Pete and Gladys
Encyclopedia
Pete and Gladys is an American
situation comedy
broadcast by CBS on Monday night at 8:00pm Eastern and Pacific time for two seasons, beginning on September 19, 1960. The last episode aired on September 10, 1962.
sitcom December Bride
, Pete Porter (Harry Morgan
) was the next-door neighbor who spent most of the time complaining about his scatterbrained wife Gladys, who never was seen. In this spin-off
series, she was seen, and heard, in the form of redheaded comedienne Cara Williams
. Not only was the show seen on Monday nights, which had once belonged to another wacky redhead, Lucille Ball
, but its premise was a variation on that of I Love Lucy
, focusing on a level-headed, wise-cracking, and often sarcastic husband (combining elements of both Ricky Ricardo
and Fred Mertz
) and his sincere, ingenuous, and frequently in-hot-water wife. (By coincidence or not, this show was produced in the 2-year period after the end of production of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and before the premiere of The Lucy Show
.)
Aside from leading man Pete, the character of Hilda Crocker, played by character actress Verna Felton
, was the sole carryover from the Bride series during the first season. The older woman was a close equivalent of Ethel Mertz. Barbara Stuart
appeared nine times in the first season as Alice, a friend of Gladys's. Gale Gordon
portrayed Gladys' Uncle Paul, seen on occasion in the first season and as a semi-regular in the second. Gordon was a Lucille Ball crony and sometime guest star, who went on to become a regular in her subsequent series, The Lucy Show. Even series director James V. Kern
was a Lucy veteran, as were the series' head writers, Bob Schiller
and Bob Weiskopf
(in fact, when they returned to Lucille Ball to write The Lucy Show
after Pete and Gladys was cancelled, she angrily told them, "You gave my best material to that other redhead!"). Bill Hinnant frequently appeared during the second season as Gladys' nephew Bruce Carter, who stayed with his aunt while attending a nearby college. If the producers thought that the similarities and/or connections to the highly successful Ball sitcom would draw viewers to its old Monday night berth, they were mistaken. Pete and Gladys never made it into the Nielsen ratings
Top 25 during the course of its run. However, it was used in weekday morning reruns for several years after it ceased production.
Williams was nominated for a 1962 Emmy Award
for Outstanding Continued Performance by a Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, but lost to veteran Shirley Booth
in Hazel
.
sitcom Bringing Up Buddy
. While Pete and Gladys survived for a second season, Bringing Up Buddy was not renewed beyond its original thirty-nine episodes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
broadcast by CBS on Monday night at 8:00pm Eastern and Pacific time for two seasons, beginning on September 19, 1960. The last episode aired on September 10, 1962.
Synopsis
In the popular 1950s Spring ByingtonSpring Byington
Spring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...
sitcom December Bride
December Bride
December Bride is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959, adapted from the original CBS radio network series that aired from June 1952 through September 1953.-Overview:...
, Pete Porter (Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan is an American actor. Morgan is well-known for his roles as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H , Pete Porter on both Pete and Gladys and December Bride , Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet , and Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey...
) was the next-door neighbor who spent most of the time complaining about his scatterbrained wife Gladys, who never was seen. In this spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series, she was seen, and heard, in the form of redheaded comedienne Cara Williams
Cara Williams
Cara Williams is an American film and television actress.-Biography:Born as Bernice Kamiat to an Austrian emigrant father and a mother of Romanian descent, she began her screen acting career in 1941, and was initially billed as Bernice Kay...
. Not only was the show seen on Monday nights, which had once belonged to another wacky redhead, Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
, but its premise was a variation on that of I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, focusing on a level-headed, wise-cracking, and often sarcastic husband (combining elements of both Ricky Ricardo
Ricky Ricardo
Enrique Alberto Fernando Ricardo y de Acha, III, a.k.a. Ricky Ricardo is a main character in the television show I Love Lucy, played by Desi Arnaz...
and Fred Mertz
Fred Mertz
Frederick Hobart Mertz, born in 1887 is a fictional character in the 1950s American sitcom I Love Lucy, originally from Indianapolis before his relocation to New York City. He is a World War I veteran and often talks about his times in the war. He is married to Ethel Mae Potter Mertz , and they...
) and his sincere, ingenuous, and frequently in-hot-water wife. (By coincidence or not, this show was produced in the 2-year period after the end of production of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and before the premiere of The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
.)
