Blondie

Having been a long time fan of both the Chic Young comic strip and the Blondie movies starring Dagwood lookalike Arthur Lake and lovely Penny Singleton, I was looking forward to seeing it all on television. When the show premiered in January 1957 I was thirteen and stayed home from a basketball game I wanted to see just to watch. Arhtur Lake would reprise his role as Dagwood but Pamela Britton, who is best remembered as the nosy landlady in the later popular TV series "My Favorite Martian," would take Penny Singleton's part as the star of the series. Was I disappointed. How I wish I had gone to the ballgame instead.

What went wrong? The writers included Chic Young himself. All the characters were there with one of my favorite radio personalities Harold Peary, The Great Gildersleeve, in the role of Herb Woodley. The humor fell flat. The show was one big bore. The cast did their best with what they had. Yet none of it jelled. I only watched the first few episodes, hoping that it would improve. Alas, I finally stopped watching as did all the other Blondie fans apparently. The show was canceled the same year it premiered.

By all means, watch those wonderful Blondie movies (nineteen or so) or read the cleverly written comic strip. Don't waste your time on trying to track down any of the 26 episodes that are stored away in that great early television library somewhere.

Based on the classic comic strip by Chic Young,the television series "Blondie" was the first of two television series based on the characters. The first of these aired on NBC-TV on January 4, 1957 and it was very short-lived. The series produced 26 episodes,in black and white and was produced by Hal Roach Studios in association with King Features Syndicate and NBC-TV. Although actress Penny Singleton,who played Blondie in the theatrical versions of the films from the 1940's was chosen to repeat the role,the producers chose actress Pamela Britton for the title role as Blondie Bumstead. Actor Arthur Lake who starred in the theatrical features with Singleton in the 1940's who reprise his role as Dagwood Bumstead for the television version. Britton,who is better remembered as the nosy landlady in the later popular early-1960's TV series "My Favorite Martian",was not the best choice here and it shows in some of the episodes.

However,the series came in as a midseason replacement for a recent canceled NBC show,but audiences didn't catch on quickly. In fact,"Blondie" stay on for a full season,a full 26 episodes before being canceled on July 5, 1957. It would be another eleven years before another version would come in which CBS would revive the series in 1968,which was canceled after 14 episodes.

This series was the last acting credit for Arthur Lake, however, he was able to enjoy retirement since his wife's mother (actress Marion Davis) had provided for them after her death in 1961.

NOTE: I had originally written most of this review on August 3, 2015 and had submitted this in the episode # 6 entry which is now deleted.

Dagwood is asked by his boss, Mr. Dithers (Robert Burton), to buy a certain gun using Dithers' money. His wife and kids, Alexander (Stuffy Singer) and Cookie (Mimi Gibson), see Dag at a sports store talking to a Mr. Miller (Joseph Kearns) thinking the gun is for him. (It's Dag's birthday) and Blondie keeps coming back to get it for him raising the price doing so. Dagwood keeps having to do the same as well. Anyway, this was a little funny much of the time possibly due to director Abby Berlin's timing. He had previously been an assistant to director Frank Strayer on the initial series of Blondie movies before taking over after he left. Berlin would eventually do other things before his death on August 9, 1965. Other players include Lucien Littlefield as Mr. Beasley the mailman, Robin Raymond as Tootsie Woodley, and Isabel Withers as Mrs. Cora Dithers. The last one had previously played HARRIET Woodley in the final one of the Blondie movie entries-Beware of Blondie. Pamela Britton was Blondie and Hal Le Roy was Dagwood. He and Arthur Lake, besides both having played Mr. Bumstead, had also once played Harold Teen, Lake in a silent version and Le Roy in a musical one. I also have reviewed on this site a further ep of this series with Lake and Ms. Britton called "Puppy Love" which is #17...

Back in the 1930s and 40s, the Blondie & Dagwood films were very popular....so popular they made 28 of them!! Not surprisingly, about a decade later, they tried a television version but it only lasted a single season. Oddly, they made it without any of the original cast other than Arthur Lake (Dagwood)...and Penny Singleton was replaced by Pamela Britton ("My Favorite Martian") and Mr. Dithers (who was played by a couple different actors in the films) was replaced as well. Now it did make sense to re-cast the kids...as by now the originals were just too old to play the parts.

I don't think the series failed because of the new cast. Instead, I think it was the inconsistencies in the writing. The episodes ranged from excellent to terrible...and I am sure this didn't help the show! My biggest complaint is that some of the shows portrayed characters in a mean-spirited manner....which is crazy, as the charm of the films were the nice characters. In one episode, for example, in "Husbands Once Removed", Blondie convinces Dagwood they aren't married and makes him pay rent and cuts him off physically and emotionally....even though he'd done nothing wrong and was generally a wonderful husband! She just wanted to 'keep him on his toes'....and she seemed really mean in this one. Likewise, in "Follow That Man", Mr. Dithers thinks Dagwood is embezzling from him!! I can only assume they ran out of ideas and the series had pretty much run its course. Worth seeing if you can find the DVD set but certainly not as lovable as the films.