Our Miss Brooks

I've seen a good many episodes of Our Miss Brooks and they are excellent, a not so everyday school with an English teacher and her strong crush on the bashful biology teacher Mr. Boynton. My favorite was Mr. Conklin, the crusty no nonsense Pricipal who always clashed with Miss Brooks as well as the nerdy Walter Denton who had a crush on Conklin's daughter, Harriet. But, in the 4th season the show show was not as good at all because Miss Brooks transfers to a private school along with Mr. Conklin who also gets a job there as principal and so then the show just just kind of sunk. I never liked it as well. The 1st 3 seasons were the best when the cast was at Madison High school. Those are the episodes worth watching, after that the 4th season isn't worth seeing because it just wasn't as funny.

Absolutely, an outstanding television show fully realizing the comedic talents of Eve Arden and Gale Gordon-English teacher and principal of Madison H.S. The exchanges between those two are memorable. Teachers of yesteryear may have even had some of those challenges as well.

When the show was first being casted, Miss Brooks was supposed to be a gym teacher. When Arden was cast for the starring role, the writers and director correctly saw that her diction merited the part being changed to an English teacher. How right they were.

With a support like landlady Davis and biology teacher, Mr. Boynton, who Brooks wanted and would go miles to get, a perfect comic imagery of high school life was depicted. Of course, Walter Denton, our favorite student, etched an unforgettable character as played by an excellent Richard Crenna.

This show was certainly indicative of the lay-back 1950s era.

"Our Miss Brooks" was one of the first television programs to feature an independent, sharp, strong, beautiful woman who planned on a career and loved her career as a teacher. Eve Arden was a consummate comedienne who took the romantic comedy heroine from 1930's romantic comedy and combined her with a career woman in her portrayal of Connie Brooks. Eve Arden's portrayal pioneered shows starring actresses in roles as bright, career-minded women who were not defined by husbands nor boyfriends.

"Our Miss Brooks" featured one of the most brilliant casts of any television comedy. They played character who were only slight exaggerations of real people found in any American high school of the 1950's. Gale Gordon as pompous, arrogant Principal Osgood Conklin displayed Gordon's talents that made him a star character actor on television. The nerdy characters portrayed by Richard Crenna and Leonard Smith are as hilarious and believable today as they were in the 1950's. Jane Morgan as the befuddled Mrs. Davis was a great foil for Eve Arden. It is singular that so many characters serve as comic foils for the star of a show. "Our Miss Brooks" led the way. The combination of character writing, slapstick, and witty, sophisticated lines has never been equalled. Eve Arden's artistry was never so artfully displayed as it was in "Our Miss Brooks". When one realizes that, for several years, original scripts of "Our Miss Brooks" were written for concurrent radio and television versions of the show, it is astounding the consistent excellent level of script quality that the show's writers were able to produce.

One of the highlights of American television!

OUR MISS BROOKS was one of the funniest shows on radio and TV, and, amazingly, both the radio and TV show hold up well even today. In an item above, it is mentioned that the show was "one camera." It was not. It was filmed the same way that I LOVE LUCY was, and that is, with three-cameras and a "live" studio audience. I believe the poster above was thinking of the movie version, which was nothing like the TV show, in that there was little interaction with the students. There are bootlegged collections of the series available on DVD, obviously taped on someone's VCR when they were re-run somewhere or other, and the quality is poor, but they're better than nothing at all. Try to avoid collections that have 4th season episodes when Connie moved from Madison High to a private school.

Growing up in Brooklyn close to where I live was James Madison High School and as a little kid I imagined that the folks I saw on Our Miss Brooks were those I would find in that school. By the time I reached that age I knew such was not the case. And I was in a different school district besides.

Like William Bendix with The Life Of Riley, Eve Arden was known as a crack supporting player in dozens of films. Speaking of crack, her wise cracks usually as the heroine's best friend made her reputation even today. But with Our Miss Brooks first on radio then television she became a star as the wise English teacher with an ever ready wit doing battle with her arch nemesis, pompous Principal Osgood Conkling played by Gale Gordon who made this the first of many TV series he would be an indispensable part in.

Some of the other regulars on television were Robert Rockwell as Mr. Boynton the biology teacher who could never quite get together with Arden though not for lack of trying, Carol McMillan as Gordon's nice but totally clueless daughter and Richard Crenna as ever voice changing Walter Denton. He had the longest entrance to puberty that anyone ever had in history.

I remember Crenna saying how he hated the part because he thought he would be typecast and no one would take him seriously. He was lucky to get to be Luke McCoy in The Real McCoys, but then got his real break in the short lived Slattery's People where he was finally seen as a serious actor with a rich baritone actually.

One thing with Our Miss Brooks that made it work was that both Arden and Gordon came with built in images, Gordon carrying over from the radio Our Miss Brooks, Arden from there and dozens of films displaying a woman of wit. Audiences expected it and got it.

I think though that if Our Miss Brooks had been started in the 70s Eve Arden would have expected and demanded that the title be Our Ms. Brooks.