The Stu Erwin Show is an American sitcom

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...

 which 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...

 for five seasons from 1950 to 1955.

Synopsis

The series stars Stuart Erwin

Stuart Erwin

Stuart Erwin was an American actor. Erwin began acting in college in the 1920s, first appearing on the stage, then breaking into films in 1928 in Mother Knows Best...

 and real-life wife June Collyer

June Collyer

June Collyer was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s.-Early life and career:Born Dorothea Heermance in New York City, Collyer chose to use her mother's maiden name when she decided to pursue acting. A society girl chosen by Allan Dwan, she had her first starring role in 1927 when she...

. Ann Todd and Sheila James portray the couple's fictional daughters (Merry Anders

Merry Anders

Merry Anders is an American actress who has appeared in a number of television programs and films since the 1950s. In 1954, she succeeded Ann Todd as Stuart Erwin's daughter in the final season of his TV series, The Stu Erwin Show.In the 1955-1956 season, she joined Janis Paige in the 26-week CBS...

 replaced Ann Todd in the final season). One notable aspect of the show was that it featured African American actor Willie Best

Willie Best

William "Willie" Best sometimes known as Sleep n' Eat was an American television and film actor....

 in a supporting role.

Predating modern single-camera sitcoms, The Stu Erwin Show originally aired without a laugh track

Laugh track

A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...

 (one was added in its final season), and each episode was around 26 minutes long without commercials. During its original network run on ABC, it was sponsored by General Mills

General Mills

General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...

 (1950–54) and American Tobacco (1954–55).

Production notes

The series was produced by Roland D. Reed and Hal Roach, Jr., and filmed at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California.

Syndication and DVD release

The series was widely syndicated by Official Films

Official Films

Official Films was a home movie distributor founded by Leslie Winik in 1939 to produce educational shorts. Soon, after buying the Keystone Chaplin library, they found themselves in the home movie business. They obtained several Van Beuren cartoons, mostly Felix the Cat cartoons. Official retitled...

 through the late '60s.

Many episodes of the program have fallen into the public domain

Public domain

Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

. As such, various budget DVD releases of public domain episodes have been released.