It's a Man's World

I was 13 when this show disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. I was crushed when it was canceled.

As with someone who wrote earlier, it was the first time I ever wrote a letter to a network protesting the cancellation of a series. Never got a reply. I recall it as my first sense of outrage against "the system," and a sense of frustration that my voice could not make a difference. I spent my boyhood in Southern Ohio on the banks of the Ohio River where this series was situated and I really related to the characters and the story line. "Its a Man's World" was certainly way ahead of its time, and came nearly at the precise moment former FCC chairman Netwon Minow was proclaiming network television "A vast wasteland." I also remember an article in TV Guide about the cast doing something totally unprecedented. Upon learning the show was being canceled, Bessell and the others visited potential new sponsors in hopes of saving the show. This cast really believed in that show but they lost. And so did we.

Know what? 44 years later, I still recall the theme song, that haunting melody, played on a harmonica.

I hope they find the masters get it all on DVD.

It is Sunday and I was Googling around and ran out of people - so entered It's A Man's World not knowing I would actually find something! I was an extra in Hollywood back when extras were heavily unionized and one had to be registered with Central, Independent and other casting agencies to work. I landed a permanent job on It's A Man's World as double (for Glenn), stand-in (for Randy), and extra on all episodes. I submitted a story line that Peter Tewksbury and James Menzies (co-creators) almost bought - almost! So, they gave me an acting part in the episode entitled "I Count My Life in Coffee Cups" - one line "Hey Gerri" (to actress Diane Sayer). I've been 40+ year personal friends with Kate Murtagh (Mrs. Dobson) and saw Randy at a country music event at the Pomona Fairgrounds about ten years ago. I knew about Ted Bessell of course, but, until visiting this site, knew nothing of Michael Burns or the sad news about Glen. I heard that the negatives were lost - but the TV Archives at UCLA might have them. I would also like to know. This was posted earlier but my email address has changed - is now midnite-zephyr@kc.rr.com Bill Doty

It's difficult to explain exactly why IAMW was such an extraordinarily fine piece of television theater. Partially, of course, is that it was produced at a time when most television drama was either heavy-duty major productions or amazingly stupid sit-coms. IAMW was well acted, well produced and well written. It showed a group of ordinary, nice people getting on with their lives as best they could. The dialog was intelligent. The characters were people you knew from your own life. There were no terrible crises, no violence, no darkness beyond people worrying about what the right thing to do was, but it wasn't Beaver Knows Best and Father is a Dope, which were your other choices. It wasn't bland. It wasn't simple. It wasn't boring. It was real and it was decent and it was interesting. What more can you ask for?

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??

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.