Aside from leading man Pete, the character of Hilda Crocker, played by character actress Verna Felton
Verna Felton
Verna Felton was an American character actress who was best-known for providing many female voices in numerous Disney animated films, as well as voicing Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople for Hanna-Barbera...
, was the sole carryover from the Bride series during the first season. The older woman was a close equivalent of Ethel Mertz. Barbara Stuart
Barbara Stuart
Barbara Ann Stuart was an American actress.-Major roles:Stuart portrayed "Miss Bunny", the girlfriend of Sergeant Vincent Carter, played by Frank Sutton, on three seasons of CBS's Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C....
appeared nine times in the first season as Alice, a friend of Gladys's. Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show...
portrayed Gladys' Uncle Paul, seen on occasion in the first season and as a semi-regular in the second. Gordon was a Lucille Ball crony and sometime guest star, who went on to become a regular in her subsequent series, The Lucy Show. Even series director James V. Kern
James V. Kern
James V. Kern was an American singer, songwriter, screenwriter, actor, and director.Educated at the Fordham Law School, Kern worked for a while as an attorney...
was a Lucy veteran, as were the series' head writers, Bob Schiller
Bob Schiller
Bob Schiller is an American screenwriter, most notably for the television series I Love Lucy and All in the Family . For the latter series, he received an Emmy Award in 1978 as one of the writers of the episode "Cousin Liz".Schiller, born in San Francisco, California, began writing for television...
and Bob Weiskopf
Bob Weiskopf
Bob Weiskopf was an American screenwriter and producer for television. He has credits for I Love Lucy which he and his writing partner Bob Schiller joined in the fifth season...
(in fact, when they returned to Lucille Ball to write The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
after Pete and Gladys was cancelled, she angrily told them, "You gave my best material to that other redhead!"). Bill Hinnant frequently appeared during the second season as Gladys' nephew Bruce Carter, who stayed with his aunt while attending a nearby college. If the producers thought that the similarities and/or connections to the highly successful Ball sitcom would draw viewers to its old Monday night berth, they were mistaken. Pete and Gladys never made it into the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
Top 25 during the course of its run. However, it was used in weekday morning reruns for several years after it ceased production.
Williams was nominated for a 1962 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Continued Performance by a Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, but lost to veteran Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth was an American actress.Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950...
in Hazel
Hazel (TV series)
Hazel is a Screen Gems television series about a fictional live-in maid named Hazel Burke and her employers, the Baxters. The five-season, 154-episode series aired in primetime from September 1961 until April 1966...
.
Reception
Pete and Gladys was followed on the CBS schedule in its first year by the Frank AletterFrank Aletter
Frank Aletter was an American stage, film, and television actor.During the 1950s Aletter appeared on Broadway in Bells Are Ringing, Time Limit, and Wish You Were Here. He soon moved on to a prolific television career, appearing as a guest on numerous shows between 1956 and 1988.Aletter starred in...
sitcom Bringing Up Buddy
Bringing Up Buddy
Bringing Up Buddy is a 39-episode situation comedy television series which aired on CBS during the 1960–1961 season. In the story line, Frank Aletter, a native of Queens, New York, plays the orphaned Buddy Flower, a bachelor stockbroker, who is reared by his overprotective and meticulous aunts,...
. While Pete and Gladys survived for a second season, Bringing Up Buddy was not renewed beyond its original thirty-nine episodes.
