The Bing Crosby Show is a 28-episode

Episode

An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...

 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...

 television program

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 starring crooner

Crooner

Crooner is an American epithet given to male singers of pop standards, mostly from the Great American Songbook, either backed by a full orchestra, a big band or by a piano. Originally it was an ironic term denoting an emphatically sentimental, often emotional singing style made possible by the use...

, film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 star, iconic phenomenon, and businessman Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

 and actress Beverly Garland

Beverly Garland

Beverly Garland was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner. Garland gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray's second wife, "Barbara Harper Douglas", in the 1960s sitcom My Three Sons...

 as a middle-aged couple, Bing and Ellie Collins, rearing two teenaged daughters during the early 1960s

1960s

The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

. In the format, Crosby portrayed a former entertainer turned architectural designer

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 with a penchant for singing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

, and each episode usually contained at least one song. Produced by Crosby's own company, affiliated with Desilu Studios and subsequently CBS Paramount Television

CBS Paramount Television

CBS Television Studios is an American television production/distribution company that was formed on January 17, 2006 by CBS Corporation merging Paramount Television and CBS Productions...

, the series aired 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...

 from September 14, 1964, to April 19, 1965. Rebroadcasts continued until June 14.

The roles of the daughters Janice and Joyce Collins were played by Carol Faylen and Diane Sherry, respectively. Top Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

 Frank McHugh

Frank McHugh

Francis Curray "Frank" McHugh was an American film and television actor.Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents ran a stock theatre company and as a young child he performed on stage...

 appeared as Willie Walters, the Collins's live-in handyman

Handyman

A handyman is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "odd jobs", "fix-up tasks", and include light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet...

. Christopher Riordan and Pamela Austin appeared twice on the program, Riordan as an unnamed "Neighbor" and Austin as Clarissa Roberts.

Guest stars included Herbert Anderson

Herbert Anderson

Herbert Anderson was an American character actor from Oakland, California, probably best remembered for his part as Henry Mitchell in the classic television sitcom Dennis The Menace.-Career:...

, Frankie Avalon

Frankie Avalon

Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

, Jack Benny

Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...

, Jimmy Boyd

Jimmy Boyd

Jimmy Boyd was an American singer, musician, and actor. He was best known for his recording of the novelty song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus".-Early years:...

, Macdonald Carey

Macdonald Carey

Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of our Lives...

, Vicki Carr, Dennis Day

Dennis Day

Dennis Day born Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty, was an Irish-American singer and radio, television and film personality.-Early life:...

, Roger Ewing

Roger Ewing

Roger Ewing is a former actor originally from Los Angeles, California. He is best remembered for his characterization of part-time deputy marshal Clayton Thaddeus "Thad" Greenwood in thirty-six episodes of the long-running CBS western television series Gunsmoke with James Arness...

, Glenda Farrell

Glenda Farrell

-Career:Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. Farrell began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin...

, Joan Fontaine

Joan Fontaine

Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....

, Kathy Garver

Kathy Garver

Kathleen Marie "Kathy" Garver is an American film, television, voice-over and character actress of stage, most widely known for playing Uncle Bill Davis's teenaged niece, Catherine "Cissy" Davis, on the popular 1960s sitcom, Family Affair. Before that, she played a slave in The Ten Commandments...

, George Gobel

George Gobel

George Leslie Gobel was an American comedian and actor. He was best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show, The George Gobel Show, which ran from 1954 to 1960 .-Early years:He was born George Leslie Goebel in Chicago, Illinois, His father, Hermann Goebel, was a...

, Kathryn Grant

Kathryn Crosby

Kathryn Crosby is an American actress and singer who also performed under the stage-name Kathryn Grant.-Early life and career:...

 (Crosby's second wife, also known as Kathryn Crosby), Pat Harrington, Jr.

Pat Harrington, Jr.

Pat Harrington, Jr., is an American voice, stage, and television actor most popularly known for his role as building superintendent "Schneider" on the CBS sitcom One Day At A Time. He is the son of Pat Harrington, Sr.- Biography :...

, Phil Harris

Phil Harris

Harris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...

, Charles Lane

Charles Lane (actor)

Charles Gerstle Levison , better known as Charles Lane, was an American character actor seen in many movies and TV shows, and at the time of his death may have been the oldest living professional American actor. Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films, including You Can't Take It With You , Mr...

, Nobu McCarthy

Nobu McCarthy

Nobu McCarthy was a Japanese Canadian actress, stage director, and fashion model.-Early life:McCarthy was born Nobu Atsumi in Ottawa, Ontario, the daughter of Yuki and Masaji Atsumi, a Japanese fashion designer and diplomatic attache stationed in Canada at the time. She was raised in Japan, where...

