Mister Peepers

Wally Cox made a name for himself in this show about a shy school teacher named Mr. Peepers. He was very smittened by another of the teachers played by Patricia Benoit. My mother said that when they finally got married on the show, it was a big TV event.

This show was also the springboard for a bigger star of film, television and the theater. His name, Tony Randall. From here it was straight up for him.

Sadly, this show does not exist any longer. It was filmed in Kinescope back in the early days of TV. Alot of these Kinescope taped shows fell apart after several years. I have only seen bits and pieces of this show. I have always wanted to enjoy watching it like my parents did. It was one of the top shows back then. If you have seen this show back when it was on, please make a comment about it.

Back in 1952, I was only 12 years old, and television was in it's infancy. In New York City, we had a bare four channels available, and with the exception of the "Late, Late Show" which showed movies, and the pioneering "Jerry Lester Show" which was the raw beginnings of the late night variety format, television for the most part went off at 10:00 PM and did not come on again until 7:00AM the next day. But in between those hours, seven days a week, there was great "experimentation". The Mister Peepers" show was one of those experiments that worked.

Unlike the almost perfect characters that were to come in the "Ozzie and Harriet Show" and the "Leave It to Beaver Show" in the mid to late 1950's, this show dealt with the inner anxieties and insecurity the common person deals with in a not too perfect, everyday world world. And the late, great Wally Cox was the perfect actor to epitomize the 'everyday real person'. In fact, he was magnificent at the part and within the role itself. Unfortunately, it was role that would typecast him for the rest of his acting career.

In fact, it wasn't that Cox looked like a soft spoken, shy milquetoast sort of person (horn-rimmed eyeglasses and all), he was that person. And he was aptly able to, realistically, portray a 'real person' who, despite this inability to rise above his ordinary appearance and manner, managed to meet life's constant challenges and to succeed.

The main character, Mr. Peepers, was a high school science teacher who took pride in his profession. He genuinely cared for others more than for himself, and was able to instill pride and the quest for achievement in his students, while gaining their respect. And at the end of the series, he manages to marry the girl of his dreams.

No, this was not a 'goody-two' shoes sort of show. The comedy was always there, and it was done at a slow enough pace that we had time to understand its true meaning. For when Mr. Peepers was embarrassed, so were we the viewer. But when he triumphed, be it ever so mildly or ungamly, we cheered as much for ourselves as for the character; for in many ways, Mr. Peepers was representative of the majority of us.

This was an excellent show that, unfortunately, is almost all gone now. The crude Kinescope recordings of this series, like many others produced at the dawn of television, have either been lost or destroyed. Too bad. There is much today's television audience could learn from this past comedic-dramatic gem. The series was proof positive that, when well done, pathos and comedy can go hand in hand.

I have a vivid memory of a Mr. Peepers episode when I was about seven years of age. Mr. Peepers had been invited to some woman's house for dinner along with others. She was very insecure about her cooking and was anxious to please everyone there with her skill.

Wall Cox, playing Mr. Peepers, being a small, thin man was soon completely filled up from the first helping of food. She enthusiastically offered Mr. Peepers an enormous second helping, which he politely refused. She became very upset, almost hysterical, when he refused to start on a second plate, thinking that Mr peepers hadn't liked her cooking at all.

My account may seem ordinary but I remember it clearly as hilarious. The live audience at that time laughed uproariously as the scene closed, showing Mr. Peepers quickly tearing into the enormous second plate of her cooking in an attempt to stop her crying.

Somewhere during my adolescence, in the late 1970s, I saw an episode or two of Mr. Peepers. Apparently it was briefly in syndication at that time. I finally got a chance to see an episode as an adult this week, when I found it and three other "forgotten" 1950s sit-coms on a CD at a used bookstore.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the show was even better than I had remembered. Unfortunately, the video seemed to have been copied from badly deteriorated kinescope images. I assume these are all that survive of this show and others. (Too bad more people didn't get Desi Arnez's idea of paying to have the shows put on real film!) Despite the condition of the film, it is still a great joy to watch. The cast's artistry shines through, despite the sometimes jerky film movement.

Of course Wally Cox was born to play Mr. Peepers, the mild-mannered junior high science teacher. A young Tony Randall was entertaining as a co-teacher, as was the wonderfully eccentric Marion Lorne, who would later gain fame as Aunt Clara, the senile witch on Bewitched. Jack Warden wasn't in the episode I watched, but I'm sure he was perfect as the coach. Veteran character actress Ruth McDevitt was hilarious in this episode as Mr. Peepers' doting mother. (I knew I recognized her; I knew her as elderly Miss Emily on Kolchak: The Night Stalker 20 years later!) Despite the ragged condition of the old kinescope images, the comedic timing is apparent. Cox patiently zips and unzips pouches in an attaché case on the first day of school, only to have his mother insist he double-checks to be sure he packed his toothbrush. As Peepers and his sister (Jenny Egan) leave amidst Mom's continued "You'll miss your bus!" exhortations, they see her mouth something from the window. Unable to make out what she wants, they go back to the door and wait for her to open it. "Hurry! You'll miss your bus!" was what she wanted to say (again)! Lorne had already perfected the scatter-brained, "senior moment" mannerisms of Aunt Clara. In this episode, she informs the class that she will recite a poem she wrote and that she had recited to her classes on the first day of school every year for 30 years. After the first line, it becomes apparent that she cannot remember the poem. After several hilarious false starts and finally a stammering fluster, she tells the class to busy themselves while she finds the written copy.

Other than the poor image quality, the only other things that might bug a modern viewer are the old-fashioned opening and closing (ala George Burns, Dobie Gillis, etc.) and the canned laughter. Overall, the show is still a winner and ought to be picked up by TV-Land or someone.

I must have been only 11 when Mr Peepers started. It was a must see for the whole family, I believe on Sun. nights. Repeating gags were Rob opening his locker (he had to use a yardstick or pointer to gage the right spot on another locker and do some other things, finally kicking the spot whereupon his door would open), and taking pins out of a new shirt(at the start of an episode he would open up a package with a new dress shirt and for the rest of the show be finding one pin after another that he missed when unwrapping the shirt, timing was everything and the pins got lots of laughs.) I remember an aunt that drove a Rio like Jack Benny and always wanted "Sonny" to Say something scientific. He would think and come up with "semi permeable membrane" or osmosis causing her to say how brilliant he was. (you had to have been there). Marion Lorne stole the show every time she was on screen. Why they didn't continue the series from her POV when Wally quit (he was afraid he was being typecast but by then it was way too late)I'll never know. I saw somewhere that the 1st TV wedding (big one anyway) was Tiny Tim on the Carson show. Horsecocky. It was Rob and Nancy (did I ever have the hots for her) and I remember it made the cover of TV Guide and got press in all the papers and major magazines. A trip to the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC years ago was disappointing in that they had very few episodes then and those might be gone now. I still remember it as wonderful and wish I had been a little older.