharves of San Francisco Bay. Their main source of income is the sale of a unique item at their shanty restaurant of "Bailey's Smoked Fish-On-A-Stick" though they always seemed to be dirt poor (er, or fish poor, as it were) and cooking up get-rich-quick schemes to get around the fact of their ineptitude at making an honest living. Any series, albeit short lived, that has Judy Carne as a regular and Rachel Welch as a walk-on is fine by me!

I remember this show very well. I never missed it. I love Paul Ford. The episode I remember best was a Halloween special in which someone tried to scare them by dressing up like Dracula and swooping in to declare "I stopped by to borrow a cup of blood!" At the very end, the little boy from next door (played by Clint Howard, who went on to "Gentle Ben" and played a small (adult) alien in Star Trek's "The Corbomite Maneuver") showed up in his Dracula costume for Halloween and said "My mother sent me over to borrow a cup of -- SUGAR." I was very taken with Balboa and Newport Beach as they were shown on the program and I always wanted to go there. Well, today I did! I wouldn't mind living there myself except it's probably very expensive and I'd end up combing the beach for a living too.

The series revolved with the scheming Commodore Wyntoon trying to destroy the Baileys charter fishing business.

Along with Paul Ford(Sam Bailey), there was Les Brown Jr. as Jim Bailey, Judy Carne as Barbara Wyntoon, Sterling Holloway as Buck Singleton, John Dehner as Commodore Cecil Wyntoon and Clint Howard as Stanley (who baited his hooks with a peanut butter sandwich)

All the episodes were gems, far funnier than other sitcoms of the time, but by far , the funniest episode was where Sam was trying to avoid a eviction notice by keeping his charter boat out all day.

After being out for ten hours, the passengers started complaining, wanting to go back to shore. They all complained that they had all caught over their limit when one man chimed in "Yes, and if they catch the kid(speaking of Stanley), He'll get the chair."

The "Baileys Of Balboa" was portraying the real island of Balboa, not San Francisco. As to the running joke about the "Fish On A Sitck" it was to make fun of the "Chocolate-Dipped Banana On A Stick" shops that opened there on the tiny Balboa Island. Sterling Holloway actually lived on Balboa and did all his own produce shopping at the local open-air market on Balboa Boulevard. There were a few other actors who lived on the same island at that time; all members of the Balboa Bay Club.

I worked in a local restaurant that catered to him, as well as Gary Moore, John Wayne and Edgar Buchannon and Peter Lorrie's brother, whose name escapes me at the moment.

Another show that used Balboa Island as a backdrop was "Mr. Nice", which lasted only a couple of months as I remember it.