The Bill Dana Show

Bill Dana's comic creation José Jiménez first appeared on Steve Allen's TV show, and swiftly became extremely popular. Jimenez was a Mexican immigrant, somewhat bemused by life in the U.S.A. but eager to join in. Dana got so much mileage from this one character that he became one of those performers - other examples are Paul Rubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) - entirely known to the public in the guise of one fictional character, rather than in his own right. Inevitably, there were some complaints (from Latinos in general and Mexicans in particular) that Jose Jimenez is an ethnic stereotype. This is simply unfair. Jose Jimenez is honest, hard-working. He has some trouble speaking English, but he is naive and uneducated rather than stupid or gormless. In many ways, Jose Jimenez is a south-of-the-border version of Gomer Pyle.

Jose Jimenez's origins were in brief skits and spoof 'man in the street' interviews on Steve Allen's show. 'The Bill Dana Show' was an attempt to place the popular Jimenez character at the centre of a weekly sitcom. This series had some genuine potential, with a good premise and a splendid supporting cast, and might have succeeded if it had possessed better scripts. Each episode began promisingly, with a marimba band playing the show's theme tune in rapid three-quarter time.

Bill Dana remained firmly in character as Jose Jimenez, who for purposes of this sitcom was a bellboy in a California hotel. Working on the same shift was his bellboy buddy Eddie. There was some good interplay between the naive, trusting Jose and the cynical Eddie, with Eddie always trying to recruit Jose into his schemes and always eager to explain to Jose the 'right' way to do things in America. Pop singer Gary Crosby showed real acting talent in his role as Eddie.

For modern viewers, the most intriguing aspect of 'The Bill Dana Show' is that the supporting cast featured dry runs for two characters who later became fixtures in their own respective series. Don Adams (a longtime friend of Dana) played the hotel's house detective Glick. Adams played this character with the same crotchets and vocal delivery that he would later employ so successfully as Maxwell Smart in 'Get Smart'. The hotel's pompous manager, Mr Phillips, was played by Jonathan Harris in the same snooty supercilious mode that he later used as the villainous Dr Zachary Smith in 'Lost in Space'.

There were no surprises in 'The Bill Dana Show'. One episode, absolutely typical, began with bellboys Jose and Eddie making a mistake that threatened to make trouble for the hotel. Jose was in favour of confessing their error to manager Phillips, but fast-talking Eddie convinced Jose that they should lie their way out of it. Of course, the lie gets out of hand and grows to unmanageable proportions. Eventually, Jose and Eddie discover that their original mistake had unexpected dividends: if they had only been truthful from the beginning, they would have come up trumps. This prompted Eddie to tell Jose: "You be honest Abe Lincoln, and I'll be George Washington who never told a lie." When Jose agreed to this, Eddie added: 'Now you get ready to kick me across my bridge.' The episode ended with Eddie bent over and Jose about to kick him. This sort of strained dialogue and unfunny humour was absolutely typical of this series, unfortunately.

To vary the monotony of Jose in a bellhop's uniform, working in a hotel, there were occasional episodes in which Jose would daydream that he had some other, more glamorous (and more dangerous) job of work, such as a deep-sea diver or an astronaut. (Dana had already released a successful comedy album featuring an astronaut routine.) This daydream device was later copied by "Gilligan's Island", giving Gilligan occasional chances to vary the castaway scripts by fantasising that he was a spy or somesuch.

It might be interesting to release one episode of 'The Bill Dana Show' on home video - mostly for its curiosity value, and to give us a glimpse of Don Adams and Jonathan Harris before their stardom - but this series as a whole was poorly written and unfunny.

I disagree with some of what was said. I happen to think Bill Danna who played the Jose character, flawlessly for the times, used clean humour and stood for principles. Something rarely seen in productions nowadays. He may not always have had funny lines, yet usually he did, which got you laughing at what he said or how he said it, but rest assured somewhere along the way you would find yourself chuckling and feeling good and suddenly down out right laughing at it eventually.Even if some of the shows were a bit predictable, he could take it to new heights. But as Lucy was called the queen of comedy,I would suggest that Bill could have been nominated for the role of Prince.One of my my life goals has been to pursue the episode I shall never forget that had to be the funniest in all of TV comedy shows..the French love scene where he comes out misinterpreting a yes. Anyone remember this???! Everyone in my family was literally rolling on the floor almost peeing. I think our society could handle these and wish for one that these would all be made available in our free society to watch. Not just a few of them. Bring 'em back is my charge call!!!!!!!!!

