It's a Man's World

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.

It's really nice to read the comments from those of you who remember, as do I, the best series of the early 60s. Like so many of you, I was absolutely crushed when I learned that the show was going to be canceled. If memory serves, that was the first time I was moved to write a letter of protest. (I was a teenager and identified strongly with the show--this may have laid the seeds of further activism a few years later, when protest truly came into its own.) The thing that stands out most to me as I think back now, is reading in TV Guide that the reason the show was being canceled is that it was considered "too intelligent". I was appalled! What a sad, sad commentary on the time, on our country, on the TV industry in general...

If we're voting, I cast mine with the rest of the people who would buy a DVD of the series. Come on, doesn't someone out there have (1) the necessary connections and (2) the desire to make some money??

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)

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.

Four young men live on a houseboat and have serious-comic adventures. It was by far my favorite show of the '62-'63 season but I only remember fragments now. One episode had mishaps of hauling a load of tires cross country where all the tires eventually ended up rolling away down a hill. Another had one of the main characters doing something wrong enough to threaten Glenn Corbett's guardianship of orphaned brother Michael Burns. The four male leads were up and coming faces on TV. They all went onto other TV series but Glen Corbett and Ted Bessell endured the longest. Would love to see these shows again after forty years to see if they compare well to my fond memories.