The Farmer's Daughter

Loosely based on the 1947 motion picture of the same title "The Farmer's Daughter " that starred Joesph Cotton and Loretta Young that won Loretta Young the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Katy Holstrum. Fast forward sixteen years later and we have the television version based on the movie of the same title. This was one of the most wholesome family oriented sitcoms of the 1960's that lasted three seasons during it's initial run.

Under executive producer Harry Ackerman along with producers James Fonda, Bob Claver, and Peter Kortner along with associate producer Paul Junger Witt, the series starred Inger Stevens in the title role as Katy Holstrum who becomes the housekeeper and the governess for Minnesota congressman Glen Morley(William Windom) who was a widow with two sons Steve Morley(Mickey Sholdar) and Danny Morley(Rory O'Brien) along with the congressman's mother Agatha Morley(Cathleen Nesbitt) and Charles the Butler (Phillip Coolidge in the first season only). The series was produced by Associated Arts Productions in association with Screen Gems and the ABC Television Network. During it's three season run, a total of 101 episodes were produced with 73 episodes in black and white from September 20, 1963 until May 28, 1965. The third and final season produced 28 episodes in color from September 13, 1965 until April 22, 1966

It was sponsored by Lark Cigarettes and Clairol for whom the two leading stars often appeared at the show's end, promoting the advertisements products. Other sponsors for the show were the Colgate-Palmotive Company and the Quaker Oats Company. During it's three year run, "The Farmer's Daughter" was nominated for four Prime Time Emmys for Outstanding Conedy Series, Outstanding Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series and won Inger Stevens the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 1964. The guest star roster included Peter Graves, Harold Gould, David White, John McGiver, Jeanette Nolan, Shelley Morrison, Paul Lynde, Ellen Corby, Patricia Barry, Barry Atwater, Edward Mulhare, and David Hedison just to name a few that appeared on the series.

Some of the best episodes of the series would include the two part pilot episode "The Speechmaker", "Where's Katy", "Comes The Revolution", "The Playboy Of Capitol Hill", "The Next Mrs, Morley", "Real Life Congressman", "Katy and the Prince", "The Waiting Game","Love On the Picket Line", "Rich Man,Poor Man", "Here Comes The Bride's Father", and "To Have and to Hold" just to name a few, On the November 5, 1965 episode "To Have And to Hold"(season 3, episode 7) finally saw Glen Morley and Katy Holstrum walk down the aisle of martial bliss (just in time for the ratings sweeps) that garnered huge ratings but after the wedding episode the ratings plummeted and by the spring of 1966, ABC canceled the series after three seasons and 101 episodes. ABC kept in reruns until August 29, 1966.

I just rediscovered random episodes of this wonderful 1960's television series on YouTube! Thank you! Now (someone) please put all of the seasons on DVD!!! (I have never seen the movie with Loretta Young on which this was supposedly based, but I'm not a fan of fake Swedish accents either so I probably won't watch it when it is offered on TCM.)

I was just a young elementary schooler when I first discovered this series and found it appealingly entertaining even then! Maybe that is when I first fell in love with the handsome and charming William Windom--I always wondered when--and continued during his multiple appearances as Dr. Seth Hazlitt on "Murder, She Wrote" where he had an easygoing and convincing rapport with Angela Lansbury-coincidentally both Librans! Regardless, I have been an ardent fan of his and that is more than likely when it first blossomed.

Additionally, the beautiful Inger Stevens' accent was cute, unusual and fascinating too. She had an interesting uplift hairdo as well! (It was sad and shocking to much later discover her suicide and not just because we shared the same birthday, but different year.)

I have also admired Cathleen Nesbitt in every movie or television episode subsequent to this series, especially in the movie "Separate Tables" which I didn't discover until many years after this series aired, but was made prior to this series. The "chairlift" that she rode on the show's family staircase absolutely fascinated me and I swore that one day I would own one too!!! (And it may be sooner than I think!)

After just now perusing the list of actors that appeared during the series' run, I had no idea so many of my favorites appeared, Harold Gould to name one in particular.

Please offer this on DVD! Thank you in advance!

Although Loretta Young won her Academy Award playing The Farmer's Daughter she did have to fake an accent for the role of Katy Holstrum. When doing the television series, the producer's had the good sense to hire a natural blond and a natural Swede.

Both came in the person of the lovely and tragic Inger Stevens who was governess to the sons of Congressman William Windom from, where else, Minnesota. Windom's political opinions were kept carefully discreet in the series so we don't know if he was a Republican in the Harold Stassen mode or a follower of Hubert Humphrey's Democrat-Farmer Labor party. Either way he was a good guy which was a switch for him because until he played Dr. Hazlett on Murder She Wrote, he was a villain on the big screen a lot. Congressman Glen Morley on the big screen had been done by Joseph Cotten.

The character of the gruff and kindly butler that Charles Bickford did so well was completely dropped. But Ethel Barrymore's role as a Senatorial widow and mother to Joseph Cotten was taken over by Cathleen Nesbitt. She was a grand and imperious lady who had all kinds of good advice, political and personal.

Stevens made herself indispensable to William Windom and it was inevitable that like in the movie they would marry. Of course that did signal the end of the series after a good run. The Farmer's Daughter was as big a success on the small screen as on the big.

"Ja, Ja!" Being a native Washingtonian, I truly appreciate the historical footage depicted in "The Farmer's Daughter". When this show aired on ABC in 1963 I was only 3 years old. However, by the time it ended in 1966 I was aware of it, mainly because of its star, Inger Stevens. "The Farmer's Daughter" was unlike any other TV show that aired before it. I'm not aware of any other show before it in which an employee and her boss were in love with one another. In almost every episode, Katy and Congressman Morley were jealous of the opposition. For example, in my favorite episode (#21), "The Playboy of Capitol Hill", Peter Graves played the playboy who falls in love with Katy. This, of course, makes Congressman Morley jealous. This is what made this show and other shows special during the early years of television. There was a level of innocence that has been forever lost. Katy and the Congressman finally married in November of 1965 but the final episode aired in April of 1966.. Inger Stevens was never more glamorous than she was in the role of Katy Holstrum. She was like a Swedish version of June Cleaver. However, she was single and somewhat of a feminist for that era. The writers and producers clearly had Inger Stevens in mind when they created the show. I suspect that they allowed her to be herself because the show seemed almost biographical in nature. Unfortunately, Stevens real life didn't have a happy ending. She committed suicide in April 1970. During the 1980's, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) aired the series in it's entirety. Thankfully, because of CBN I have in my collection the entire series. In 2000, "The Farmer's Daughter Remembered" by William Patterson was published. A. Zachary Sanders