The term "Déjà vu" means a feeling that you have seen something before as you are watching it happen, now. And I have to say this series is the one that best sums up that phrase, for me.

Let's start with a basic fact. Bill Dana created a character that he was associated with for the bulk of his career. This character was first introduced to a national audience on "The Steve Allen Show," a kind of prime time spinoff of NBC's "The Tonight Show," which Allen also hosted at that time.

Dana's character, José Jiménez, got to be quite popular and landed an occasional appearance on "The Danny Thomas Show," where he was an elevator operator who dealt with the ups and downs of that job.

Eventually, the character became so popular, he even got one of the famed "window cameos" during a "bat-climb" on the 1966 Adam West series "Batman." But between Danny and The Bat, we had this series. It was the Autumn of 1963 and the Elevator Operator character got promoted to bellhop of a swank NYC hotel.

It's important to note that some people found Dana's characterization of this character offensive (Bill Dana's birth name was William Szathmary, and he was a Hungarian Jew, not Hispanic). But aside from a few malapropisms and an occasional mixed pronunciation of certain words, the character was intelligent, hard-working, honest and kind.

One of the co-stars that the Jiménez character had to answer to was the inept and staccato-speaking house detective, Mr. Glick, played by Don Adams.

Dana wrote comedy bits for Adams to perform on the show. And, as it turned out, when this series ended, Adams took the character of Mr. Glick (and clearly his dialog!) to Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and they created an even more inept spy to parody James Bond and the others on the scene at the time: "Get Smart."

Meanwhile, the other antagonist for Dana's bellman was the manager of the hotel, the booming, pedantic, and always annoyed Mr. Phillips, portrayed by Jonathan Harris. That character was the clear template for Dr. Zachary Smith from the sci-fi series "Lost In Space."

Those three characters: Jiménez, Glick and Phillips gave those three actors their careers!

The show's opening titles featured a cartoon avatar of Dana, with a photograph of his head, wearing a suit of armor, carrying a lance and riding a horse toward a windmill, a clear reference to the character of Don Quixote. Jiménez was a daydreamer, and would often imagine himself as someone important or famous, much like another character with an overactive imagination: Walter Mitty.

New York played a part because a big hotel always has important people coming through, new intrigue and always something for José fantasize about, plus, the stock responses of those aforementioned characters assured that there would be some interesting reactions to whatever was going on in and around their lodging.

I think this series provided a sort of comfort for viewers, in that they knew how the characters would respond to the circumstances and that knowledge provided a familiarity to how they received the situations.

Conversely, I think too many stock characters ruins the broth, and that's what you had here, before they all headed to their own shows. But, for one, brief shining moment, you had Dr. Smith shouting down Agent 86, and that has made all the difference.

I consider this a potentially great sitcom possibly cancelled way too soon. Don Adams' "Byron Glick, hotel detective" was Maxwell Smart ahead of his time. Gary Crosby did go on to be a regular on Adam-12. Jonathan Harris' pompous hotel manager was surely an earlt version of Doctor Zachary Smith though more likable as a freind to Jose Jimenez. And by the way I love any series with Maggie Peterson, most famous as Charlene Darling Wash on The Andy Griffith Show, my all time favorite hillbilly gal. After abandoning his Jose Jimenez character to be "politically correct" Bill Dana did go on to do some straigh acting. And as "Maxwell Smart" Don Adams did give work on Get Smart to former costars from other series including Bill Dana, Jonathan Harris and Larry Storch. ☺

This show was well-acted and well-written. Jose is a well-meaning emigrant who due to mistaken identity ends up as a bell-hop at a posh hotel. His best friend, Eddie is well played by Gary Crosby in what may be his best performance. Don Adams is a pre-Maxwell Smart, even using trademark dialogue such as, "Would you believe...?" Jonathan Harris is extremely energetic in this show, and with a little imagination, you could almost see him yelling at the robot from "Lost In Space" with the same exasperation he yells at Jose. Interestingly enough, Bill Dana played Agent 13 in Don Adams' "The Nude Bomb."