Happy is an NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 situation comedy

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 about a talking baby, starring Ronnie Burns

Ronnie Burns (actor)

Ronald Jon "Ronnie" Burns worked briefly as a television actor, but is primarily remembered as the adopted son of comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen.-Early life:...

 (1935–2007), the adopted son of George Burns

George Burns

George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...

 and Gracie Allen

Gracie Allen

Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen , known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns...

, which aired from June 8 to September 28, 1960, and again from January 13 to September 8, 1961.

Burns appeared as Chris Day, the manager of the Desert Palm Hotel in the resort

Resort

A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....

 city of Palm Springs

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. His co-stars were Yvonne Lime as his wife, Sally; Lloyd Corrigan

Lloyd Corrigan

Lloyd Corrigan was an American film actor, producer, screenwriter and director who began working in films in the 1920s...

 (1900–1969) as Sally's Uncle Charlie; Doris Packer

Doris Packer

Doris Packer was an American actress, possibly best known as Mrs. Cornelia Rayburn, Theodore Cleaver's principal in Leave It to Beaver....

 (1904–1979) as Clara Mason, a woman romantically interested in Charlie; Burt Metcalfe

Burt Metcalfe

Burt Metcalfe is a Canadian American television and film producer, director, and writer.-Biography:...

 as their friend Joe Brigham, and Wanda Shannon as Terry Brigham, Joe's wife. Chris and Sally have an infant son, Christopher Hapgood Day, called "Happy," played by twins David and Steven Born. He is the talking child of the series. Leone Ledoux supplied Happy's voice. The idea of a talking child was adapted from Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...

's earlier NBC sitcom The People's Choice

The People's Choice (TV series)

The People's Choice is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from 1955 to 1958, primarily sponsored by The Borden Company.It stars Jackie Cooper as Socrates "Sock" Miller, an ex-Marine and New City, California politician with a basset hound named "Cleo", whose thoughts , as she balefully...

, which features a talking basset hound

Basset Hound

The Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of dog of the hound family. They are scent hounds, bred to hunt rabbits and hare by scent. Their sense of smell for tracking is second only to that of the Bloodhound....

 named Cleo.

Notable Happy guest stars included Jack Albertson

Jack Albertson

Jack Albertson was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure , Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Amos Slade in the 1981 animated film The Fox...

, Malcolm Atterbury

Malcolm Atterbury

Malcolm Atterbury was a stage and vaudeville actor who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is probably most well known as Bixby in Wagon Train and Lee Reinhard in Dragnet...

, Richard Deacon

Richard Deacon (actor)

Richard Deacon , born in Philadelphia, was an American television and motion picture actor.-Career:The bald and usually bespectacled character actor often portrayed pompous or imperious figures. He made appearances on The Jack Benny Show as a salesman and a barber, and on NBC's Happy as a hotel...

, Howard McNear

Howard McNear

Howard Terbell McNear was an American film, television and radio character actor. McNear is best remembered as Floyd Lawson, the barber in The Andy Griffith Show and as Doc Charles Adams in CBS Radio's Gunsmoke .-Career:McNear was born in Los Angeles, California to Luzetta M. Spencer and Franklin...

, and Olan Soule

Olan Soule

Olan Soule was an American character actor with hundreds of credits in films, radio, commercials, television and animation.-Early life:...

.

Happy first ran as a summer replacement in 1960 for Kraft Music Hall

Kraft Music Hall

The Kraft Music Hall was a popular variety program, featuring top show business entertainers, which aired on NBC radio and television from 1933 to 1971....

starring Perry Como

Perry Como

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...

 at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays. It returned in 1961 at 7:30 p.m. in the first half of the Friday time slot vacated by Skip Homeier

Skip Homeier

-Career:Homeier began acting as Skippy Homeier at the age of six, on the radio show Portia Faces Life. From 1943 until 1944 he played the role of Emil in the Broadway play, Tomorrow the World. Cast as a child indoctrinated into Nazism, who is brought to the United States from Germany following the...

's unsuccessful detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 series, Dan Raven

Dan Raven

Dan Raven is a crime drama starring Skip Homeier , a former child actor in films, which aired on NBC between January 23, 1960, and January 6, 1961. The setting of the series is the famous Sunset Strip of West Hollywood, California...

. Its Friday competition was the CBS western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 series, Rawhide

Rawhide (TV series)

Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...

and ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's cartoon

Cartoon

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

 series Matty's Funday Funnies

Matty's Funday Funnies

Matty's Funday Funnies is an American animated cartoon compilation television series.The original Matty's Funday Funnies aired from 1959-1961 on ABC's Sunday afternoon schedule , and originally featured 1950-59 Famous Studios theatrical cartoons starring Casper the...

.

The idea of the talking baby was revived in the 1989 film, Look Who's Talking

Look Who's Talking

Look Who's Talking is a 1989 romantic comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling and stars John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Bruce Willis plays the voice of Mollie's son, Mikey. The film features George Segal as Albert, the illegitimate father of Mikey.-Plot:Mollie Jensen is an accountant...

, in which Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis

Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...

 provided the voice for a baby whose thoughts could be heard by the audience.

Lloyd Corrigan also played the mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Mayberry

Mayberry

Mayberry is a fictional community in North Carolina that was the setting for two American television sitcoms, The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. Mayberry was also the setting for a 1986 reunion television movie titled Return to Mayberry...

 on CBS's The Andy Griffith Show

The Andy Griffith Show

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...

. Packer had important supporting roles on both CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. The series and some episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, that also inspired the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis with Debbie...

as Mrs. Osborne and on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's Leave It to Beaver

Leave It to Beaver

Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...

as principal Mrs. Rayburn. Ronnie Burns later did technical work for his father's 1964-1965 sitcom, Wendy and Me

Wendy and Me

Wendy and Me is an American sitcom that aired on ABC during the 1964–1965 television season, primarily sponsored by Consolidated Cigar's "El Producto"...

, co-starring Connie Stevens

Connie Stevens

Connie Stevens is an American actress and singer, best known for her roles in the television series Hawaiian Eye and other TV and film work.-Early life:...

, Ron Harper

Ron Harper (actor)

Ronald Robert "Ron" Harper is an American television and film actor.- Biography :Harper was born in Turtle Creek in Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Mabel Grace Champion and George Harper...

, J. Pat O'Malley

J. Pat O'Malley

James Patrick O'Malley was an English singer and character actor, who appeared in many American films and television programs during the 1940s–1970s, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley...

, and James T. Callahan

James T. Callahan

James Thomas Callahan was an American film and television actor who appeared in more than 120 films and television shows between 1959 and 2007...

.