, Gary Morton

Gary Morton

Gary Morton was the second husband of Lucille Ball. He was a stand-up comedian, whose primary venues were the hotels and resorts of the Borscht Belt in upstate New York.-Relationship with Lucille Ball:...

, Ken Murray

Ken Murray (entertainer)

Ken Murray was an American entertainer and author.-Vaudeville:Murray was born Kenneth Doncourt in New York City to a family of vaudeville performers. According to Murray's autobiography , he changed his name because he did not want to ride the coattails of his father's success; he wanted to make a...

, Lloyd Nolan

Lloyd Nolan

Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...

, Ruth Roman

Ruth Roman

Ruth Roman was an American actress. One of her most memorable roles was in the Alfred Hitchcock 1951 thriller Strangers on a Train....

, and James Shigeta

James Shigeta

James Shigeta is an American film and television actor. He is also a standards singer, musical theatre and nightclub performer, and recording artist. He is a Nisei or second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.-Early life:...

.

The Bing Crosby Show, alternately sponsored by Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

's Lincoln-Mercury

Lincoln-Mercury

Lincoln–Mercury was a collective name for the Lincoln and Mercury divisions of the Ford Motor Company, whose vehicles were typically sold side-by-side in a single dealership....

 division and Lever Brothers

Lever Brothers

Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...

, aired at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Mondays. The series faced competition on CBS from the sitcom Many Happy Returns

Many Happy Returns (TV series)

Many Happy Returns is a situation comedy television series that ran on CBS for twenty-six episodes, from September 21, 1964 to April 12, 1965, under the sponsorship of General Foods.-Cast:The show starred character actor John McGiver...

, and on 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...

, Crosby faced the second half of the popular The Andy Williams Show

The Andy Williams Show

The Andy Williams Show is a television variety show which ran from 1959 to 1971 , and a short-lived run in syndication, beginning in the fall of 1976...

, which alternated with a Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Winters

-Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...

 variety show

Variety show

A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

, The Jonathan Winters Show (1956 TV series)

The Jonathan Winters Show (1956 TV series)

The Jonathan Winters Show is the first of two American television network Variety show television programs to be hosted by comedian Jonathan Winters...

.

The Bing Crosby Show was the first-ever U.S. broadcast delay

Broadcast delay

In radio and television, broadcast delay refers to the practice of intentionally delaying broadcast of live material. A short delay is often used to prevent profanity, bloopers, violence, or other undesirable material from making it to air, including more mundane problems such as technical...

 radio show that utilized the Ampex

Ampex

Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...

 Model 200 tape recorder that, revolutionized the radio and recording industries. In 1948, 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...

 used an Ampex Model 200 audio recorder using 3M

3M

3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....

 Scotch 111 gamma ferric oxide coated acetate magnetic tape

Magnetic tape

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...

Episode list

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
1-1	"A Fine Romance" (pilot)	September 14, 1964
1-2	"Exactly Like Who?"	September 21, 1964
1-3	"A Bit Of Fresh Danish"	September 28, 1964
1-4	"The Green Couch"	October 5, 1964
1-5	"Hoop Shots"	October 12, 1964
1-6	"Flashback"	October 19, 1964
1-7	"The Education Of Bing Collins"	October 26, 1964
1-8	"The Dominant Male"	November 9, 1964
1-9	"The Importance Of Bea 'n' Willie"	November 16, 1964
1-10	"The Liberated Woman"	November 23, 1964
1-11	"Genius At Work"	November 30, 1964
1-12	"The Yadwin Report"	December 7, 1964
1-13	"Janice and Me On A Saturday Spent With Random Inputs No. 1"	December 14, 1964
1-14	"The Christmas Show"	December 21, 1964
1-15	"The Soft Life"	January 11, 1965
1-16	"Bugged By the Love Bugs"	January 18, 1965
1-17	"Are Parents People?"	January 25, 1965
1-18	"That's the Way the Suki Yakies"	February 1, 1965
1-19	"The Gifted Child"	February 8, 1965
1-20	"The Image"	February 15, 1965
1-21	"The Keefers Come Calling"	February 22, 1965
1-22	"Operation Man Save"	March 1, 1965
1-23	"One For the Birds"	March 8, 1965
1-24	"The Test"	March 22, 1965
1-25	"Moonlight Becomes You"	March 29, 1965
1-26	"What's A Buddy For?"	April 5, 1965
1-27	"Conform, Conform, Whoever You Are"	April 12, 1965
1-28	"Real Estate Venture"	April 19, 1965