Season 1
| Episode # | Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1-1 | "For Pete's Sake" (pilot) | September 19, 1960 |
| 1-2 | "Crime of Passion" | September 26, 1960 |
| 1-3 | "The Bavarian Wedding Chest" | October 3, 1960 |
| 1-4 | "The Handyman" | October 10, 1960 |
| 1-5 | "Movie Bug" | October 17, 1960 |
| 1-6 | "Oo-La-La" | October 24, 1960 |
| 1-7 | "The Goat Story" | October 31, 1960 |
| 1-8 | "Pete's Personality Change" | November 7, 1960 |
| 1-9 | "Camping Out" | November 14, 1960 |
| 1-10 | "Bowling Brawl" | November 21, 1960 |
| 1-11 | "Pete Takes Up Golf" | November 28, 1960 |
| 1-12 | "Gladys and the Piggy Bank" | December 5, 1960 |
| 1-13 | "No Man For Japan" | December 12, 1960 |
| 1-14 | "Misplaced Weekend" | December 19, 1960 |
| 1-15 | "Gladys Rents the House" | January 2, 1961 |
| 1-16 | "Gladys' Political Campaign" | January 9, 1961 |
| 1-17 | "Cousin Velvet" | January 16, 1961 |
| 1-18 | "The House Next Door" | January 23, 1961 |
| 1-19 | "The Insurance Faker" | January 30, 1961 |
| 1-20 | "The Great Stone Face" | February 6, 1961 |
| 1-21 | "The Six Musketeers" | February 20, 1961 |
| 1-22 | "Panhandler" | February 27, 1961 |
| 1-23 | "Gladys Opens Pete's Mail" | March 6, 1961 |
| 1-24 | "The Garage Story" | March 13, 1961 |
| 1-25 | "The Orchid Story" | March 20, 1961 |
| 1-26 | "Secretary For A Day"" | March 27, 1961 |
| 1-27 | "The Fur Coat Story" | April 3, 1961 |
| 1-28 | "Peaceful in the Country" | April 10, 1961 |
| 1-29 | "Junior" | April 17, 1961 |
| 1-30 | "Gladys Cooks Pete's Goose" | April 24, 1961 |
| 1-31 | "A Study In Gray" | May 1, 1961 |
| 1-32 | "Pop's Girl Friend" | May 8, 1961 |
| 1-33 | "Ring-A-Ding-Ding" | May 15, 1961 |
| 1-34 | "The Mannequin Story" | May 22, 1961 |
| 1-35 | "The Projectionist" | May 29, 1961 |
| 1-36 | "Gladys Goes To College" | June 19, 1961 |
Season 2
| Episode # | Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 2-1 | "Crossed Wires" | September 18, 1961 |
| 2-2 | "Fasten Your Seat Belts" | September 25, 1961 |
| 2-3 | "The Hoarder and the Boarder" | October 2, 1961 |
| 2-4 | "The Second Car" | October 9, 1961 |
| 2-5 | "Uncle Paul's New Wife" | October 16, 1961 |
| 2-6 | "Money, Money, Who's Got the Money?" | October 23, 1961 |
| 2-7 | "Uncle Paul's Insurance" | October 30, 1961 |
| 2-8 | "Down With Togetherness" | November 6, 1961 |
| 2-9 | "Eyewitness" | November 13, 1961 |
| 2-10 | "The Three Loves of Gladys" | November 20, 1961 |
| 2-11 | "Sick, Sick, Sick" | November 27, 1961 |
| 2-12 | "Christmas Shopping" | December 4, 1961 |
| 2-13 | "The Live-In Couple" | December 11, 1961 |
| 2-14 | "Lover, Go Away" | December 25, 1961 |
| 2-15 | "Hero In the House" | January 1, 1962 |
| 2-16 | "Pete's Hobby" | January 8, 1962 |
| 2-17 | "Who Was That Man?" | January 15, 1962 |
| 2-18 | "Garden Wedding" | January 22, 1962 |
| 2-19 | "Follow That Skeleton" | January 29, 1962 |
| 2-20 | "Will the Real Michelle Tabour Please Stand Up?" | February 5, 1962 |
| 2-21 | "The Prize" | February 12, 1962 |
| 2-22 | "Yak, Yak, Yak" | February 19, 1962 |
| 2-23 | "Never Forget A Friend" | February 26, 1962 |
| 2-24 | "Office Wife" | March 5, 1962 |
| 2-25 | "The Chocolate Cake Caper" | March 12, 1962 |
| 2-26 | "Sleepy Time Wife" | March 19, 1962 |
| 2-27 | "Maternity House" | April 2, 1962 |
| 2-28 | "Pete's Party Dress" | April 9, 1962 |
| 2-29 | "The Top Banana" | April 16, 1962 |
| 2-30 | "Go Help Friends" | April 23, 1962 |
| 2-31 | "The Lame Excuse" | May 7, 1962 |
| 2-32 | "Step On Me" | May 14, 1962 |
| 2-33 | "The Case of the Gossipy Maid" | May 21, 1962 |
| 2-34 | "The Arrival" | May 28, 1962 |
| 2-35 | "The Expectant Gardener" | June 4, 1962 |
| 2-36 | "Continental Dinner" | September 10, 1962 |