The Stu Erwin Show

We enjoyed this show back in 1950's syndication yet by late in decade it seemed odd to see teens dancing to waltz & fox trot music from that pre-rock n roll era. Yet still a fun to watch show! ☺

It is digitally remastered which accounts for how good it looks. It is out on DVD under "Trouble with Father". 9 years later Sheila Kuehl went on to the "Dobie Gillis" show. The dialog moves pretty fast compared to an old Burns & Allen show.The show was called "Life with the Erwins" originally. Funny thing is I never heard of Stu Erwin before I saw this DVD set. The first episode is about some ugly furniture. Most of the show deals with pricing. Selling furniture for $2; spending $20. For today's value you can multiply all prices by about 10. So if he spends $20 it is really $200. When he says he saved over $400, it would be about $4,000 today.

A terrific relic of TV's early days, this was one of the first TV sitcoms of the early 1950s, along with "The Life Of Riley" and "I Remember Mama". This program was originally titled "The Trouble With Father" on its first network run, then became "The Stu Erwin Show" in syndication in the late 1950s. Who knows how long it's been since this series was last shown on TV?

The shows were predictable but always fun, kind of a blueprint for TV shows of their kind from "Ozzie and Harriet", "Father Knows Best", "Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show", "Leave It To Beaver", "The Donna Reed Show" to "My Three Sons", among others, as an archetypal Saturday Evening Post-Norman Rockwell look at American postwar life in the suburbs.

This popular sitcom's humor surrounded Stu Erwin's bewilderment with life, his lovely wife June Collyer's simple matter-of-fact acceptance of even the most improbable turn of events, the teenaged lovers whose attraction were a matter of concern for parents Stu and June, and irrepressible Jackie as the rowdy tomboy kid who got into trouble about every other episode. (You may remember Jackie as Zelda Gilroy in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" TV sitcom starring Dwayne Hickman.)

And of course the show wouldn't be complete without comic relief from house servant Willie Best (also in "My Little Margie") who was always a delight, in spite of his typical character for the times. As was the formula in the other popular TV sitcoms, the show relied on the usual stereotypical characters, but was always great fun to watch. Worth it to search the web and buy a few episodes on video, if you love good classic TV of the 1950s. It's really a shame that more classic TV from the early days is still unavailable in good quality on video for people to enjoy today.

(By the way, Stu Erwin and June Collyer were real-life husband and wife, and had acted together for nearly 20 years before they starred in this wonderful old TV show together.) Great fun!

When Commercial Television was still cutting its baby teeth, many of the producers of the minor or "B" Series Pictures in Hollywood set out to get in the newer business. Cautiously they tested the waters of the new medium with some half hour filmed series that were just a tad longer than a 2 Reel 3 Stooges or Laurel & Hardy comedy. There Small Studios' production schedule was already geared to this size of a film. So, quite naturally a Lion's shares of the titles were Comedies; a new breed of comedy called the "Sitcom!"

So one of the shows on the American Broadcasting Network's Fall Line-up was "TROUBLE WITH FATHER" (1950-55). This was a product of Hal Roach Studios; and that's good! Executive Producer Hal Roach had been in the business as a comedy producer since 1915, following several years before the Camera. He had at one time or another comedians Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, Max Davidson, Edgar Kennedy, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mabel Normand, Our Gang (aka Little Rascals), Patsy Kelly, Zasu Pitts, Billy Gilbert, Thelma Todd, Anita Garvin and Stuart Erwin.

Stuart Erwin was a multi-talented actor whose career dated from the latter days of the Silent Screen.* He had a resume that included Comedy (Farce) and Drama. It was he who was chosen to head up the cast of this new "TROUBLE WITH FATHER" comedy series. He was in the series the father of two girls and the Principal of the local High School.

Supporting Stu was his own real-life, June Collyer, a real All-American Home Maker. Ann E. Todd played Teen Aged daughter, Joyce and Sheila James was cast as Pre-Teen, Jackie. Others included Harry Hayden as neighbor, Willie Best as School Custodian, Willie, Paul Maxey & Frank Jacqet split duty as School Superintendent Mr. Selkirk. Emory Parnell and Effie Laird also appeared regularly.

A very young Martin Milner portrayed Joyce's Boyfriend, Drexel. And Merry Andres took the role of Joyce in the last season.

We haven't seen much of these shows since the Fabulous '50's save for a rental VHS tape some time around 1987-89. But it's truly peculiar how one can remember some things from childhood, well over 5o years ago; but can't remember what the Wife told me this morning! We can remember clearly watching this program regularly as a kid of about 4 or 5 years old. (It had to be judging by where our family resided then!) As far as sponsorship, I remember Gold Medal Flour as one; and they even worked that sponsor's name into a story once as June sent Joyce to the Corner Store for a bag of it specifically, by name. That company also made Bisquick, that marvelous multi-use baking mix.

One episode really stuck out in my mind for all these years since then. In short, the School Custodian, Willie (Willie Best) told Stu that his wife was expecting. When someone overheard the the Erwin's talking about a new baby being on the way and made the false assumption that it was June who was in a family way.

A Baby Shower was planned as a surprise for the Erwins and it was only when everyone got together; that they found out it was Willie's Wife and not June. When the lady guests began to leave taking the presents with them, June suggested that Willie's family could use all of those items; so why not throw the Shower her way.

Here was a low key, non-patronizing message of kindness, consideration and decency in our behaviour and attitudes to all. This was broadcast for the first time a good 10 years before any Civil Rights Act.

And all of this portrayed in a little TV sitcom show.

NOTE: * We can remember at least one Hal Roach Silent 2 Reeler with Stu Erwin. It was A PAIR OF TIGHTS (1929)with Mr. Erwin & Edgar Kennedy in a sort of Laurel & Hardy-type situation. Also appearing were: Anita Garvin, Charlie Hall, Spec O'Donnell, Marion Byron,Harry Benard, Edgar Dearing and Helen Vanderveer.

I saw a few episodes of this long-forgotten series on YouTube and I must say, they hold up quite well. Originally filmed starting in 1950 by Roland Reed Productions at the Hal Roach Studios, this charming antique top-stars real-life husband-and-wife team Stu and June Erwin in a breezy domestic sitcom. Shelia James (Dobie Gillis) has a featured part here and she gets a lot of the good lines. The series ran for five seasons, but has a very unique history in that the entire fourth season consisted of repeats from past seasons! The episodes I saw on YouTube must be the earlier ones as they had no laugh track. Apparently only the final season employed this device. The production is slick and also features Willie Best (My Little Margie) as the family handyman. I must say that his character, though far from being enlightened, is treated with respect in the scripts, as it was when Mr. Best was on My Little Margie. (The two shows were filmed at the same studio by the same producers). This show was funny, well-written and directed, and all-in-all is an undeservedly forgotten piece of our TV heritage. With 130 episodes produced, I would like to see more of these shown.